This Year, Let the Shofar Do the Talking

I don’t know about you, but I am approaching this High Holiday season with heightened emotions that run the gamut from trauma and trepidation to hope and inspiration.

If I am being honest, the trauma and trepidation are far more dominant, but I hold on to hope and inspiration because I deeply believe in God’s love and plan for us.

But how can we begin to approach the tefillah this year, when many of us still feel stuck on October 7^th, or perhaps on October 6^th, when we were jubilant and confident that our prayers for a happy and healthy 5784 were granted.

We have asked “Can we ever dance again” but sometimes I find myself asking “Can we ever pray again?” Especially the seminal prayers of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

The answer to that question must be affirmative, and I would like to share some strategies that have helped me move my head in the nodding motion.

On an individual basis, I have found comfort in the words of our everyday prayers, that I have been saying upward of fifty years. Phrases like Blessed art Thou “Who frees those who are imprisoned”, “Who straightens those who are bent over” and “Who girds Israel with strength”.  “Master of warfare”, “Creator of healing” and countless others feel like they were written here and now. I find comfort in knowing that these ancient words were composed by our sages in millenia past, yet still resonate today. They must have been facing similar challenges, and we are here to attest to their survival. Zoom out and take your place proudly in Jewish History. We are here to stay.

But this year, more than ever in my lifetime, I believe that our key lies in the communal realm.

The Selichot prayers are literally communal prayers of forgiveness and have already begun to ease us into this zone. Though Sephardic and Ashkenazic customs vary on when and what to say, both traditions kick off the high holiday season with liturgy that is humbling and expresses a sincere yearning for closeness to God. We admit our shortcomings and beg forgiveness. The tones and tunes of the various traditions reflect two different approaches, likely reflecting the countries and eras of exile; both are valid and on point. The beauty of living in Israel today is benefitting from both traditions as the sounds of these holy prayers emanate from the synagogue walls or ride the radio waves and surround us. This taste of unity should whet our appetite, leaving us wanting to appreciate and understand each other more as we reunite and create a melded new Geulah reality.

A major theme in the Selichot liturgy, and the Torah portion read on the second day of Rosh Hashana, is Akeidat Yitzchak, the Binding of Isaac. This iconic Torah narrative was chosen to remind God that His faithful servant, Abraham, our ancestor, showed unwavering faith in God even as he set out on his tenth and final trial- the offering of his beloved Isaac. We tell God that, if for no other reason, He should have mercy on us in Abraham’s merit. What we call “proteksia” today.

But the midrash in Beresheet Raba 56 offers another perspective on the recalling of this storyline.

וַה’ אֱלֹהִים בַּשּׁוֹפָר יִתְקָע. רַבִּי לֵוִי אָמַר לְפִי שֶׁהָיָה אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ רוֹאֶה אֶת הָאַיִל נִתּוֹשׁ מִן הַחֹרֶשׁ הַזֶּה וְהוֹלֵךְ וּמִסְתַּבֵּךְ בְּחֹרֶשׁ אַחֵר, אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא כָּךְ עֲתִידִין בָּנֶיךָ לְהִסְתַּבֵּךְ לַמַּלְכֻיּוֹת, מִבָּבֶל לְמָדַי, מִן מָדַי לְיָוָן, וּמִיָּוָן לֶאֱדוֹם, וְסוֹפָן לִגָּאֵל בְּקַרְנוֹ שֶׁל אַיִל, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב: וַה’ אֱלֹהִים בַּשּׁוֹפָר יִתְקָע. (בראשית כב, יג): וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָהָם וַיִּקַּח אֶת הָאַיִל וַיַּעֲלֵהוּ לְעֹלָה תַּחַת בְּנוֹ,

“The Lord God will sound the shofar” (Zechariah 9:14). Rabbi Levi said: Because Abraham saw the ram freeing itself from one thicket and going and becoming entangled in another thicket, the Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘So, too, your descendants are destined to become entangled in the [four] kingdoms, [going] from [being subjugated by] Babylon to Medea, from Medea to Greece, and from Greece to Edom. But ultimately they will be rescued through the ram’s horn.’ That is what is written: “The Lord God will sound the shofar” (Zechariah 9:14). (Beresheet Raba 56)

It shifts the focus from the climax of the story, where the angel of God tells Avraham not to harm his son after all, to a seemingly secondary point: “And Abraham raised up his eyes and he saw a ram entangled in the growth by its horn, and Abraham went, and he took the ram and offered it up as an offering instead of his son”.

The emphasis here is on the entanglement of the ram. God confides in Abraham that in the future, his children will be entangled as well. They will be oppressed in exiles, by Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, but eventually the sound of the ram’s horn will redeem them.

אמַר רַבִּי אֲבָהוּ: לָמָה תּוֹקְעִין בְּשׁוֹפָר שֶׁל אַיִל? אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: תִּקְעוּ לְפָנַי בְּשׁוֹפָר שֶׁל אַיִל, כְּדֵי שֶׁאֶזְכּוֹר לָכֶם עֲקֵידַת יִצְחָק בֶּן אַבְרָהָם, וּמַעֲלֶה אֲנִי עֲלֵיכֶם כְּאִילּוּ עֲקַדְתֶּם עַצְמְכֶם לְפָנַי.

…Rabbi Abbahu said: Why does one sound a blast with a shofar made from a ram’s horn on Rosh HaShana? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Sound a blast before Me with a shofar made from a ram’s horn, so that I will remember for you the binding of Isaac, son of Abraham, in whose stead a ram was sacrificed, and I will ascribe it to you as if you had bound yourselves before Me. (Rosh Hashana 16a)

The ram is significant and symbolic: “…and I will recall your sacrifice and merit them as if they made the same sacrifice”.

Avraham’s test was being told to offer up the son whom God promised was to continue his legacy. His faith did not waver despite the seeming contradiction of God’s request. The true test of our own faith also lies now, when chaos reigns and we are wont to question everything we have known. And when we have lost so much and so many precious souls in this ongoing war.

But enter the sound of the shofar, horn of the ram that appeared before Abraham’s eyes just at that critical moment. An important part of God’s message is that the ram had actually been there all along. Abraham’s eyes just opened to it when he was at the height of his act of faith.

The shofar is God’s reminder to US that we are His people. It hearkens back to the shofar at Matan Torah, when we pledged ourselves to God and He to us. Hashem’s miracles are happening daily and salvation to many has come from people or places that have been near them all along, but only emerged when the direst of situations arose. Indeed, I imagine we have all experienced some moment of unexpected relief or support this year from an unlikely source and marveled that we never noticed it before. The ram is emerging from the thicket.

The High Holidays are generally a time where we rely on words of prayer to communicate our shortcomings and beseech God for forgiveness. But if words fail us this year, let the shofar do the talking. Let it remind God that we are holding fast to our faith even as chaos reigns and rains upon us. Let its sound open the two-lane highway to the sky, transporting the message of Akeidat Yitzchak between us, each reminding the other of our shared love and destiny.

And be present and in the presence of your community; we must hold each other up, we will get through this together.

As Rav Kook tells us: “The preparation for communal repentance lies in the sound of the shofar for it unites all the camps”.