What should we think of as we hear the shofar blasts? What messages does the shofar convey to each of us?
Pekelach in hand to keep the kids quiet, we rush to shul to make sure we hear at least 30 blasts of the shofar. It’s a moment of great anticipation and intensity. The highlight of Rosh Hashanah, the moment of coronation of the King, of accepting the yoke of His Kingship upon us. What should we think of as we hear the shofar blasts? What messages does the shofar convey to each of us?
The blowing of the shofar is akin to entering into the holy of holies, explains the Gemara Rosh Hashanah. Rav Chayim Friedlander suggests that we imagine ourselves as the Kohein Gadol who is entering into the Kodesh Hakodoshim in a time of intense intimacy with Hashem.
At the moment of tekias shofar, we are being judged. The raw sound of the shofar strips away all the facades, the pretenses; we are unable to cloak ourselves with our roles as wife, mother, daughter. Our neshamos unveiled, we stand completely alone with Hashem. In this sense, we enter into the holy of holies of our soul; the part of us that knows the truth about who we really are, not who we pretend to be.
This moment of total honesty allows us to access the essence of teshuvah. At the broken sound of the teruah, we realize how broken we really are, how much we have to improve — and then we can become who we know we are capable of being.
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