Happy is he who performs a good deed
Eleazer ben Simeon

The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the original creation and man’s ability to recreate himself anew each year. . For Jewish people, it is the time to erase the smudges the past left on our lives and begin anew. It is a golden opportunity to discover a bright new path free from the burdens of unsuccessful ventures and continue life’s journey unencumbered by the sorrows that have blocked you over the last year. This new beginning is the Rosh Hashanah promise to us all.

Although we all seek a new perspective on our lives, for some this renewal is both dramatic and memorable. My cousin Murray was a soldier during the Second World War and fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944. This battle was Hitler's last-ditch attempt to win the war and the casualties to both sides were immense. Murray was so traumatized by the bloodbath that had immersed him that he was unable to conceive a child. He and his wife Margie decided after several frustrating, unsuccessful years to adopt a baby. Robin arrived just a few days before Rosh Hashanah in 1950.

I still remember the beautiful invitation I received from them that year. “Come celebrate the true meaning of Rosh Hashanah with us. Welcome the child that has transformed us into a family.”

It is Jewish tradition to do mitzvahs for friends and enemies alike at this time of year. A mitzvah is even better than a good deed. It is a virtuous, kind, considerate and ethical act performed with a joyous heart. It was no problem for all of us in the family to bring mitzvahs to Margie and Murray’s New Year celebration. We brought teddy bears and rattles, tinker toys and storybooks. We loaded the couple with baby blankets and cuddly jackets, pink velvet bonnets and baby rattles. Robin’s arrival was a gigantic mitzvah and we were as elated as her new parents that she had come to join the family circle.

We marveled at how much she looked like Margie and that night I can still remember how the very presence of this tiny baby girl infused the young couple with a new sense of purpose and renewal. “How appropriate that the baby arrived at this time of year,” we told each other and of course we were right, but none of us realized the biggest mitzvah Robin’s arrival created was yet to come.

Margie and Murray celebrated their new addition with all their relatives together that night and then we all went to Temple to hear the shofar blow to announce Gods kinship to us all . That night, after they said their good-byes and put their new little baby to bed, the two of them celebrated parenthood in their own private way. That spring, Margie gave birth to a little baby boy. They named him Bennet and he was the mirror image of the man who thought he would never have a son of his own. “He is a miracle,” said Margie but she was wrong. Bennet was another mitzvah, proof that the past cannot harm us if we only have the courage to let go of it and forge ahead to a fresh new horizon. Margie and Murray had another son two years later but by the time he arrived they realized that nothing on this earth is ever impossible if you open your heart and believe in the ever-recurring miracle that began back when Adam and Eve met in the garden. Indeed, then as now, every good thing that happens creates another in its wake. That is the message of Rosh Hashanah and the message inherent in all of life.

One mitzvah leads to another
Folk saying