“Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil.” (Devarim 30:15)
The Rambam writes that the function of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is to “awaken” us from our spiritual “slumber.” We tend to become preoccupied with “havlei hazman” — the “nonsense” of the world. The sounding of the shofar is meant to awaken us and alert us to the need to devote ourselves to religious observance. However, how exactly does the shofar do this? Why a shofar instead of some other kind of noise? (Rabbi Eli Mansour)
I’ve always had a hard time relating emotionally to shofar blowing. Intellectually, I know what I’m supposed to be feeling, but while I think these thoughts, the actual sound doesn’t do anything to me on a deeper emotional level. It sounds like… a shofar. A sound that fills my house right when Elul starts, as all my boys love to blow. And all it manages to prompt within me is an automatic response on my part, “No blowing in the house. Take it outside.”
So it’s always been a struggle for me to connect the sound to emotion on Rosh Hashanah.
During creation, Hashem created Adam from the dust of the earth, and then, “He blew a living soul into his nostrils.” Adam was created as a physical creature — but still, he wasn’t complete until G-d “blew” a sacred soul into him. The Maharal explains that on Rosh Hashanah, the day Adam was created, we blow the shofar to commemorate the blowing of Adam’s soul into him. This particular act is commemorated to remind us that this is the essence of the human being — his soul. We’re shown that although we’re both body and soul, the primary component of the human is the soul. The shofar awakens us from the preoccupation with our body, and reminds us to focus on sustaining the soul.
I have a suspicion this year it won’t be an issue.
The Navi Amos says, “Will the shofar be blown in the city and the nation won’t quake?”
