The Maccabeats – This Is the New Year – Rosh Hashanah

There’s a lot of great music out there, but every so often we’ll hear a song for the first time and just know that this is a song we need to sing.

A Great Big World’s “This Is the New Year,” was one of those songs. Its catchy melody, captivating meter (try counting along, we dare you!), and driving rhythm are only exceeded by it’s powerful and timely messages.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is replete with contradictory ideas: a time set aside for introspection is celebrated as a community; “the day of judgement” is also a festival; and “the day of remembrance” is a day we spend looking forward to the coming year. This year’s song doesn’t shy away from these complicated ideas, telling us to “embrace the past” and “live for now;” asking us “pray for the life we’ve wanted” for ourselves but also to “tear the wall down that divides us;” and reminding us that though the world was created for each of us, “there’s so much to be done.”

Wishing all of our friends and family a happy, healthy, sweet, and musical new year!