I believe that we can all agree that this year the awesome days of Rosh Hashanah will be different from past years. Many of us may not even be allowed to attend the synagogue for public worship. Others will pray and assemble in open outside areas. There is a rhythm to our holidays that the coronavirus has interrupted. Nevertheless, Rosh Hashanah will indeed take place, and Jews worldwide will commemorate it according to Halacha and traditional customs. But perhaps most importantly, I feel and hope that it will be a more introspective Rosh Hashanah than we have experienced in past years.

The prayers for life and family, success and prosperity, peace and tranquility, accomplishment and productivity, purposefulness and meaning, all will have a more intensive, pertinent and personal tone. This year will require very little imagination to realize that we stand before the Heavenly court and pass single file to be judged and blessed. There are those who, because of circumstances in their synagogues or communities, may curtail the prayer service and omit certain of the paragraphs that are ordinarily so much a part of the holiday service of the day. I respect the opinion of rabbis who chose to follow this route due to the local circumstances in which they find themselves. However, to me, every word of the holiday prayer book now takes on even greater meaning and relevance. I cannot imagine, therefore, that under the present circumstances that exist in my synagogue we will omit any prayers. We can all do without sermons and other additions, but the holy words that have been sanctified over the centuries by the tears and even the blood of millions of Jews who stood before their Creator for judgment and blessing, should not be absent from our lives and lips. We must remember that wherever we are those days, it is Rosh Hashanah, and that it should be treated and observed as such.

The Talmud records that we pass before the heavenly court as soldiers in the army of King David. It also compares us to the sheep that exist around Mount Meron. Sheep and soldiers at first glance seem to be opposite images and scenarios. Soldiers stand erect and march proudly, while sheep always have a low profile and do not generally represent strength and firmness. Yet, I believe that under COVID-19 we can well understand that the Talmud did not present us here with an either/or choice—soldiers or sheep. Rather, it meant to teach us that all human beings are, in reality, both at the very same time. We have within us enormous strength and capability, potential and firmness of purpose and behavior like soldiers. At the same time, we are but dust and ashes, mortal clay, putty in the hands, so to speak, of the Holy One who has fashioned us. It is the challenge of life, its experiences and events that confronts us to ascertain when we should stand erect and firm as soldiers do, and when we should be humble and adopt a very low profile as do sheep. Rosh Hashanah brings us face-to-face with this challenge and choice. As far as Torah values and the Jewish people are concerned, we are certainly to be soldiers in the army of King David. But as far as our own personal wants and desires, social behavior and communal responsibility, we should lower our egos and allow ourselves to be counted as the sheep of Mount Meron.

I send you my blessings for the new year and for a K’tiva V’chatima Tova.

Rabbi Berel Wein is senior rabbi of Beit Knesset HaNassi in Jerusalem and director of the Destiny Foundation.