Shofar sofar
“Blow the shofar in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near.” (Joel 2:1) Hebrew Focus The shofar, שׁוֹפָר, is a ram’s horn, and it is the oldest instrument in Scripture, sounded at Sinai, at Jericho, at the crowning of kings. The blast itself has a name: teruah, תְּרוּעָה, a broken, trembling, alarm-like sound, so central that the New Year is simply called Yom Teruah, “the Day of the Blast” (Numbers 29:1). There is the long, unbroken tekiah, and the shattered teruah, a cry with the sob left in. Here is the thing to feel tonight: the shofar has no words. It is not a sermon. It does not argue or explain. It is a raw sound that goes underneath your reasons and straight to the part of you that has fallen asleep. The great teacher Maimonides put the meaning plainly, that the shofar is saying: “Awake, you sleepers, from your sleep... examine your deeds, and return.“ The horn is an alarm clock f...