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Page 48 The Southern Israelite ISetv Year Greetings FIRST NATIONAL BANK VALDOSTA, GEORGIA j. () FFIC E K S lll lll ll. I'reHl.Irnl \ III VI, WINN, Vlrr-l*r«-»ldrnl J. II. COPLAND. Vlrr-I'roulrirnt VIM. L. GOODI.OK, Ca-.hl.-r CLARA III KliOW S, A»»l»tant Ca-hi.-r J. II. SIMS, JIL, AvNlHtant Caaklrr THOMAS V. ASIILEY, A»lMani Caohlrr UNIT E I) S I A T E S I) E P O S I I A R Y New Year Greetings Heat VALDOSTA THEATRE South Georgia s Theatre Beautiful Valdosta, Georgia j THE WHITE HOUSE CAFE j Best Place To Eat 5 • Valdosta Georgia New Year Greetings HOTEL DANIEL ASHLEY VALDOSTA, GEORGIA VALDOSTA PIGGLY WIGGLY Trade at Piggly Wiggly and Save the Difference 4 Clean Stores for Your Convenience W. M. OLIVER & COMPANY VALDOSTA, GA. ‘‘Valdosta’s Shopping Center” MEMORIES and HOPES Rosh ha-Shanah Reflections lly KARRI JOSEPH UTSCHEN, Athens, Georgia If an entire stranger were to come to the Synagogue on Rosh ha-Shanah, and enter into the spirit of the service, and watch it as it moves along step by step, one thing would impress it self upon him—he would see that we were beginning something. Everyone feels as if he, or she, were born again. The very air is saturated with the conviction that everything is start ing a-fresh. A whole long year, with its promises and uncertainties, is to begin. On through the dretyT winter, on through the joyful spring, on into the glowing warmth of summer, until another autumn closes the annua! cycle. Is it any wonder that so much significance has been attached to it? Involuntarily as it were, do our hearts open in prayer to God our Father at the twilight hour of time. The twi light hour of time—when the old year passing away into eternity merges with the now opening into infinity. The two are just upon the point of touching one another. Can you not see in the horizon yonder the tw r o coming together and being welded in to one unbroken chain? Let us pause for a brief moment in the midst of the eternal ebb and flow of time and let us try to catch a fleeting glimpse of eternity. Many and various are the thoughts that come surging through our minds at the beginning of the New Year. The old and the new are crowding in upon us: memories of the old year and thoughts about the new one vie with each other for recognition. Memories of the old! Rightly is the New Year day called Yarn ha-Zikoron the day of memories. Our minds un lock the door of the room of memory and rummage about therein. We summon the events of the year just past and bid them pass before us in review. Behold memories of devotion, of sacrifice, of unselfish service. Be hold memories of courage and bene ficence. Behold memories of friend ships and loves that purified our hearts and enriched our lives. Be hold memories of dreams we once had, of hopes and aspirations. All these hover about us. Let us linger with them for a moment and try to re-live them if but for a second. And, ah, my friends, and memories, too, come back to us: memories of suffering and trials; memories of dreams shattered and hopes frustrat ed ; memories of those near and dear to us whom we left behind in the march of time. And these, too, are dear and sacred to us. Let us con secrate a moment’s thought to them. Still other memories appear before our mind’s eye: memories of which we are ashamed and bow our heads in repentance. We recall our unfair dealings with our fellow men; our unjustified pride and haughtiness; our lack of sympathy with those less fortunate. For who is there amongst us who has not offended his fellow man or spoken ill against his neigh bor, or taken advantage of the igno rant? Shall we not resolve to forget and forgive? It has been, my friends, an old standing custom among our people to make the period ushered in by New Year’s Day one of mutual forgiveness, and those who had d-f ferences with each other during the year wettled them at this time a beautiful custom indeed! Else wh ? right have we to ask forgiveness of God? And so, as we roll back the page* of memory, let us generously forj^ive RABBI JOSEPH UTSCHEN those who have wronged us or spoken ill of us. Then, surely, we, too, will be forgiven. But let us close the door of the room of memory and turn our face* to the future. For after all the day is primarily Rosh ha-Shanah, the Head of the Year, signifying a period of new beginnings. New beginnings! What a world of meaning in the word “beginning!” What new hopes and as pirations spring into view as we utter the words “a new beginning!" All is to begin over again. “Come thou. O Man, forget the disappointments of the past, leave behind the failures of the days gone by, forget the sor rows of the old year. The dawn of a New Year is breaking. A world of hope is unfolding itself. Gird thy loins new worlds to conquer." New beginnings! what an enheartening message, what a hidden source of happiness! It has been because the Jew thus approached the New Year that he never lost faith. It was his power to vision new beginnings at every turn of history that made the Jew the greatest optimist the world ha- ever known. The exhilaration and ex citement of beginning, always filk his life with hope and promise. * 0 only New Year’s Day but every day was a day of beginnings. The wor . believes the Jew, is recreated e\er> day. God is m’hadesh b'chol V om tomid ma’ase vreshis. He renew, daily the work of creation. And as the Jew arises in the morning an holds nature reborn, robed in sp en dor, and beauty, he takes on new strength and new courage to f the hostile world round about 1 • Let us, then, face the New Year terms of beginnings. And w i e is true that life is one great tinuousness, one unbroken thai. (Continued on Page 49)