What Should You Forget This Rosh Hashanah?

11 September 2026

They say there are three things you should never forget: where you come from, where you're going, and I forget what the third one is.

Forgetfulness is a human talent. We forget where we put our keys. We forget what we were about to say. We pick up our phone to do something important, and find ourselves watching a video about a dog on a skateboard.

We usually see forgetfulness as a weakness. But it is actually a gift.

Imagine if you remembered everything with the same intensity as when it first happened. Every mistake, every embarrassment, every painful moment, sitting in your mind as fresh as the day it happened.

You wouldn’t be able to move.

Forgetfulness allows us to begin again. What happened yesterday can start to fade. It never fully disappears, but it recedes into the background.

Something similar happens on a cosmic level every Rosh Hashanah. Each year, a completely new Divine light enters the world, a light that has never shone before. As the old year ends, its light recedes to make way for the new.

So a new year is genuinely new. Whatever you were until now doesn’t define who you will be. The harder moments of the past can remain in the past. We may never really forget them. But we don't have to keep living inside them. A new light has arrived.

Of course G-d doesn't forget. But remembering isn't only about whether something is stored in your memory. You can remember something and still leave it in the background. Or you can bring it to the front of your mind and focus on it.

That is what we ask of G-d on Rosh Hashanah.

And what do we want Him to remember?

He remembers our pain. He remembers all we have been through. He remembers our mistakes, but He also remembers the struggle behind them and the circumstances around them. And He remembers that through all of it, we have managed to stay true to our faith.

Perhaps that is the deeper meaning of Yom Hazikaron. G-d doesn’t forget anything. But when He looks at our flaws, He remembers the whole story. He remembers who we really are.

We should remember that too.