Personal Meditations for Rosh Hashanah

By Rabbi DovBer Pinson

To properly prepare ourselves to enter into the New Year, or any new beginning for that matter, we need to consciously deal with all that is old, stale, and outdated in our lives before we can fully move into the future. First we need to empty ourselves from the past, to fill ourselves with a new future.

As Rosh Hashanah is approaching, we should do a complete review of the past year, and when Rosh Hashanah begins we can let it go and move on. A true Cheshbon Ha’Nefesh requires us to go through the year, month by month, to review, reclaim, and refine all of our past experiences. As we do this, there are a few helpful hints that we can keep in mind to organize and contextualize the details of this spiritual accounting.

This activity can be done by yourself or with a partner or small group. These meditations allow you to reflect on the past year and prepare for next year, but can also be done on a monthly basis.