Rosh Hashana: Sounding the Great Shofar

Chaya Mushka and Nechama Dina Krimmer

 

In the month of Elul, we rush to greet the King as He draws close to us and makes Himself readily available to receive our prayers, our mitzvos, and our sincere conviction to return to Him, thus returning to our true essence and our purpose in creation.

 

After our preparations during the month of Elul, on Rosh Hashana, the King returns to His palace, graciously allowing us to follow Him inside where we joyously, yet with trepidation, coronate Him as King. On this day of coronation, the King opens the Book of Life and decrees the fate of all living souls and all nations.

 

As one of the central prayers in the Rosh Hashana Machzor recounts, “On Rosh Hashana it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. Who shall pass away and who shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in good time, and who by an untimely death…"

 

Although these words inspire fear, and it's not unusual to see red eyes and wet cheeks during the Rosh Hashana prayer service, we trust in Hashem to bless us, and the seventy nations of the world, with revealed goodness.

 

We coronate Hashem as King, of course, through the mitzva of the day: the blowing of the shofar. As it is written in the Torah, "And in the seventh month, on the first of the month, it shall be declared a holiday for you, a day of sounding a terua for you," the terua being nine short blasts of the shofar (Bamidbar 29:1).

 

There are three essential meanings behind the blowing of the shofar which mirror the  three main focuses of the day, recounted in the Musaf prayers: Malkiyos (kingship), Zichronos (remembrance), and Shofros (sounding the shofar).

 

We sometimes refer to Rosh Hashana as the "birthday of the world" but more accurately, it is the sixth day of creation when Hashem breathed the breath of life into Adam HaRishon, the first man. Adam's creation, and his acknowledgement that Hashem is the Creator, King, and the Master of the World, was the first coronation of the King. This represents Malkiyos.

 

On Rosh Hashana, Hashem recounts our individual thoughts, speech, and actions in the following year and also recounts the history of the world. In particular, Hashem recalls his covenant with the Jewish people and pivotal events in Jewish history.

 

Hashem remembers the Akeida, the binding of Isaac by our forefather Avraham, and the ram sacrificed in his stead. He remembers the shofar being blown on Mount Sinai when the Jewish people received the Torah, changing the nature of the world forever.

 

Hashem remembers the tragedy of the destruction of the Holy Temples and the trumpets of those who overcame us. And he remembers the words of the Prophets who forsaw the coming of Moshiach, the ingathering of the exiles, and the resurrection of the dead, all three miracles heralded by the sounding of the shofar. This is Zichronos.

 

Shofros, the sounding of the shofar, is intertwined with Hashem's Malkiyos (kingship) and His Zichronos (remembrances) as they all are accompanied by the sounding of the shofar, both events in the past and the glorious things to come.

 

The Tanya, in the section Iggeres HaTeshuva (Letters of Repentance/Return), recounts an even deeper level of the blowing of the shofar.

 

On Erev Rosh Hashana, the light of the previous year returns to its source. The world is held in suspension and the night is a flurry of anticipation, which some of us may palpably feel. When the shofar sounds on the day of Rosh Hashana, an "ohr chadash," a new light, springs forth from the heavens.

 

As the Tanya explains, "by means of the sounding of the shofar and by means of (our) prayer, a new and superior light is elicited" a light that is from a higher realm than has ever shown before (Iggeres HaTeshuva, Epistle 14).

 

The potentiality of this new light is beyond our ability to comprehend. One can imagine this new light as a shimmer of vivid colors flowing throughout the spiritual and physical worlds, covering the earth with its majesty.

 

As we enter the last twelve days of Elul, it is tradition to focus on our actions in the last twelve months. Each day we focus on one month until we come full circle to the present day.

 

May we utilize these last twelve days to wholeheartedly prepare for the blowing of the shofar, ushering in a new year, a new light, and a new chance to infuse the world with G‑dliness.

 

May we all be written in the Book of Life for a happy and healthy new year.