Chasiva v'chasima tovah 5767

I seem to be getting a lot of hits at the moment from people googling "chasima". I don't know if this is what you were expecting, but if not, I don't know what that was, and probably don't want to know either. As in, for existence, "goth". One Shabbos afternoon, not so long ago, a young woman sitting on her front asked me as I went by if I was a "Goth". I stopped dead and asked for a repetition of the question, wondering what she was talking about. And was she particular about my being a Visigoth or an Ostrogoth? I was tempted to just reply, "No, I'm a Vandal", but decided to just say no and keep going. I found out something more about gothkeit from the events in Montreal last week. So, I'm not googling chasima, if you don't mind.

The shul I daven on weekdays has two luachs on the wall giving details of the customs of the year. One from Colel Chabad and one from Ezras Torah. And yes, they do get confused from time to time over which minhag to follow. Anyway, the two end off with some wishes for the new year. One has

ולשנה טובה נכתב ונחתם שנה גאולה וישועה אמן

and the other

תחל שנה וברכותיה
ותשובה ותפלה וצדקה מעבירין את רועה הגזירהס

with the last line in real big letters. The next year's luach starts exactly the same way. So, whatever your viewpoint, may you and yours, and all Yisroel, be blessed in the new year with a good, sweet, and healthy year, a year of peace, and a year of redemption.