US President Joe Biden issued a statement Sunday commemorating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins Monday at sundown.
"May the year 5,782 be a year of health, healing, and progress," he said, referring to the Jewish year. "And may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life."
Biden said he and his wife, Jill, "extend our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Rosh Hashanah in the United States, Israel and around the world."
"Shanah Tovah U'Metukah," he said, using the Hebrew blessing for a "good and sweet year."
Biden said Rosh Hashanah is "a reminder of our infinite capacity to transform our lives and begin anew."
"We are each endowed, by virtue of our Creator and our common humanity, with the ability to bridge the gap between the world we see and the world we seek," he said.
He said much had been done, but work remained in the fight against COVID-19, rebuilding the economy to provide more opportunity for all Americans, provide "hate no safe harbor" and "reaffirm our ironclad bond with the State of Israel."
He called the holiday a commemoration of the world's birth and the creation of humanity, as it "and the Days of Awe that follow charge those who celebrate to pause, look inward and reflect on the past year."
"It is a time to undertake an inventory of the soul, a 'cheshbon hanefesh (introspection),'" he said, "and to ask of ourselves and of each other questions that go beyond our own individual faiths: Who do I want to be? What type of nation do we want to forge? What type of world do we want to create?"
