12 — THE BULLETIN — Wednesday. September 19^ 1990
ROSH HASHANA
EFRAT— Israel — ROSH HASHANA is not only the highpoint in a yearly cycles the beginning of a new year, but it celebrates the beginning of all beginnings, the birthday of the creation of the world.
But when we think of all the possible symbols of the High Holy Days, we have to ask why a primitive ram*s horn is the focus when the entire congregation trembled in awe?
The only reason the blowing of a ram*s horn by a man in a white robe in a silent large room as hundreds of people wait with baited breath does not seem amazing is that we've grown accustomed to it from the first time we were taken inside a synagogue..
Furthermore, if sounding the ram's horn is the essential mitz-r vah of Rosh Hashana, why are most of the laws concerned with the actual blowing of the shofar derived from the laws of jubilee? "Then you shall proclaiml with the blast of the shofar on the tenth of the 7th month .. You shall sanctify the f^Heth year," ILev, 25:9]
Third, before the shofar is blasted, a psalm is recited, and this psalm is dedicated to the children ofthenmh who was the arch enemy of Moses — Korach. Why should Korach's children be chosen for such a variety of RISKIN sounds? Wouldn't one blast be enough? Instead we have a straight blast, three short blasts, and nine staccato blasts. And
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then a long blast again. In Tractate Rosh Hashana, 16b, the Talniiid ah^ have so many blasts to **confound
Satan.** But who is Satan, and whyare we supposed to confound • him? ^- : ;/ : :'; -
Fifth, why is the shofar blown by one individual, and the rest of jjs listen? The mitzvah could just as well havebeen for everyone to bring his own shofar in the same way that a lulav is brought to shul, and everyone would blow the shofar together^ In answering these questions, it turns out we returnto a single theme — Rosh Hashana as a day devoted to unity on various ■ levels. "
What is the unifying factor of all life, all existence? That we were all created by G-d, and that we all want to live. Jews and gentiles, animals and anything that pulses. It*s in our blood.
If Rosh.Hashana is a celebration of the birthday of the world, that means we're celebrating life itself.
G-d gave us thegift of life, and oneday a year weall have the same birthday. And since people who celebrate the same birthday necessarily feel close to each other, and since our mortality and creaturehood bind us together in a most profound fashion, Rosh Hashana is this day of unity.
And it*s not only Jews with other Jews, but its Jews and all the nations of the world, and in fact, it's all oif creation.
^,During G-d*s annual birthday party, we understand how deeply we are part of a creation.a living, breathing connection to the rest of the planet and beyond.
But understanding something on a theoretical level is one thing, while the reality of being confronted with destructive forces, hunger, war, dog-eat-dog competition and jealousy points toa less than ideal state for the human's capacity to live at one with the universe.
Therefore, the/teMfai, customs and litiirgy of Rosh Hashana serves as a guideline toward awakening us to the ideal. And if the oneness and connection that emerges from G-d is the ideal, the enemy would have to be Satan, or that impulse represented by the snake in the garden, thefirst move toward disunity, division, conflict.
When the Talmud in Tractate Rosh Hashana J6b speaks of *coitfoundihg Satan/it means confounding what Satan represents, and a good indication of what Satan represents can be seen in a talmudic tale about a household where the couple is always fighting. One day R. Meir makes peace between the two, and immediately Satan is forced out of the house. Indignant, he - accuses R. Meir of taking away his home. {Gitin52a)
Thus strife, division, conflict are the simplest understanding of Satan. And 'confounding Satan' means confounding strife. The sounds of the shofar drive away disunity and discord.
The Talmud discusses the sound of *trua, * R. Abahu (33b and 34a) combined all the sounds, straight sounds, three sighing sounds, nine sobbing ones. The Rosh (Rabeinu Asher) in the name of Rav Hai Gaon, Gh. 4, Paragraph 10 explains that different communities would blow different sounds, each congregation in effect questioning the correctness of the other, causing a division in the Jewish people. Including all the sounds eHminated division, and every Jew could go to any synagogue in order to fulfill the <;ominandment. Whw unity replaces division, Satan iscbiifotmidl^dvdriv^^iiwayr
One thing should be made clear: Unity as the true significance of the Shofar sounds is not just a midrashic layer. If we look at the text in Behalotcha fNumbers 10:1-JOJ the people are commanded to sound trumpets.
