💡 Think:

Before Rosh Hashanah, let’s take a step outside.

Outside the tweets, the discourse, the news cycle. .. Outside of it all.

Look around you: The ebb and flow of the seasons, the soft patter of rain and muffled stillness of snow, the seed as it breaks-forth from the earth and stretches heavenwards as it grows into a towering tree. Even the mightiest mountains as they erode and crumble into dust while to stars shine on, seemingly unaffected…

All of these mark the passage of time. And as time spirals out in front of us in a seemingly unending stream, it can fill us with awe.

Yet time is merely a construct: the revelation of All through the lens of whatever was, is and will be, expressed to us in linear form.

On our timeline, we have struggles, we fall through, and we feel stuck.

But on the transcendent plane, that wholeness we have with our Source remains pure and unaffected.

On Rosh Hashanah we connect to that place where no wrong can occur - and then reintegrate it into our lives.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev describes the shofar’s power with a parable:

A king, lost in the woods, found shelter with a simple Jewish man in a cottage. Touched by the man, who took him in as a stranger, dressed him in his clothes and lit a fire for him, the king appointed him as an advisor.

However, after many years, the Jewish man slipped up and, as was keeping with royal law, was sentenced to death.

The king looked at his dear friend and said:

“Though you have angered me, and must die, I will grant you one final request.”

“I ask of you but one thing,” said the Jewish man. “In my room in the palace, I have a box. In the box I have the clothes you and I wore that fateful night. Let us wear those clothes, one last time, before I go.”

And so it was: The King found and donned his hunting clothes - still torn from the brambles when he was lost in the woods. The Jewish man wore his night clothes, with his blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Then, the Jewish man took the blanket off of his shoulders, and put it around the king . . . transporting them back to the moment they met that stormy night.

Crying, embracing, the king removed the decree and freed his friend.

The shofar, heard at Mt. Sinai, is what binds us to our Creator and awakens the remembrance of our initial dedication to the Divine, and the Divine’s dedication to us.

There are layers within this story. The Jewish man was not merely LARPing what once was - nor are we, by blowing the shofar.

Rather we are transcending the boundaries of time and space and touching that infinite moment of purity . . . and bringing it into our lives once more.

🏃 DO:

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⛩️ Shofar + Tashlich on afternoon of this Tuesday, September 7th!

🎧 Listen:

h/t ein-sofist

🎬 Watch:

🕯️ Remember:

In memory of Yitzchak Shaul Ben Azriel

Sabbath by S. Yudovin

📚 Read:

📖 11 Reasons Why We Blow the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah.

🖊️ Don’t miss our new Zine - The ANA10G

🏫 A look at past traumas to better understand the present: Communism, Secularism and Jewish Schools

🐱 The High Holidays Explained in the Language of the Internet: With Cat GIF

🌙 New Moon, New Year, New World A meditation on the meaning of Rosh Hashanah.

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