Last night was the beginning of the Jewish high holy days, a 10-day period starting with a celebration of the New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and ending with a solemn day of atonement (Yom Kippur).

Rosh Hashanah is not simply about making New Year’s resolutions. Jews are expected to pause from their daily lives, sit in objective judgment of their conduct during the past year, and examine the state of their souls so they can hold themselves accountable for any gaps between their conscience and their conduct, between the standards they profess and the actions they perform.

As Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan put it, the goal is “to seek reconstruction of one’s personality in accordance with the highest ethical possibilities of human nature.”

The profound insight underlying this quest for self-improvement is that every human being is endowed with the ability to understand good and evil and the free will to choose good.

Self-reflection, then, is just the prelude to a fresh commitment to be a better person.

When we examine our conduct and character, hold ourselves accountable for any gaps between the standards we profess and the actions we perform, acknowledge our faults, and seek to improve and make amends, we are engaged in a spiritual quest for worthiness that enriches our lives and our society beyond measure.

Although the process is clothed in religious ritual, one can come to similar insights about the nature and desirability of being a good person from a purely secular perspective. So whether we call it morality or ethics, or think in terms of our souls or our character, it’s good to be good,

Choosing to live a life of virtue lights and sustains a flame within us that can’t be extinguished. So to all of you, Happy New Year.

L’shana tova.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.