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by Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher | first published here links & light editing by HDG
Why do we blow Shofar during the month of Elul? Is it just to give the Bal Tokah (the Shofar Blower) a chance to warm up and practice for Rosh Hashana?
Rosh Hashana is a time to step back and regain our lost vision. The call of the Shofar is how we do it. The Rambam states that the message of the Shofar is to “Awaken those who are asleep.”
The Rambam’s analogy to sleep is profound. Because the dreams we experience in our sleep seem so real at the time; yet, the moment we wake up we realize that our dreams were merely illusions.
So too, we often live life in a spiritual slumber. We dream of accumulating material possessions and all the latest high-tech gadgets and we forget about our true purpose in life. Some people think that life is all about acquiring the newest and the latest high-tech toys. As Danny DeVito said in the movie Other People's Money: Whoever has the most [possessions] when he dies, WINS.
The Shofar reminds us that Danny DeVito’s philosophy is false! The Shofar is
G-d’s wakeup call, His spiritual alarm clock, to remind us of why we are in this world. It calls us to regain our vision, to transcend our daily mundane affairs and to return to who we really are. According to the Zohar, the Shofar is G-d’s dialogue with our souls. The Shofar sounds beckon us to live a Torah way of life by making the world a better, kinder, and more compassionate place.
It is significant that Rosh Hashana, the Day of Judgement, takes place on the anniversary and birthday of the creation of Adam. There is a profound connection between these two aspects of Judgement Day. The fact that G-d created the world and the human being means that life has a Divine purpose.
At the heart and soul of Judaism’s world view is that life has an elevated purpose. G-d created each and every one of us to carry out a unique mission, by fulfilling His Mitzvot. People can forget the true purpose of life, and slip into a dream-like world, where trivial matters such as smart phones, assume inflated importance, and spiritual values are forgotten.
The Shofar, with its simple cry and sigh, awakens us to see the world the way it really is, instead of how it appears on TV, when we are in a state of spiritual slumber. G-d has given us the incredible gift of Rosh Hashana, to wake us up and reconnect us to Him! The Shofar reminds us who we are and why we are here in this world.
Reconnecting with our soul and with our true Divine purpose in this world brings with it great joy. This is why Rosh Hashana — though it is a day of Judgement, soul searching and introspection — is also celebrated as a joyous Festival.
Rosh Hashana is THE DAY on which we celebrate the profound joy of discovering our unique purpose in life, of renewing our sense of “NO ONE CAN DO IT MY WAY.”
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More from R' Sprecher:
2 comments:
Winston Churchill said:
“Some people like Jews and some do not,
but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact
that they are beyond all question the most
formidable and the most remarkable race
which has ever appeared in the world.”
SOURCE 1:
Winston Churchill, 1920 February 8,
in the Illustrated Sunday Herald,
a British Sunday newspaper
SOURCE 2: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 4, page 38) by Martin Gilbert, 2007 CE
SOURCE 3:
Churchill: Walking With Destiny
(chapter 12, page 278) by Andrew Roberts,
Viking Publishers, year 2018,
ISBN 1101980990 & ISBN 9781101980996
CHRONOLOGY:
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
===================================
[Winston] Churchill wrote, on 3 June 1950 CE:
“The thought, the inspiration and the culture
of the Jews has been one of the vital dominants
in the world history.
There are none of the arts or sciences which
have not been enriched by Jewish achievements.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 26, pages 280 to 281) by Martin Gilbert,
ISBN-10: 0805088644 * ISBN-13: 978-0805088649
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
===================================
[Winston] Churchill spoke [in year 1954 CE]
of the Jewish Nobel Prizewinners, whose contribution
to humanity in many fields had been “unique and absolute.”
There were nations of hundreds of millions
of people who had been unable to produce
a single Nobel Prizewinner, “and are the beneficiaries
every day from the genius and discoveries of the Jews.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 26, page 290) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
===================================
Sir Winston Churchill said [in year 1955 CE]:
“You ought to let the Jews have Jerusalem;
it is they who made it famous.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 26, page 292) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
ISBN-10: 0805088644 * ISBN-13: 978-0805088649
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
In March 1921, Sir Winston Churchill
said to the Arabs of Haifa:
“It is manifestly right that the scattered
Jews should have a national centre and
a national home in which they might be
reunited, and where else but in Palestine,
with which the Jews for 3,000 years have
been intimately and profoundly associated?”
SOURCE:
Churchill: Walking With Destiny
(chapter 12, page 283) by Andrew Roberts,
Viking Publishers, 2018,
ISBN 1101980990 * ISBN 9781101980996
===================================
Sir Winston Churchill said [in year 1955 CE]:
“You ought to let the Jews have Jerusalem;
it is they who made it famous.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 26, page 292) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
ISBN-10: 0805088644 * ISBN-13: 978-0805088649
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“I refuse to bend over backward to
single out Israel – or other things Jewish
– for super-scrutiny. I refuse to gloat,
as so many in academia and the media
seem to, over Israel’s shortcomings.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah
by Alan M. Dershowitz (chapter 7, page 211)
published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Joachim Prinz said:
“The Jewish people are optimists,
addicted to a passionate belief that
they cannot possibly have enemies
bent on their destruction.”
SOURCE: The Secret Jews
(chapter 2, page 53) by Joachim Prinz, year 1973,
Random House Publishers, New York City,
ISBN-10: 0853031851 ISBN-13: 978-0853031857
===================================
What Palestinians DON'T Want YOU to Know
by Hananya Naftali:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iof1T7WZvLc
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