Sound of the Shofar
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
The shofar produces some very mystical sounds, which have some very unusual properties. One of its properties is the ability to stir the heart and cause introspection on the part of the hearer.
What is it about the sound of the shofar that calls us to feel so deeply moved? To answer this question we must return to the Paradise of Eden, that garden wherein we have the beginnings of everything.
After the first sin we find:
And they heard the voice (kol) of YHVH Elohim walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of YHVH Elohim amongst the trees of the garden. (Gen 3:8)
Exactly how does a “voice”, a kol, go “walking”?
This particular Hebrew word for sound or voice, “kol”, resonates with another kol, the sound (kol) of the shofar:
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders (kol) and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice (kol) of the shofar exceeding loud; so that all the people that [was] in the camp trembled. (Ex 19:16)
This kol that we hear at Sinai is the same kol that went walking in the Garden of Eden right after the first sin. The kol that walked had a question:
And HaShem God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you? (Gen. 3:9)
This question: “Where are you (Ayekah)?” was obviously not concerned with Adam’s physical location. After all, how can one hide from The One who is everywhere? This question must be asking a more profound question: ‘Ayekah?’ Where are you, where do you stand morally and spiritually, to what place are you directing your efforts?
The kol of HaShem in Eden looms significant because the shofar blessing on Rosh Hashanah, which reasonably could have stressed the “blowing” of the shofar, stresses the sound or voice, “lishmoah kol hashofar,” to hear (or internalize) the sound of the shofar.
The Rambam is quite explicit in altering the definition of the mitzvah. He consistently defines the mitzvah as one of HEARING the shofar rather than BLOWING.
This then is the kol that walks. This kol comes seeking the state of the soul of His beloved. This same kol approaches us at this time of judgment. This kol from the shofar “walks” to us, His beloved, and asks: Where are you?
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