Today is the first day that we blow the shofar in the run-up to Rosh Hashana.
I once heard a shofar blown to sound exactly like sobbing (the baal tokea, shofar blower, could also do a perfect Israeli siren).
The Gemara says that the shofar should sound like Sisera's mother wailing when she realises that her son is never coming home.
So shofar = crying.
Sisera's mother is not the only woman of Rosh Hashanah to cry at her children's fate. The midrash describes Sarah hearing about the Akeida from Satan in a version that involves Yitzhak actually dying.
"Sarah began to cry and wailed three screams, like three shofar blasts... and her soul burst from her and she died".
There's the shofar connection again.
Hagar too, as her son is dying:
"lifted up her voice and cried".
And of Rachel, the Rosh Hashana Haftara says:
"A cry is heard in Ramah — Wailing, bitter weeping— Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted, For her children, who are gone."
This Rosh Chodesh Ellul, as we hear the shofar for the first time, my mind is preoccupied with all the mothers - and fathers - who have lost children so cruelly in the past 11 months. Particular on my mind are Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin, who have already suffered so deeply. They should never have had to say goodbye to their son Hersh on Monday. In that moment they became today's Rachel, Sarah, Hagar and Em Sisera - every parent who has ever cried for a lost child.
We read these stories on Rosh Hashana because our cries, like theirs, open the gates of heaven. This Ellul, it feels like the crying has reached a crescendo. The shofar is hardly needed. We desperately need those gates to open.
Honoured to collaborate with the @pardesinstitute as a Pardes Yesod Experiential Educators Programme Fellow 2016-17
All Pardes learning for the month of Ellul is dedicated in memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Sources:
Rosh Hashana 33b
Pirkei d’Rebbi Eliezer 31
Genesis 21:16
Jeremiah 31:15
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