Teshuvah and the Circle Game

by Nina Fondiller Woldin

It’s the morning after Rosh Hashana, and I am driving my youngest daughter to the airport. Discussing the holiday, she reminds me about how the words to Joni Mitchell’s song Circle Game chronicle our experience. This year my family viewed the themes of the holiday on many different generational levels – from my preschool age grandsons to my 94-year-old mother and everything in between. 

Circle Game describes the circling back we do at this time of year, teshuvah, coming back to our best selves.

We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
 – Joni Mitchell

For my grandsons, it’s round challah with honey. For my mother, it’s looking back at her experiences. For the rest of us, adults of all ages, it’s analyzing the past year, looking for what we can learn and how to go forward. 

I am also reminded of this month’s Chai Mitzvah community sourcebook Rites of Passage. It focuses on life cycle events, acknowledged by Judaism through specific rituals, and how they can be described as an attempt to bring order to chaotic times in our lives. Not necessarily chaotic in terms of crisis, but chaotic in terms of changing identities – transformational moments that force us to acknowledge that we are, in some way, forever changed and transformed.

During these Days of Awe, I gratefully remember what I’ve learned from text study and conversations with the people I am lucky to know through the Chai Mitzvah community. 

I hope that this coming year you will join us – either through a virtual group or by starting your own with friends. It is a wonderful way to make the next year sweet and meaningful.

Shana Tova!

3 responses to “Teshuvah and the Circle Game”

1. Yael Fischman says:

   September 30, 2023 at 6:25 pm

   Hina,
   You make a beautiful connection. Seasonal time, circular time, cyclical, carousel:)

   Reply
   • Nina Woldin says:

     January 10, 2024 at 10:08 am

     Thank you! Just saw this, and it’s great to know we’re on the same page!

     Reply
2. Yael Fischman says:

   September 30, 2023 at 6:26 pm

   OOps, meant to write “Nina” in my previous post (just sent)

   Reply