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Rosh Hashanah 2018 Day Two - The Meaning of the Shofar

Boker tov and Shanah tovah tikateyvu to each of you.  As I look at all of you, I have a question:  Did any of you have a cup of coffee or tea this morning?  Better yet, do any of you start each day with a cup of coffee or tea? By working out?  Or even by reading the paper?  Maybe you don’t do any of that but you watch your favorite football, basketball, or baseball team with family each and every game.  Or you watch a particular show together as a family?  At the end of each day do you do the same exact things, in the same exact order right before bed?  If you answered yes to any of these, you might say that you have a daily routine.  Or you might call it your daily personal ritual.  I work out every morning.  More than once I have woken up at 3am so that I could work out before going on a 6am flight heading out on vacation.  It may seem odd to someone else, but it is my daily ritual.  I believe it has made me a calmer, happier, and healthier version of myself.

Chances are that everyone here has a daily ritual of their own, without which you feel off-balance.  Religions too have their rituals.  We are gathered here today because of the ritual observance of the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.  In today’s world people often misunderstand the importance of ritual in religions.  Too many think of ritual as an end in and of itself while others don’t give ritual a place at all.  Properly done and understood, religious ritual has tremendous power.  Just as my working out every day helps make me a better person so too do the Jewish rituals I observe. 

Every single ritual, when analyzed thoroughly, has the capacity to impact our behaviors.  Thus it is that this morning I would like to talk to you about how the calls of the Shofar can impact our lives, and are especially relevant and meaningful today as we remember the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our country.  

As we think about this solemn anniversary, it must be acknowledged that the United States of pre-9/11 was very different than the United States of post-9/11.  Lots of things changed – in our laws, in our behaviors, and in our psyches as Americans.  But one thing did not change and that is the relevance of Jewish teachings and ritual and how both can help us lead our lives in a way to better ourselves and improve the world.

This is especially true of Pirkei Avot, which I have been studying in depth over the last several months with congregants on Shabbat afternoons.  One of the most famous of quotes from all of Pirkei Avot is: 

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי:

He [Rabbi Hillel] used to say: If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, then when?

As well-known as this teaching is, its beauty lies in the fact that there are always new ways to understand it.  Today I would like use this teaching as the basis for coming to a new understanding of the central ritual act of Rosh Hashanah – the blowing of the shofar and its relevance to us as Jews and Americans trying to make ourselves and the world better seventeen years after 9/11.

In order to get there however, we must take a step back and look at the significance of the shofar for the observance of the day.  The shofar is such an integral part of this day, that in the Torah (Lev. 23:24) the day is actually referred to as zichron teruah – a blowing of horns. 

Now when we blow the shofar there are three primary notes.  The very first note that is blown, indeed, the one that comes before and after each of the other sounds, is tekiah, one long straight blast.  In Biblical Hebrew the root has multiple meanings, including clap, strike, and blow on an instrument such as the shofar. 

In Modern Hebrew however, the same root is used in modern Hebrew for the word tekah, or electrical plug.  With that in mind, the tekiah helps plug us in to God.  In that vein, Rabbi Shraga Simmons once wrote:  “Rosh Hashana is the day of appreciating who God is. We then internalize that understanding so that it becomes a living, practical part of our everyday reality. God is all-powerful. God is the Creator. God is the Sustainer. God is the Supervisor. In short, God is King of the Universe.  In Jewish tradition, a king is first and foremost a servant of the people. His only concern is that the people live in happiness and harmony. His decrees and laws are only for the good of the people, not for himself. (see Maimonides, Laws of Kings 2:6)  The object of Rosh Hashana is to crown God as our King. Tekiah – the long, straight shofar blast – is the sound of the King's coronation (Malbim – Numbers 10:2).”  Moreover, when the Israelites stood at Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments – or some say the entire Torah – it was preceded by a long blast of the shofar, probably a tekiah. 

