From the Beginning of the Year
As with every new year, making resolutions is common. There’s nothing wrong with such resolutions—setting goals is a healthy practice. Yet, it is also good to be reminded of divine resolutions. Whereas human beings can fall short of their best laid plans—especially New Year’s resolutions—Scripture makes pledges that are predicated on consistency and perpetuity. So, as this year begins, Bible readers can be reminded of heavenly resolutions that last from the start of each year to its end.
One such resolution is made when Moses says that the land of Israel “is a land that the Lord your God is looking after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year (מֵרֵשִׁית הַשָּׁנָה וְעַד אַחֲרִית שָׁנָה; mereshit hashanah ve’ad aharit shanah)” (Deuteronomy 11:11-12). The Torah teaches that God’s attention is always upon the land, and that this divine resolution gets renewed each year. The Hebrew word translated “looking after” in the above passage is דֹּרֵשׁ (doresh)—the same root in the word midrash (מדרש), which would become the most common term for describing the act of Bible interpretation and commentary in rabbinic Judaism. Deuteronomy describes God “searching out,” “pouring over,” or “carefully studying” the geography of Israel every day. And this divine attentiveness is renewed with the dawn of each new year.
Since God holds a holy gaze upon the land from the outset of the annual cycle, it is no surprise that Ezekiel receives a heavenly vision of the renewed city and temple of Jerusalem at the start of a new year. The prophet states, “In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year (בְּרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה; be’rosh hashanah), on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me there. In visions of God, he brought me to the land of Israel” (Ezek 40:1). At the beginning of the year, the land is on the mind of God, as it were, and Ezekiel reaps the benefits of that divine directive. While the first month of the Jewish year is Nisan (March-April) and the New Year celebration of Rosh Hashanah occurs in Tishrei (September-October)—neither of which are particularly close to January 1 (!)—the biblical message holds no matter when readers celebrate calendrical renewal: God’s New Year’s resolution to watch over the land of Israel never wavers.
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