It was the Jewish New Year last week, when the traditional greeting is shana tova: a good year. This time around, you’d often hear it in adapted form, as Jews wished each other something more modest: “A better year.” As if, given the times we live in, “good” would be too much to ask for; as if we ought to scale down expectations. It turns out we didn’t scale them down enough.
I was in synagogue when word spread of the murderous attack at Heaton Park in north Manchester that left two people dead, along with the killer. Yom Kippur is rightly described as the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, but it is also a moment of vulnerability. Those who follow tradition, and that includes plenty who wouldn’t describe themselves as believers in God, do not eat or drink for 25 hours; many switch off their phones, and don’t watch TV or listen to the radio; they engage in reflection on the year that has passed, submitting themselves and the wider Jewish people to intense self-criticism.
