Sound the great shofar for our freedom.

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

When the Israelites gathered and assembled together, they would sound teki’ot on trumpets: “When the community is to be assembled, the trumpets shall be sounded with a long note [tekia], and not with a series of short notes [teruah]” (Numbers 10:7). By contrast, when they went forth to war, they would blow teru’ot: “When you go to war against an enemy who attacks you in your land, you shall sound a teruah [staccato blasts] on the trumpets. You will then be remembered before the L-rd your G-d, and will be delivered from your enemies” (10:9).

These two sounds, the tekiah and the teruah, allude to G-d’s Kindness and to G-d’s Strict Justice.

The tekiah, with its simple, sweet sound, alludes to G-d’s kindness. On Rosh Hashanah, the teruah and tekiah are joined together. First we hear the tekiah, then shevarim and teruah in the middle, and then another tekiah at the end. This divine music serves to teach us about the way G-d conducts Himself with us. First and foremost, we must know and recognize that everything originates with G-d’s goodwill, for “G-d is good to all and His mercy is upon all His works” (Psalm 145:9), and “His kingdom rules over all” (Rosh Hashanah Shemoneh Esreh). It is true that life in the modern world is complex and fraught with difficulties, and sometimes with sobbing and weeping like the sound of the teruah, but that is only along the middle of the way. At the end of the path we return to the tekiah, to see G-d’s kindness and goodness. Truth be told, in the end, everything will work out for the best. After all, “everything that G-d does, He does for our own benefit.”

On Rosh Hashanah, which the Torah calls “Yom Teruah,” we shall recall that we have been through a difficult year, a year of war. During that year, we have heard the sound of the teruah, the sound of sobbing and weeping amongst our people. Yet we pray fervently that in the coming year we will merit to hear the sound of the tekiah, the sound of goodness and kindness, unity and peace, and that our prayer, “Sound the great shofar for our freedom,” will be speedily fulfilled.

With blessings for a good, sweet year, and a ketivah vechatimah tovah,
Looking forward to complete salvation,

Shabbat Shalom.