Annual cycles are good for us, because they get us to ask what has been accomplished in the past twelve months. Our birthdays, for example, mark the milestones of our lives, and as each occurs we look back to review and look forward to envision. The festival of Rosh Ha-Shanah, "New Year," affords us a time of assessment, of reflection, and of committing ourselves to lives of worth in the twelve months ahead.

The task of assessment bridges annual limits as well. Birthdays remind us not only of last year, but of birth years, and we can assess whole lives - what we were given in our families, our friendships, our skills and their development. As we think back to our own beginnings and all our own"firsts" in life, Rosh Ha-Shanah leads us back over humanity's beginnings, to the first day of creation when the human being was but an idea of the Creator. It is good to think about that annually, to understand all of human life as given, and to assess its development over the millennia.

To wake us from slumber the shofar sounds, the ram's horn that reminds us of the Creator's care, the substituting of the ram for the son about to be bound (Genesis 22:13). Historically, the shofar is sounded at the beginning of a king's rule, at his coronation, and as soon as the human being came into this world, the Creator had a people and they a caring ruler. Rosh Ha-Shanah calls us back to acknowledging the beginning of all years and the One from whom all things come.

Reflection is a special human gift that distinguishes us from all other living things. It allows us the powers of judgment, the evaluation of our work and its worth over the past year that we have been given. Tradition has it, that the shofar is also to be sounded on the Day of Judgment, that "great day of the Lord," as the prophet Zephaniah wrote (1:14, 16), "a day of the horn and alarm." At Rosh Ha-Shanah the sound of the shofar leads us to reflect on what we have accomplished over the past year, so that we may determine whether our life's path can be renewed and rededicated to an existence that reflects the goals of our Creator.

In his ageless wisdom, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) wrote: "Although it is a divine decree that we blow the shofar on Rosh Ha-Shanah, a hint of the following idea is contained in the command. It is as if to say: "Awake from your slumbers, you who have fallen asleep in life, and reflect on your deeds. Remember your Creator. Be not of those who miss reality in the pursuit of shadows, and waste their years in seeking after vain things which neither profit nor save. Look well to your souls and improve your character. Forsake each of you his evil ways and thoughts"? (Yad, Teshuvah 3:4).

Such reflection inspires commitment, the resolve both to overcome our weaknesses and build on our strengths. We commit ourselves to employ what has been given us "our talents, our minds, our physical capacities" for the good of our communities. Quoting the Lord, the prophet wrote: "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (Jeremiah 29:7). At Rosh Ha-Shanah one can hear the greeting: "May you be inscribed (in the book of life) for a good year." At table a piece of apple is dipped in honey and the prayer is said, "May it be Your will to renew for us a good and sweet year."

So Rosh Ha-Shanah counts the years from the creation of mankind and anticipates the future that is still left before us, even to the Day of Judgment for the entire world. Leviticus 23:24 places Rosh Ha-Shanah as falling on the first day of the seventh month (Tishri). The shofar sounds, and we are called to assessment, reflection, and commitment to build worth into our lives for the time yet remaining to us.

Written by Richard L. Jeske. The Rev. Dr. Richard L. Jeske is Director of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations at the American Bible Society.