We in Israel heard so many sirens this year, but now comes the clear and simple sound of the shofar. This is another annual siren- a positive and good one.
Shofar - is derived from the word improvement (the Hebrew word shipur).
We heard so many lies around the world this year, so many demonstrations of Israel hatred, so much loud hypocrisy at the most respected institutions in the world. The shofar sounds a simple truth once a year, which no university and no international court of justice can silence: there is good and there is bad. There is truth and there is falsehood. And the good will win.
We heard so many sad inner voices this year. Crying and sorrow, doubts and despair, worry and anxiety. The shofar comes once a year to remind us that there is hope, that we have come out of the most difficult situations in history, that God is with us, that we will overcome and move forward.
This is the main mitzva on Rosh Hashanah, and in fact it is the only mitzvah. An apple in honey, a pomegranate - these are all wonderful customs, but hearing the shofar is a mitzva written in the Torah. On Thursday and Friday of the week, silence all the noises, and listen in silence to the blowing of the shofar.
Two brachot are recited in the synagogues before that: the Bracha on hearing the Shofar and also “Shehechiyanu.” (Translation: that we lived) This year we don't need to explain how evident it is, that we lived, and existed, and reached this time.
The Shofar will be blown all over the country and the world - in every synagogue and Chabad house, in parks, in the smallest and most remote Jewish communities in the world, and of course in Gaza and on the Lebanese border.
We could write much more about the meaning of the shofar and how much we need it this year, and talk about many who are planning to observe the mitzva for the first time ever this year, but we will stop here. After all, the shofar teaches us to keep quiet, and simply listen.
So where will you hear it?