Aimless Love by Billy Collins
This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.
In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor’s window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.
This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.
The love of the chestnut,
the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.
No lust, no slam of the door—
the love of the miniature orange tree,
the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,
the highway that cuts across Florida.
No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor—
just a twinge every now and then
for the wren who had built her nest
on a low branch overhanging the water
and for the dead mouse,
still dressed in its light brown suit.
But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.
After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,
so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.
The eight most important things to remember about Rosh Hashanah are:
8 On Rosh Hashanah, many Jews may follow a custom called tashlich (“casting off”) in which they walk to a naturally flowing body of water such as a river or stream, recite several prayers, reflect upon their sins over the past year and symboli-cally cast them off by throwing their sins into the water (usual-ly by throwing pieces of bread into the stream).
7. The traditional Rosh Hashanah greeting appropriate for Jewish friends on Rosh Hashanah is “L’Shana Tovah” or simply “Shana Tovah” which loosely translates as “Happy New Year.”
6. A festive meal shared with family and friends to celebrate the New Year is central to the Rosh Hashanah holiday. A special round loaf of challah, which symbolizes the cycle of time, is generally served and dipped in honey with a special prayer for a sweet new year.
5. There are many Rosh Hashanah food customs but the most common is the dipping of apples into honey, which is meant to signify our wishes for a sweet new year.
4. The essential mitzvah (commandment) of Rosh Hashanah is to hear the sounding of the shofar. The shofar is generally made from a hollowed out ram’s horn that is then blown like a trumpet on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (except when the holiday falls on a Shabbat, in which case the shofar is not sounded). There are several different shofar calls used on Rosh Hashanah. The tekiah is one long blast. The teruah is nine short blasts. The shevarim is three blasts. And the tekiah gedolah is a single long blast, much longer than the plain tekiah.
3. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and according to Jewish tradition marks the anniversary of the creation of the world. The phrase Rosh Hashanah literally translates to “Head of the Year.”
2. Jewish tradition teaches that Rosh Hashanah is also the Day of Judgment. On Rosh Hashanah, God is said to inscribe the fate of every person for the upcoming year in the Book of Life or the Book of Death. The verdict is not final until Yom Kippur.
1. Teshuvah is the process by which Jews atone on Rosh Hashanah and throughout the Ten Days of Awe. Jews are required to seek forgiveness from people that they may have wronged over the past year before seeking forgiveness from God. Teshuvah is a multi-step process for demonstrating true repentance. First one must recognize that they have made a mistake and genuinely desire to change for the better. They must then seek to make amends for their actions in a sincere and meaningful way, and finally demonstrate they have learned from their mistakes by not repeating them.
We all enjoy Tashlich, throwing our breadcrumbs in the water. The Shana Tovah greeting rolls easily off our lips and I’m guessing none of us has any problem with the festive meal along with the apples and honey. We love to hear the Shofar blown and we all know it’s the new year because we got our Chabad calendar in the mail. But I’m guessing that most of us have some trouble buying in to the idea of Judgment Day and Teshuvah. I’m going to help you out by offering an alternative path. For the next ten days between now and Yom Kippur, I suggest you become an “Aimless Lover”. If you will diligently fall in love with everything and everyone that you come into contact with over the next ten days, I suggest that you will have done your Teshuvah.
And with that, I want to wish each of you a very hearty, L’Shana Tovah!