A New New Year’s Resolution

Considering New Year’s resolutions for the upcoming secular holiday?

You can make the same old resolution (lose weight, exercise, save money, etc) or you could try something new.

For those readers who are considering a new New Year’s resolution, let me offer you some possibilities:

Try a new mitzvah on this year. What mitzvah have you thought about but never actually taken on? Commit to trying out a new mitzvah, and give it a year. Here are some examples:

• light Shabbat candles every week, or
• give tzedakah as a regular event, or
• study Torah regularly (maybe the weekly portion?)
• say the Shema every night at bedtime
• observe the Jewish holidays as completely as possible

Take a class. It doesn’t have to be a heavy subject! Learn to bake challah. Learn about the Jewish history of chocolate. Learn about Passover customs. See what your area synagogues and adult education programs are offering!

Read a book (or set a number of books.) It might be an ambitious commentary on Torah, but it might also be something a lot lighter. Some of my favorites:

• Israel is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and its History by Rich Cohen
• On the Chocolate Trail by Deborah R. Prinz
• Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams by Rich Cohen
• Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean by Edward Kritzler
• As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg

Watch more Jewish films and discuss with friends

• The Infidel A British comedy
• The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg A sports documentary
• A Film Unfinished A documentary about a Nazi propaganda film, shot in the Warsaw ghetto.
• Waltz with Bashir An Israeli war documentary
• The Dybbuk A Yiddish Ghost Story
• The Frisco Kid A comedy about a rabbi in the American West

Are there other New Year’s resolutions you are considering to deepen or enhance your Jewish life? I invite you to share them with us in the comments!