It is customary at this time of year to offer each other the warm and hopeful greeting, “Shanah Tovah,” wishing everyone a good and sweet new year.  But this year feels different. This year, the words feel hollow. They fall desperately short of the reality within which we are living. How can we joyously celebrate? How can we wish someone a Happy New Year when our hearts are heavy with grief, when our world seems to be unraveling, and when the future feels so uncertain, when we are literally at war?  This year we are confronted with the reality of an entire year of war, destruction and tragedy. We have watched as violence has escalated in Israel and Lebanon, as people have been murdered, held hostage, and faced the constant threat of death. The suffering we have witnessed is overwhelming.  And it is not just in the Middle East — communities around the world have been shaken by acts of Jew hatred at a level we haven’t seen since the Holocaust. Some of us have personally experienced acts of hate, as well as our children and grandchildren, friends. It has been a year where we have woken up, day after day, wondering, when will this end?  How do you wish someone Shanah Tovah this year? How do you wish someone a happy new year when everything feels so broken?  This year I have found it impossible to simply say, “Happy New Year.”  Instead, I have taken to offering a different kind of blessing. I have started saying, “May you have a healthy year. May you have a meaningful year. May this year be better than last year — for you, for your family, for all of us.”  These are the words I share with others for the times we are in.  We may not be able to wish for only happiness right now. However, we can wish for some things. For health, for strength, for resilience, and for a more peaceful year ahead. This is hope, in Hebrew tikvah.  This year, more than ever, it feels essential that we come together as a community. Our tradition teaches us that the High Holidays are a time for reflection, for contemplation, and for growth.  The holidays give us a sacred space to do this, tradition commands us to do this even in this chaos. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not just about repentance and atonement — they are about renewal. They remind us that we have the power, even in the darkest of times, to begin again.  These days ask us to engage deeply with the questions of who we are, what kind of world we want to create, and how we can contribute to that world. They challenge us to find clarity amid the confusion, to seek holiness within the brokenness, and to imagine a future that is better than the present.  This is not an easy task, especially now. But it is a necessary one. More importantly, it is not something we are called to do alone. We do this together as a community.  This past year, more than any other, we needed each other. We needed to support one another, to lean on one another, and to remind each other that we are not walking this path alone.  Everyone who has suffered a loss understands this. In our grief we have been strengthened by the love of others. Friends and family we have leaned on. Even people we have never met before. This is the healing power that we derive from the love of others.  It is our responsibility to bring the light, even during war, even in the face of tragedy. It is our responsibility to find the small places of light and to nurture them. To bring light into the darkness, to be a source of hope when hope seems hard to find. This is not just an obligation — it is an opportunity.  This year, as we reflect, and look toward the future, may we find the courage to face the challenges ahead. May we find the strength to stand together as a community, to support one another, and to be a source of light in a world that so desperately needs it.  What can we say instead of Happy New Year this holiday season?   We wish for a year where the horrors of the past year are not repeated, and where we are able to rebuild something new, something more just, something more peaceful. We wish for a year where meaning, healing and growth take root in the soil of our pain. We wish for a year better than the last.  Amen. Rabbi Mark Blazer is the rabbi of Temple Beth Ami in Santa Clarita. The post Rabbi Mark Blazer | Confronting Reality Upon a New Year appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.