Shanah Tovah

Have you ever noticed that Jews don’t traditionally wish each other “Happy New Year”?

Instead they use the Hebrew phrase “shanah tovah” which — in spite of the mistaken translation that appears on almost all greeting cards — has no connection at all to the expression “have a happy new year.”



Shanah tovah conveys the hope for a good year rather than a happy one. And the reason for that distinction contains great significance.
Researchers are beginning to caution against the pursuit of mere happiness. They found that a meaningful life and a happy life overlap in certain ways, but are ultimately very different. Leading a happy life, the psychologists found, is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver."



Long before all of these studies, Jews somehow understood this intuitively. Happy is good, but good is better.
To hope for a happy new year is to give primacy to the ideal of a hedonistic culture whose greatest goal is “to have a good time.” To seek a good year however is to recognize the superiority of meaning over the joy of the moment.
The word “good” has special meaning in the Tovah. The first time we find it used is in the series of sentences where God, after each day of creation, started self assessing his handiwork and proclaimed it “good”. More, when God completed his work he saw all that he had done “and behold it was very good.”



What does that mean? In what way was the world good? Surely it was not in any moral sense that it was being praised. The commentators offer a profound insight. The word good indicates that every part of creation fulfilled God’s purpose: it was good because it was what it was meant to be.
That is the deepest meaning of the word good when it is applied to us and to our lives. We are good when we achieve our purpose; our lives are good when they fulfill what they are meant to be.



We know many people of whom it can be said that they had good lives in spite of their having had to endure great unhappiness. Indeed, the truly great chose lives of sacrifice over pleasure and left a legacy of inspiration and achievement that they never could have accomplished had they been solely concerned with personal gratification.



A shanah tovah may not emphasize happiness, yet it is the most certain way to ultimately achieve happiness.
Because another powerful idea discovered by contemporary psychologists is that happiness most often is the byproduct of a meaningful life. It’s precisely when we don’t go looking for it and are willing to set it aside in the interest of a loftier goal that we find it unexpectedly landing on us with a force that we never considered possible.

Happiness is the byproduct of a meaningful life.​

[w]hen we take action on the things that truly matter deep in our hearts, move in directions that we consider valuable and worthy, clarify what we stand for in life and act accordingly, then our lives become rich and full and meaningful, and we experience a powerful sense of vitality. This is not some fleeting feeling - it is a profound sense of a life well lived.



I have seen in many of the Retirement letters issued by our bank ,"the bank wished the employee 'a purposeful life 'ahead.In those days many criticized this wish of the bank as though all along in service of the bank, the people were leading purposeless life and at least on retirement let them have a purposeful life ahead.






So'Shanah tovah---' may you have a year filled with meaning and purpose. And happiness that will surely follow.
Today I feel that the wish of the bank was really pregnant with meaning and was worthwhile,

Wish my friends 'a purposeful New Year'.

Jayasala 42

 

Dear Rihana,
Thank you for the first response. New Year Greetings have become so formal, that many don't even go through what is written.They see the name of the sender and just reciprocate.I too feel that there should be some change in our thought process while sending the Greetings.

Jayasala 42

 

Dear viswa,
It was a fruitful and meaningful response.Though 'happiness' also is a state of mind it may be out of temporary outburst or fleeting moments of joy due to transcient things.
When happiness results out of a little good thing we do, that happiness is worth celebrating.
A good year may consist of essentially things that they are good to the world , yet do not yield 'happiness' or may yield some pain. Even then those good things are heartily welcome .

Here comes the significance of our Hindu way of 'taking sankalpa' on each occasion highlighting our determination to do beneficial things to the society yielding long standing happiness.

Jayasala 42

 

Thank you Trupti12 for the encouraging response.No doubt everyone wants to be happy but that happiness should emanate from what is good.There is a thin line of demarcation. But sometimes happiness got from fraudulent means or evil ways is no happiness at all.

jayasala 42

 

Dear Ramya,
Thanks Ramya. You have nicely compared to the role of Lord Krishna in every step of ours.Whatevert happens, happens with a purpose.Day before yesterday at about 8.30p. M.the Computer stand, vertical one, just toppled down along with monitor, microphones, CPU andUPS.The wheels which were soaking in flood waters got disconnected and the main stand fell down in a slanting position on two old chairs of the 19th century.
Now everything is in bits and pieces.The technicians have gone to sabarimala and are likely to turn up after 10days. It is impossible to repair the stand. As many wood items in Chennai have been devasted in Ms floods,no stand is available in shops also.
This should be the last accident in 2015 I suppose.
I am still thinking how to take all these losses and incidents as meaningful .Every experience in life whether leads to happiness or not,teaches something worthwhile.

I just wanted to say'Hello' on the eve of New Year.I am mailing this from a net centre.
I think it may take nearly ten days to get things alright at home.Till then, bye.

jayasala 42