I remember last New Year’s Eve pretty well. I was home for break and was invited to a party at my friend’s off campus apartment. At around 10:30 p.m. a hoard of people swarmed in, and the party got surprisingly wild. I was the designated driver, so I spent the night sitting on the couch mostly, watching folks dance and keeping sober. Every so often someone would sit down next to me and talk. A girl named Jessica sat down and vomited everywhere and two high school kids sat next to me and made out for about twenty minutes. Then came the moment everyone was waiting for – the clock hit 11:59 and the entire party began counting down the seconds until midnight in one unified, drunken roar. The ball dropped at midnight, and people continued dancing, making out and screaming, and my friend had to begin wiping up Jessica’s vomit off his couch. And it was in this way that we brought in the New Year.

Tonight is the beginning of the Jewish New Year, also called Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is not marked by wild drunken parties where people sloppily make out at the crack of midnight, and where freshman girls vomit all over newly upholstered couches. In the Bible the Hebrew term Rosh Hashanah, which literally means head of the year, is not found. Rather it referred to as either Yom HaTeruah, which translates as day of the sounding of the shofar (or ram’s horn), and Yom Hazikaron, which means day of remembrance.

Whereas New Year’s Eve often turns into a night of debauchery better left forgotten, Rosh Hashanah is a time with memory at the core of its very essence. Individually we reflect on the year we had, the hardships we overcame, and the joys experienced and shared. As Jews from all walks of life gather in homes from Amherst to Buenos Aires, Paris to Jerusalem, to eat apples dipped in honey (a symbol of the sweet new year to come), and listen to the ancient sounding of the shofar, Jewish communities engage in a collective remembrance. And whereas a recounting of history is often a retelling or re-creation of events experienced long ago by ancient peoples now long gone, on Rosh Hashanah Jews set aside history for memory, taking part in rituals that date back two thousand years. This in turn connects them to an unbroken chain that has survived inquisitions and pogroms, and continues to pass on from generation to generation.

Indeed the Jewish New Year is a time for celebration. We celebrate the truest joys in life by spending time with friends, family, and community. But the Jewish New Year, as its biblical name implies, is also a time for somber reflection, of sober contemplation both of self and community. Tonight, in the spirit of two thousand years of unbroken collective memory, take a moment to reflect on years past by connecting to your own unbroken chain of memory, your traditions, and your familial and communal identity. There is no more fitting way to usher in a New Year. So with that, a Happy Healthy Sweet New Year to all!

Isaac Himmelman is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at [email protected].