Let’s be honest--we know that it isn’t exactly ‘our’ millennium. By our calendar, we’ve got 240 more years to go.

The coming ‘third millennium’ is based on an imperfect counting of the birth of a particularly beloved Jewish child.

But we also know that there is a world wide party going on, and that many of us are thinking about where and how we will pop the cork.

So we ask: Is it kosher to toast a l'chayim to the millennium?  

Here’s our answer:

 Though it is not ‘our’ millennium, it is a milestone in world history. We stand on the brink of a global event when we, as a human race, take a moment to reflect and celebrate. As midnight approaches, humanity will look back with nostalgia, and look toward the future with hope. Self-reflection and celebration – two things Jews have been perfecting for well over 2,000 years. So why not make millennium night a night when we, as Jews, reflect on what we have contributed to the world, and what we might do to improve it?

 

 

 

 

So, what difference does a thousand years make?

A thousand years ago, the first Jewish families began to settle in Europe. Shmuel HaNagid, a poet, scholar, and military commander in Spain, was about to rise to become the king’s chief advisor. Rabbi Samuel ben Hopni was preparing to begin his work of fusing rationalist philosophical thought with Torah study. Jewish women gaining economic power began to assert their rights to recline at the Passover seder. It was still forty years away from the birth of Rashi, the French commentator whose work became central to Torah study.

A thousand years ago, a majority of what North American Jews know as Jewish wasn’t even around yet -- no yarmulkas, no klezmer music, no bar mitzvah parties, no yahrzeit candles, no Kol Nidrei, no long black coats, no noodle kugels. A thousand years would bring us all these, and be topped off by a century in which Jewish life was nearly extinguished and then reborn.

For the past thousand years, Jews have creatively synthesized developments in the wider world with the inherited tradition. Now we turn to what the next 1,000 years can mean.

	What will the information age mean to a people who have passed on a database of wisdom for generations?
	What could it mean for us to spend a millennium living in freedom, without threat from the outside world?
	What would it mean if we were to invest in building wiser, pluralistic and more engaged Jewish communities?
	How will we be a 'light unto the nations' in a global village?

The night of December 31^st, we welcome the millennium with these questions -- and some champagne.

 

 

 

Here's
our suggestion
for bringing a little simcha to the millennium night. Choose one or all of the following ways to toast the millennium:

May people around the world find _______________ in the millennium we welcome tonight!

May the next thousand years bring us __________________________!

May we work to build _________________________
in the coming millennium!

 

So, fill your kiddush cup with champagne, decorate your Shabbat table with confetti, and take a moment to celebrate with all those around the world who welcome the promise of the new millennium.

May it be a time of goodwill, of blessing, and of a rich harvest.

–Leviticus Rabbah, 17

 

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