Thus, when we hear the shofar on Rosh Hashanah it is supposed to remind us that on Mt. Sinai we took upon ourselves the obligations of the mitzvoth, living as God wants us to live, and that we should be thinking about and acting on that commitment in our daily actions.  By living up to what God wants of us we are in fact standing up for what it means to be a Jew. No one else can “do Judaism” for us, no one else can be our best selves.  Only we can.  It is up to us.  If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

The second note of the shofar is called shevarim, which is supposed to be three medium length, wailing sounds.  The root of this call can mean many things depending on its conjugation, including wave, fracture, shattered.  On shofar.co I read:  “The shevarim represents the times of trouble, the wails that emanate from the human heart when failure, tragedy and seemingly insurmountable problems befall us.  No one can pass through this life without shevarim. It is the call to look beyond ourselves, realize and empathize with the pain existing in this world. It is an awakening towards self-evaluation, introspection and the heartbroken feeling that follows, when we understand that we have once again failed living to our full potential. It is the cry to reconnect, grow and achieve.” 

There is a very interesting aggadic tale about the sound of the shevarim that I believe is of great importance for us today.  The story takes place in the days of the Judges, over 3,100 years ago. It concerns a battle involving a captain named Sisera who led a force of King Jabin of Canaan’s army against the forces of the Judge Deborah and her captain Barak.  In Judges we read the story of Sisera’s attempt to best the children of Israel, and his eventual demise at the hand of a wily woman.  Though Sisera was the leader of the campaign against Israel, and thus our enemy to a certain degree, the book of Judges takes note of what happened to Sisera’s MOTHER after the battle.  We read:  “Through the window she looked forth and wailed [vateyabev] ‘why is his chariot so long in coming?  Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?”  You can feel the pain of Sisera’s mother as she waits fruitlessly for the son she loves.

What is interesting is what the Rabbis in the Talmud do with this pain filled verse which closes the story of Sisera and Deborah.  They pointed out that the word vateyabev, which means “wailed” in Hebrew is similar to an Aramaic word yevava which means blowing on the shofar.  Combining the two, in the Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 33b some rabbis suggested that the shevarim must sound like the crying or gasping of Sisera’s mother as she realizes her son isn’t coming home.  That is, on the day we are crowning God king, the day we reaffirm our annual commitment to Judaism, we must remember the pain even of our enemies and their mothers!   Our remembering their humanity, their pain, is the first step in turning enemies into friends and bringing peace to the world!  When the entire world can see the humanity of the other then peace may have a chance.  If I am only for myself what am I?

The third of the calls of the shofar is called the teruah and consists of nine short blasts. 

On (Shofar.co) we read that: “The short staccato sounds remind us that progress is often measured in small steps, one foot after the other. Redemption and self-improvement are processes rather than miraculous and sudden epiphanies. We sound the shevarim and teruah consecutively during the shofar service to indicate that after troubles and even tragedy, resilience and positive action is required. Thus the sounds of the shofar come to point our way towards a disciplined and active year that will be filled only with wails of joy and happiness.”

Moreover, Rabbi Simmons explains that:  “On Rosh Hashana, we need to wake up and be honest and objective about our lives: Who we are, where we've been, and which direction we're headed.”  We must acknowledge that we have the power to stagnate in our spiritual growth, to be passive in our own lives.  Or we can choose to move forward, to be active, and work to improve ourselves.”  “The Teruah sound – 9 quick blasts in short succession – resembles an alarm clock, arousing us from our spiritual slumber. The shofar brings clarity, alertness, and focus. (Malbim – Yoel 2:1)”  If not now, when?

The final blast of the shofar , the tekiah g’dolah, encapsulates all of the others, and is supposed to be at least the length of all the others combined.  This note is the note of challenge to live up to all that the other notes have come to tell us.  It comes to teach us that just one section of the verse, one note of the shofar by itself isn’t enough.  We must each strive to integrate all of the shofar calls into our lives.  If I am not for myself, who will be for me?  If I am only for myself, what am I?  If not now, when?  By answering these questions as the shofar calls us to do, a new dawn, a new year, a new world will come to be.  Let it be so.

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784