Rosh Hashanah is a time of family celebration but it is also a sombre period with a liturgy that calls on us to reflect on the fragility of life. This year will be more sombre than usual as events in the Middle East weigh heavily on our minds. Few of us could have imagined when the terrible news broke on October 7 of the Hamas massacres during conclusion of last year’s chagim, at the climax of “the season of our joy”, that Israel would still be wracked by war and the hostages remain trapped in Gaza.

As Israel’s government seeks to restore security to its northern border, the country stands at a moment of peril with the looming threat of more lethal Hezbollah rocket fire. As the shofar reverberates in synagogues across the world, this year it will sound more than ever than a cry of pain at the year we have endured.

But one of the abiding themes of the New Year is renewal and hope of change for the better - and we must renew our spiritual strength this year. The liturgy refers to “Rachel weeping for her children” - those who were lost on October 7, those who fell in the defence of Israel, those who died in the hands or at the hands of their captors. This year more than ever, we should gather in hope and pray that by next Rosh Hashanah the guns will have fallen silent long before and the hostages will be back to welcome the New Year with their families. Let us hope that the words of Jeremiah are fulfilled: “They shall return from the enemy’s land. And there is hope for your future.”