True, these are trumpets and not shofars, but the sounds are the same, '/ikiFa'and 7«ia,'and this command takes place specifically when the entire community is combined to move together as one, during festivals or when going to war, when oneness is absolutely essential to survival.
The laws of shbfar blowing are derived from the laws of Jubilee, There is no greater time of unity and peace than the fiftieth year when all the lands return to their original owners, -when slaves are freed and debts are rescinded. It is a year viritually devoid of social divisions, when distinctions between land-owners and sierfs, master and slave, rich and poor disappear. In a word, a year of social unity!
And it is no mere accident that unity is also the theme behind the inclusion of the Psalms for the children of Korach. .
We have to remember that Korach was a Satanic figure, the first rebel who set himself up against Moses, creating the first division within the nation of Israel. And what Rosh-Hashana highlights by including this particular psalm before the blowing of the shofar is that in the end Korach's children defied the usual pattern of carrying on their parents' war down to the next generation, and made peace with Moses, crying out, *Mosesis true and his Torahis true. 'Theirs was one of the most unifying moments in the entire biblical epoch.
It's not only unity within the Jewish people, but a oneness between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. The Talmud in Rosh Hashana quotes a verse in Shoftint ais evidence that Vrifa'means a sobbing sound, vevava in Hebrew. *Tlie mother ofSisera looked out at the window and moaned through the lattice/* [5:28].
The Captain in an army which wars against the Jewish people, Sisera is killed, but in the meantime his mother waits at the window for her son to return from battle. Othersj^eturn, but her son is not dmong them. And the versejecords that *vatibav aim Sis^rfl,'broken, moaning^ounds emerging from the mother of a fallen soldier.
In addition, the Jerusalem Talmud says she cried a hundred times, and that's why we blow the shofar a total of a hundred times. Sisera may be the enemy of the Jewish people, but the pain a mother feels when her son is Killed transcends Jewish-Gentile divisions.
This universal aspect of Rosh Hoshana can also be seen in the fact that on the first day of the festival the scriptural reading cDncerns the fate of Ishmael in the desert, banished with his mother from Abraham's household.
Near death, a miracle occurs — a well appears before their
eyes. ^ , The Midrash records a debate in heaven between the angels who argue that Ishmael should not be saved because his descendants will wage war against the Jews, while G-d's position is that a person should not be judged for what-^vlll happen, but what is transpiring right now. _ -
The Jewish Quiz
QUESTIONS:
(1) What holiday is referred to in the Bible as follows: "In the seventh months in thefirst day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath"? ' -
(2) What is the mosrimportant ritual on Rosh Hashona?
(3) What is the total riumber of notes blown by the Shofar on Rosh Hashona, 36, 75 or 100?
ANSWERS: (1) Rosh Hashona, the Jewish New Edmond Year (Lev. 23:23). Lipsitz (2) The Sounding of the Shofar. (3) 100.
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"G'dheardthe voice of the lad where he is [b*asherhu sham]. [Gen. 21:17J"V^here he is, the Midrash tells us, means where he is now!
Since the lad is weeping, he is contrite and doing tshuva, you can't take into account what's going to happen. Therefore the shofar sound also contains the cry of a desperate Ishmael and a broken mother, the cry of all peoples.
The shofar weaves unity amongst all peoples. For no matter how divided we are, there are times when the cry of a Jewish mother or Palestinian mother become one.
Beyond the unity of all humans, there is the unity of all creatures. And the shofar, after all is said and done, is the horn of an animal, a ram. In the sound of the shofar we hear how the very desire for life is something irreducible; it combines and connects and unites every creature of the world.
The message of the shofar is the unity within the Jewish people, the unity between Jew and gentile, even the unity between all creatures of the world. What gives us that unity? That there is one G-d who created usall, toward whom we all turn, and that He created the world on fundamental moral principles. .
This is the nieaning of the Rosh Hashana prayer that speaks of every creature knowning who created him. In the Amidah, we pray that G-d should rule over all of us, together, binding us unto *agudaachad* — one bond, If everyone blew the shofar, everyone would be blowing his own tune,.his own message, and we couldn't become one bond. But when the entire congregation listens to one person, everyone is united as one.
This then is the real message of the shofar. On the anniversary of the creation of the world, the most universal day of the Jewish calendar, we announce that unity and oneness is "within our grasp.
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