Published September 2025
TEVYA’S TOAST
To life, to life, l’chaim;
One day it’s honey and raisin cake,
Next day a stomach ache – to life!
Drink l’chaim;
To us and our good fortune;
Be happy, be healthy, long life!
And if our good fortune never comes,
Here’s to whatever comes;
Drink l’chaim TO LIFE!
What a wonderful expression of what Rosh Hashanah is all about. In synagogue, we will chant over and over again: “Remember us that we may live, O Sovereign who delights in life. Inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your sake, Living God.”
Greeting cards wish everyone “to be inscribed in the book of life.” The Shehecheyanu prayer involving life is recited many times. It is the tradition to use an exotic fruit on the second night to add another shehecheyanu prayer. Carrot dishes are served because the Yiddish word for carrots is mehrin, which also means “increase” – obviously the length of life.
After each sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, we repeat the passage that begins with “Hayom Harat Olam,” “On this day the world was born.” We celebrate the beginning of the life of the universe. The Torah reading on Rosh Hashanah deals with the birth of Isaac, and the Prophetic selection recounts the birth of Samuel.
Following the theme of Creation, the following passage from the Talmud (Sanhedrin, 4:5) is most powerful: “A human was first created, a single individual, to teach the lesson whoever destroys one life, Scripture regards him as though he had destroyed the whole world, and whoever ever saves one life is tantamount to have saved the whole world”. Cherishing the life of the universe is the most basic principle of the Jewish tradition.
Following the first atomic explosion in New Mexico, observers were discussing what had gone through their minds when the “big flash” came. William L. Laurence, the reporter for the New York Times, said quietly that he thought “This is the type of flash that occurred when God said ‘let there be light.’”
My family joins me in the prayer: May the New Year bring you more years to your life and more life to your years.
Rabbi Alvin Kass
Chief Chaplain of the NYPD