SHOFAR—THE INSIDE STORY
by Rabbi Yisroel Finman, Director of The Spiritual Rejuvenation Center
Every year millions of Jews venture into a House of Worship on Rosh Hashanah, the day of the shofar. Some spend
most of the day there, attending services three times. Others time their visits to coincide with the central portion of the
Rosh Hashanah service, the Sounding of the Shofar.
What is it that draws so many people for this event? What propels people to abandon their regular weekday
schedules and gather amongst co-religionists in order to be included amongst the myriads who continue this ancient
ritual?
When you think about it, taking a ram’s horn, preparing it as a musical instrument and creating a few basic sounds
upon it does seem rather strange.
But strange or not, every year, for several thousand years, Jews worldwide have added to the continuation of this
mystery.
We are often propelled into action because of an inner voice. Something within subconsciously drives us. It is
precisely the inner voice, of the soul, of the collective consciousness and of the universe that motivates us to reach
into our collective memory and join in hearing the sound of the shofar.
Most mitzvot require an action for their fulfillment. We eat matza on Passover, we light candles on Chanukah. The
shofar is different. Its fulfillment is not through doing but through hearing. The one who sounds the shofar does so in
order for all to hear it.
The main liturgical aspect of Rosh Hashanah is remembrance. We ask God to remember our best side and God asks
us to remember our moral commitment to life.
The shofar is the vehicle of remembrance. The sound that emanates from deep within the shofar is meant to trigger a
response that emanates from deeply within our souls.
There are three pivotal points of mankind’s evolution which are connected to one another and connected to the sound
of God’s shofar.
Theologically, God spoke and the world came into being. Contemporary physicists term this event the Big Bang.
Kabalists express this as the primordial sound of the Creators’ shofar. This sound continues, in a weakened state, to
reverberate throughout the universe. The Talmud calls it the Bat Kol. It can be accessed through numerous spiritual
practices.
When Hashem was descending upon Mt Sinai in order to give mankind the Torah, the sound of the shofar grew
increasingly loud until the assembly said that they could not withstand the power of the sound. The kabalists write that
the sound of the shofar that originated upon Mt Sinai was heard throughout the world. The sound of that shofar
remains embedded within Torah. It can be heard, albeit in a softer tone, through learning Torah.
The shofar will once again be heard throughout the world in the prophetic time known as the End of Days, when man’s
recognition of The Creator as the guiding force within the universe is ushered in through the appearance of the
messiah, a greatly revered sage and leader of Moses’ caliber.
The completed Tikun HaOlam, the final rectification of our world occurs with the advent of mashiach, the sage who
unites all of mankind in peace forever. One of the ways that people will be able to recognize the universally accepted
messiah is with the sounding of the shofar that emanates from God and is heard by everyone throughout the world.
Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of Adam and Eve’s creation. It is also the anniversary of their fall from Eden, a fall
caused by their poor choices. The ancient mystics write that the damage caused by their fall from Paradise was
rectified when the Children of Israel accepted the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Unfortunately, the building the Golden Calf
shortly thereafter once again caused mankind’s fall.
Although there are three separate occurrences that are shrouded within the sounding of the shofar, they are in
reality, three aspects of one occurrence. The creation of mankind, the Giving of the Torah and the institution of
eternal peace are three aspects of one continued event. All rabbinic literature is unanimous in its belief that the
purpose in creating the universe was so that mankind would develop a sense of higher purpose and create a
peaceful, prosperous world.
But it is precisely the inability of man to focus upon a higher purpose and work together in restoring a paradisiacal
existence that is missing from the world in which we live. Man must access a profound sense of higher ethics and
morality by reaching deeply within and touching his soul. The sounding of the shofar is one mechanism for this
process. A shofar must be sounded through human breath via the inside of the shofar. If one were to connect the
shofar to an air machine, the resulting sounds would not be kosher. A recorded sounding of the shofar is also not
kosher. If one were to boil the shofar to the point of pliability and then turn the shofar inside out, the resulting sound
would not be kosher, because the sound would be produced with the shofar’s outside. The sound of the shofar that
we hear on Rosh Hashanah must emanate from deeply within a person. The breath from within combines with the
inside of the shofar to produce a sound reminiscent of the three pivotal sounds of God’s shofar. It is precisely the
human effort, drawn from within that triggers our remembrance of the moral commitment to repair ourselves and to
repair the world.
One must have kavanah when hearing the sound of the shofar. Kavanah is defined as deliberate intention when
performing a mitzvah. Our sense of morality and ethics are not incidental. Like kavanah, they must be deliberately
acquired and developed.
The shofar is sounded in a series of musical notes, first a strong unbroken note, then a broken or staccato note and
finally another strong unbroken note. The first note represents our pure spiritual existence prior to birth, the final note
our pure spiritual existence after death. The intermediary note represents our current lives. Like the middle note our
lives are fractured. We are incomplete when compared to our eternal spiritual existence. The sounding of the shofar
bids us to remember just how beautiful we were and continue to be in a purely spiritual state. It also bids us to
remember that we can achieve such a utopia if we really desire to work for it. We came from beauty, we are destined
to go to beauty and we are able to create that beauty within our lives and within our world, if we could remember just
how beautiful a higher existence is.
And you thought the shofar was just a quaint ancient custom.
The Spiritual Rejuvenation Center offers classes, workshops and special events focusing on the deeper meaning of
life. We can be reached at SpiritualRejuvenationCenter.com or 305-304-0290.