HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wait, what?

Passover Reflection #3: Try Everything, and Happy New Year! Wait, what??

As we continue to head into Passover, one thing we know for a fact is that this “historical adventure” never really happened. It was a story created to give a homeless tribe of people a sense of hope, endurance, strength, courage, and the will to keep going despite the hard times they found themselves in.

So Ezra gathered together some of his best scribes, and together, they began to write stories, stories with heroes and underdogs overcoming insurmountable obstacles.

Passover is one of those stories.

It is the story of overcoming the unfairness and sometimes cruel events of our lives that keep us shackled to being less than our fullest, best selves. It is the story of trying, and trying again, and never losing hope that we will find our way, even if we aren’t yet out of the mess.

One of my favorite songs of all time is Try Everything sung by Shakira in the Disney movie Zootopia. Now, I confess, I never saw the movie, but I like Shakira as a singer, and I love her rendition of Try Everything from the movie. Here are the lyrics:

I messed up tonight
I lost another fight
I still mess up but I’ll just start again
I keep falling down
I keep on hitting the ground
I always get up now to see what’s next

Birds don’t just fly
They fall down and get up
Nobody learns without getting it wrong

I won’t give up, no I won’t give in
Till I reach the end
And then I’ll start again
No I won’t leave
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail

I won’t give up, no I won’t give in
Till I reach the end
And then I’ll start again
No I won’t leave
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail


Oh oh try everything


Look how far you’ve come
You filled your heart with love
Baby you’ve done enough take a deep breath
Don’t beat yourself up
Don’t need to run so fast
Sometimes we come last but we did our best

I won’t give up, no I won’t give in
Till I reach the end
And then I’ll start again
No I won’t leave
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail

I won’t give up, no I won’t give in
Till I reach the end
And then I’ll start again
No I won’t leave
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail

I’ll keep on making those new mistakes
I’ll keep on making them every day
Those new mistakes


Oh oh, try everything


Songwriters: Tor Erik Hermansen / Mikkel Storleer Eriksen / Sia Kate Isobelle Furler
Try Everything lyrics © Walt Disney Music Company

(You can watch Shakira recording te song and clips from the movie, plus see the lyrics as she sings them, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6rP-YP4c5I)


The really great thing about this song that is different from other “I can do this” kinds of songs is that it admits to making mistakes, and it also admits the propensity for failing again. I keep falling down, BUT, I also keep getting up and trying it again. What I learn from the missteps are what not to do to keep moving forward. Feedback not failure, as a dear friend once shared.

Passover is all about trying everything we can to release ourselves from our shackles. It is acknowledging that along the way, we will make mistakes. How many times did Moses go back to Pharaoh and ask to be released? Even once we made it across the Red Sea and into the wilderness, when we milled about at the foot of Mt. Sinai while Moses was on the mountaintop having tea and crumpets with G!d, after a month or so of that, what did we do? We missed Egypt. We built a golden cow to worship. Was it a golden cow that had helped us out of slavery and across the red sea? No.

Sometimes, we build golden cows. But we keep trying. We keep getting up and starting over.

This is one reason why Jews have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR new years every year! Rosh Hashanah (1st of Tishrei; yeah, THAT one), Tu B’Sh’vat (15 Sh’vat, New Year of Trees), 1st of Nisan (which in 2018 begins tonight at sundown, March 16th!, known as the birth of the Israelite nation and redemption from Egypt), and 1st of Elul (New Year for the tithing of cattle, and also signaling the second more earnest phase of our spiritual preparation for the High Holy Days, with the first phase having begun on Tisha B’Av, 3 weeks prior).

We are human. We often fail. Passover reminds us to get up and carry on and try one more time until we’ve tried everything. We will make mistakes. We will fall down. We will hit the ground. . . and then, we will get up. Nobody learns without getting it wrong.

We are a people of learning. On Passover, let’s remember to keep trying.