There is no single answer to the mystery of the shofar. But let us examine one approach
Although we have experienced Rosh Hashanah, a question still persists: What is it about the sounding of the shofar that Jews find so magnetic? Even those who do not observe mitzvos in general are irresistibly drawn to the awesome blasts of the shofar; the majestic proclamation of the tekiah, the weeping and sobbing of the shevarim and teruah. The shofar speaks a strange, mysterious language in an otherworldly voice, but somehow it resonates deeply within the Jewish soul.
There is no single answer to the mystery of the shofar. But let us examine one approach.
At the Creation, G-d made of us a nefesh chayah, a living human being, when He breathed into us the nishmas chayim (Bereishis 2:7). What is a nishmas chayim? Normally translated as “breath of life,” it is that quality which distinguishes man from the beast, that which constitutes the dynamic, striving, adventurous, fervent, enterprising, vibrant, choosing human being. That nishmas chayim which G-d infused into us transfigured a lump of earth into a human being, converting a clod of mud into Adam.
On Rosh Hashanah, we express our indebtedness to Him for His gift of life by offering up to Him the essence of our own lives, our very breath. And we offer it through the medium of the shofar, whose sound is formed not of words but only of human breath — a sound shaped by the horn of the ram.
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