Hope for the holiday

We got the Rosh HaShanah card at right from an unlikely place: the Jüdisches Museum in Berlin. Who would have thought, in 1939, that there would be such a place — and that it would be sending out new year’s cards for 5771?

We loved it — the infant’s face, crumpled in tears, made us laugh, and the words beneath it, which mean “Learn to laugh without crying,” sent a marvelous wish for the year that we extend to all.

There is so much to cry about. In one place or other around the world there is war, misery, or famine — separately and sometimes, so terribly, together.

We write these words on Wednesday, the day after four Israelis were gunned down by murderers who clearly don’t want the peace talks to succeed. (See below.) Yet we can take some comfort in the fact that they are being held at all.

And our cover story began in a time of tears, but came to a conclusion in redemptive joy.

Dear readers, we send you the traditional Rosh HaShanah wishes for a good and sweet year. May you be inscribed in the book of life — and may you learn to laugh (and have reason to laugh) without crying.