Rosh Hashanah 5767 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger
This Shabbat is also Rosh Hashanah, our new year. We deviate from our regular cycle of readings on the holidays to read special portions. Perhaps the highlight though of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the Shofar, the ram’s horn. Of course the ram plays an important role in the reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah. We read the Akeda, the story of the binding of Isaac from Genesis 22. The ram that is caught in the thicket is offered as a sacrifice to God instead of Isaac. Thus the shofar, the ram’s horn is woven into the reading.
The Torah teaches us that this day is known as Yom Terurah, the Day of Blowing of the shofar. We sound the blasts on Rosh Hashanah to awaken our spirits to the season. We sound them to remind us of our tasks to repent and turn our lives around—making teshuvah to God and to our fellow human beings. We sound the Shofar to gather the people together to worship and celebrate the New Year and our peoplehood. The mitzvah of the shofar is in the hearing of its 100 notes. Thus we must listen carefully for its call to each and everyone of us.
In Conservative and Orthodox synagogues the shofar will not sound on the first day of Rosh Hashanah this year as it falls on Shabbat. The shofar is not blown on the Sabbath day, not because sounding the instrument is bad but for fear that the shofar will be carried in public thus violating one of the special laws about defiling the Sabbath. (Rosh Hashanah 29b) Carrying items in public is seen as a work violation of the Sabbath day.
But in our synagogue, and in most Reform synagogues, when we drive to Temple, the shofar indeed will be sounded. Our approach is much like that of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai who helped to reformulate Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in the year 70. There were arguments about whether the shofar should be sounded outside the Temple since there was a special place on the ancient temple grounds from where the shofar should be sounded. In fact, archaeologists have found the engraved stones that marked the very spot!
But Rabbi Yochanan ruled that the shofar indeed should be sounded. He understood that following the destruction of the Temple—the center of our people’s life, the people needed to hear in actuality the sounds of the shofar calling to them and to God. When the temple’s destruction was such a real and recent painful memory, the sounds of the shofar brought comfort, order, and hope.
For us today, the shofar helps us jog our memory. It calls us to be one with the Jewish people and with God. It calls us out of our complacency to rouse our spirits to connect and keep the flame of our faith alive. In a world of chaos the sounds of the shofar, and the order of its blasts-tekiah shvarim tekiah, tekiah teruah tekiah...helps us to bring order to our lives and to our souls in this New Year.
We wish you a sweet and happy New Year and may the sounds of the shofar lift you closer to God and to our people!
Posted by Lee at September 19, 2006 01:06 PM
