The Call of the Shofar

Tomorrow we will listen to the call of the Shofar. It’s not a sweet or soothing sound. It is meant to startle us awake, to stir up memories, conscience, possibilities and resolve. It is meant to awaken us to our own power and responsibilities, so that we can rise up in partnership with God and do the work of beauty and justice.

The sound of the shofar penetrates our defenses and demands an awakening.   It urges us to give voice to those parts of ourselves that we have silenced.  While we live our lives by routines – routines are helpful when we’re trying to get things done – the shofar breaks through our every day patterns and calls us to re-imagine who we are and where we are going.  It can bring to the foreground questions about ourselves that we have avoided, that we have silenced, for too long. It can break open the well of our passion and courage, free us from deadening habit, and send us to our true work.

So often we can get lost in the tangle of thoughts, worries, plans, regrets. The sound of the shofar can shake us loose from the chattering, compulsive madness of an overactive mind. We can be awakened to this spacious moment where it is possible to remember the miracle of just Being.

The sound of the shofar calls us to receive our inheritance and consciously recreate that gift in a form more beautiful and useful for our children and for this world.

The sound of the shofar calls us to engage with Judaism as a living tradition.

If someone handed me a Judaism that was formed and fixed and said, “Here this is yours,” I would reject that “thing,” knowing that if I accepted it, it would constrict me, imprison me in a closed system. Its internal logic would be compelling and I would be trapped.

The offer that I hear in the sound of the shofar is different. It is a challenge to engage with my inheritance in a way that will make me more alive. When I heard Thich Nat Han say that “your ancestors live inside you,” I knew that it was true. And I knew that my ancestors were asking something of me. I hear their call in the blast of the shofar. They call me to open to what is beautiful and essential in our Tradition, to receive their love and create new forms that will express and expand and spread the secret of Unity that birthed our people.

I also hear the call of our descendents, the children, the next generations who are yearning for an authentic connection to the cosmos that is birthing us.

I can’t resist a challenge. This is the challenge I receive each time I respond to the call of my ancestors and descendants, the call that is at the heart of my Jewish Spiritual Path:

1. Love God/Reality with my whole heart soul and might

2. Receive the flow of Great Love that is flowing from the Source

3. Continually do the work that opens these flows, choosing Life and Blessing in each moment

4. Use the treasures of my inheritance to do this work

That inheritance is the raw material that I use as an artist of the sacred.

When I look into the treasure-house of Judaism, I am waiting to see what sparkles today, what lights up my heart, what fires my imagination, what stirs my passion, what disturbs me. Then I know to start digging, beautifying, exploring and creating. This process is “Jewishing.” It looks different every day. Yes, Judaism/ Jewishing is a verb.

When I am Jewishing, I let myself be fascinated and informed by the past. I listen to the call of possibilities as they bubble up through my imagination and dreams. And I rest gratefully in the richness of language, story, image, song, flavor, fragrance and textures that grace my life.

When I experience aversion, I know that it is an opportunity to investigate. Any path I choose will eventually lead me to the same schmutz, the same dark tangle. If I am patient and compassionate, that tangle will unravel to reveal a glimpse of the Mystery.

The sound of the shofar is an invitation to engage with that Mystery. And Rosh Hashana is the opening to a new path, through the womb of our own darkness into a miraculous rebirth.

We blow the shofar at the time of the New Moon. The Moon in our tradition represents Shechina, the Divine Presence that is always present but sometimes hidden in shadow. The sound of the shofar calls Shechina out from her hiding place and welcomes her back into our awareness. She is coaxed from her hiding place by small acts of kindness, and by the sound of our honest prayer.

And what does it mean to call Shechina out from her hiding place? It means that each of us is called into our wholeness and power as we reclaim lost pieces of ourselves, the pieces that broke off at times of disappointment or trauma.

May the blast of the shofar shatter the rigid walls that imprison our true joy.

May the wail of the shofar open our hearts and send us with compassion to profound forgiveness.

May the sound of the shofar open us to the invitation of our ancestors who are waiting to be healed inside us.

May the call of the shofar inspire each of us to respond with our unique love as we rise to the challenge that is set before us this year.