A Call to Majesty: The Mysteries of Shofar and Rosh Hashanah

The Torah does not offer a 'reason' to blow the Shofar; it only says, "It shall be a day of Teru'ah..." Indeed, the deepest intention a person can have while blowing or hearing the Shofar is that they are fulfilling Hashem's will by doing the Mitzvah — nothing more. This is because on the deepest level, since Mitzvos are rooted in the absolute simplicity of Hashem's Unity, there are ultimately no 'reasons' for Mitzvos.

Any reason other than the fact that it is Hashem's will suggests something outside itself, as if when you do one thing you will cause another thing, making the Mitzvah merely a means to an end. In the reality of Divine Oneness, there is no separation between Hashem's will and Hashem, and thus there are no 'reasons' for Mitzvos at all, they simply are. Furthermore, a reason cannot be the original cause of any Mitzvah, as the world is preceded by Hashem's Torah and in fact is created through Hashem's Torah, not the other way around. Having a 'reason' for a Mitzvah, such as 'to refine man' for instance, would suggest that the world precedes the Torah, and that the refinement of man in the world stimulates a 'need' for the Mitzvah to be commanded in the Torah.


Such a Kavanah /Intention is deceptively simple. For, it is, on the surface, not sophisticated intellectually, however it is mentally very deep. The challenge in achieving and maintaining this Kavanah is therefore not in its ideational conception, but in its meditative continuation. The mind, by nature, is restless and wants to grasp at finer and finer threads of discourse, until they dissolve into nothing. A Kavanah, such as the one the Baal Shem Tov suggests, short-circuits the mind's tendency to mindlessly chase its own brilliant tail in the search for unnecessary complexity. To hold onto a single, simple Kavanah that connects us straight to the source of the Mitzvos, Hashem Himself, sidesteps the whole wormhole of thought, leading us straight through the gates of the heart into the garden of our soul.

..."Sound the Shofar on the New Moon, on the appointed time for the day of our festival. For it is a statute (Chok) for Israel, the judgment (Mishpat) of the G-d of Yaakov". The term Chok generally refers to a Mitzvah that is beyond reason, and Mishpat refers to a rational Mitzvah. This verse suggests that the Shofar is both a Chok and a Mishpat;it has both aspects. Shofar is both 'beyond reason' and 'within reason', and we should blow the Shofar having both of these intentions in mind; it is simply the will of Hashem, and it also has incredibly deep and profound 'reasons' behind it.


...Hashem wants us to decipher the Mitzvos according to the unique ways we think, feel and appreciate. In every generation HaKadosh Baruch Hu is 'talking' to us through the interface of the world as it is in that moment. Therefore, the Mitzvos also need to be understood in relevant and even 'contemporary' terms, they need to fit securely into our lives and even our personalities.

In the coming pages we will explore a plethora of profound intentions for the Shofar in some detail; each one of us must aspire to understand and integrate these intentions in the most personal and relevant way. ...In general, there are two primary 'purposes' to blowing the Shofar; to coronate Hashem as King and to awaken us from our spiritual slumber. These two purposes represent the two basic objectives of the Shofar. The 'coronation of the King' invokes an arousal from Above, awakening Hashem's Mercy and Compassion upon His Creation. 'To 'awaken us from spiritual slumber' stimulates an arousal from below, encouraging those who hear the call of the Shofar to more deeply desire a connection with the King.