The Selfishness of Rosh Hashanah

The Selfishness of Rosh Hashanah
From full-on self-focus to society-first—and the polarities we must face so the current we all swim in lets individual lives actually thrive.

We tend to approach Rosh Hashanah with mirrors: my resolutions, my habits, my family’s sweetness. It feels responsible—counting private wins and losses, promising to speak softer at home, to give more, to be better. In Jewish terms, it’s also too small. We live inside a current called “society.” Very few of us out swim that current; most of us drift with it. If the water is coarse or cynical, even decent people wake up on bad shores. If the water runs honest and merciful, ordinary strokes carry us to good places.

Rosh Hashanah is the moment to look up from the mirror to the window. Our prayers are in the plural. The day’s great themes—Malchuyot, Zichronot, Shofarot—are public: sovereignty, collective memory, a summons that gathers a people. Torah ties the new year to contracts, agriculture, release—structures that bless or curse multitudes at once. If we want our homes to flourish, we have to fix the water we’re all in.

This year, that means naming the polarities pulling Israeli and Diaspora Jewish life apart—and committing to argue them in ways that generate light instead of heat. Below are twenty fault lines. They won’t vanish; but if we face them honestly and discipline how we disagree, we can convert polarization from a capacity-killer into a productive tension.

Ten polarities inside Israel

1. Security doctrine: deterrence vs. diplomacy — How much safety truly comes from force projection, and how much from political arrangements that last?
2. Hostages vs. war aims — The urgent moral imperative of return versus longer-term strategic objectives.
3. Judiciary vs. Knesset sovereignty — The scope of judicial review and Basic Laws versus majoritarian legislation.
4. Religion & state: status quo vs. pluralism — Chief Rabbinate monopolies (marriage, conversion, kashrut) versus recognized streams and civil options.
5. Haredi integration: exemptions vs. shared burden — Draft and workforce participation versus preserving insular study communities.
6. Settlement policy: consolidate vs. freeze/rollback — Expansion and legalization of outposts versus restraint to preserve diplomatic space.
7. Arab citizens: integration vs. separation — Investment and representation versus securitized distance and identity anxiety.
8. Economy: Start-Up Nation vs. social safety net — High-tech dynamism and deregulation versus affordability, housing, and wage floors.
9. Media & information: free-for-all vs. standards — Algorithmic outrage and rumor versus verified reporting and accountable platforms.
10. Civil liberties vs. emergency powers — Protest, speech, and due process versus heightened security constraints.

Five Israel⇄Diaspora polarities

11. Critique vs. delegitimization — Loving rebuke and policy criticism versus language that erodes Israel’s right to exist.
12. Philanthropy: Israel-first vs. local needs — Channeling resources to Israel versus strengthening Diaspora Jewish security and institutions.
13. Who is a Jew / Law of Return — Grandchild clause, conversions, and recognition standards.
14. Narratives of power: eternal victimhood vs. accountable power — Teaching fragility alongside the ethics of majority power.
15. Voice & vote — Diaspora influence in Israeli policy versus the norm that only citizens decide.

Five polarities within the Diaspora

16. Campus strategy: confrontation vs. containment — Public battles and legislation versus coalition-building and student safety work.
17. Big tent vs. boundaries — Maximal inclusion across practice and politics versus clear red lines for communal platforms.
18. Intermarriage: engagement vs. fences — Welcoming mixed-family participation versus preserving distinctive practice and endogamy.
19. Identity curriculum: peoplehood vs. universalism — Centering Jewish story and language versus broad justice frames with thin Jewish content.
20. Leadership legitimacy: legacy institutions vs. new networks — Federations and established orgs versus grassroots, digital, Gen-Z-led formations.

Why this belongs in a Rosh Hashanah piece

Because polarization and factionalism—our sages’ sinat chinam—don’t just make us loud; they make us less able. They break trust, warp incentives, fragment facts, and hollow institutions. A society that treats truth like a team jersey and procedure like an inconvenience can’t fix anything—from security to housing to Jewish education.

Rosh Hashanah’s civic DNA pushes the opposite way. It asks us to build procedures we trust more than our fury: dignity-first speech (attack ideas, not people), auditable claims (source it or don’t share it), fair process (clear roles, timelines, and transparent outcomes), and mercy that outlasts moods (small-debt relief, humane scheduling, second chances). Those habits are not sentimental. They’re how communities remain governable under pressure.

Establish the current—so individuals can thrive

Here’s the paradox that justifies the “selfishness” in the title: fixing society is the most effective form of enlightened self-interest.

• Truthfulness shortens meetings and improves plans.
• Fair process cools rooms and prevents vendettas.
• Honest weights and on-time wages stabilize homes.
• Institutionalized mercy lowers enforcement costs and raises hope.
• Protected rest restores judgment and family life.

Close the ledger of curses by interrupting the loops that keep these polarities toxic. Open the ledger of blessings by setting standards that make cooperation normal again. When the current runs true, ordinary people—our families—don’t need heroism to land in good places.

We can start the year gazing at better versions of ourselves. Or we can start by repairing the river that carries us. If we choose the latter, our private lives might finally become sustainably sweet.

Shanah tovah u’metukah.