Tonight sees the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, the beginning of ten days of penitence in which we reflect on the past, rededicate ourselves to the future, and ask God in the coming year to write us in the book of life.

Jewish tradition sees the new year as the anniversary of creation, the big bang; the moment the universe began. And one thing has always struck me about these days: the biblical readings we recite in the synagogue. You would have thought we would read the majestic opening chapter of the Bible: And God said let there be, and there was. The story of creation.

But actually we don't. Instead, we read about the birth of the first Jewish child, Isaac, born to Abraham and Sarah after many years of waiting. We read about Hannah and her prayer for a child, which was also answered. I find that deeply moving. On this day of days we read not about God's act of creation, but about ours; not about the echoing vastness of the universe, 18 billion light years across; but about the joy and responsibility of bringing new life into the world. We don't think of God as the master scientist devising systems of organised complexity, but as a parent, loving and forgiving us, his children.

There have been times, these past twelve months, when the problems of the twenty first century - Afghanistan, Iraq, the middle east, the environment, the global economy - have seemed almost impossibly intractable. How do you begin to get a grip on issues so difficult to analyze, let alone solve. Yet one thing seems clear to me, that what matters is not only the critical intelligence we bring to bear, but also our fundamental vision, our starting point. And on this the Jewish new year has something simple but quite important to say. Don't think about the past; or even present calculations of political interest or economic gain. Ask what impact this will have on future generations. Have in front of you the image of a single human child.

Children are the sufferers of the twenty-first century. 113 million of them have no schooling. 150 million are malnourished. 30,000 die each day from preventable diseases. They have no vote, no power, no voice, yet they are the ones who'll suffer tomorrow for the mistakes we make today. The message of Rosh Hashanah is that greater even than an understanding of creation is the ability to hear the cry of a child.

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