No Shofar For You!
Tech Tribe Dispatch #214
💡 Think:
We’re in the home stretch - this Shabbat is the final Shabbat of the year, ushering in the final days leading up to Rosh Hashanah, which begins next Friday Night, September 15th. (Join us!)
It gives us a chance to look back at this past year, a year of gathering (from our TWELVEX Talks to the return of the #FirstFridaySociety Shabbat meals!) and growth.
It also prepares us for the new year - a sort of bridge between past and future.
There’s something interesting about Rosh Hashanah this year. You see, I won’t be hearing the shofar on the first day in synagogue. Neither will you … or any other Jew around the world.
Though sounding the shofar is Biblical a mitzvah, the Sages ruled that we should not sound the shofar when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat. The reason, as the Talmud relates,
“All are obligated to sound the shofar on Rosh HaShana, but not all are experts in sounding the shofar. Therefore, the Sages instituted a decree that the shofar should not be sounded on Shabbat, lest one take the shofar in his hand and go to an expert to learn how to sound it or to have him sound it for him, and due to his preoccupation he might carry it four cubits in the public domain, which is a desecration of Shabbat.”
It’s true, the Sages are empowered to "overrule" a Torah precept if their instruction involves restraint from actiom, not a proactive violation of a Biblical commandment. So they can tell us, hey, sit this one out, even when the Torah says to go ahead. But why would they prevent so many Jews around the world from taking part in this precious, powerful mitzvah, just in case someone might potentially make mistake? I mean, how many people have a a shofar, but don’t know how to blow it, and will forget that they can’t carry it on Shabbat, and then bring it to a rabbi?
The Chassidic masters share a powerful insight to the question:
The blast of the shofar is the wordless cry of our collective souls to our Creator. It’s the profound desire we have to connect to the sublime that is too profound, too powerful, to be modulated by words. This call is one that G-d reciprocates in turn, expressing His delight in Creation.
And delight is they key here. Our focus on Rosh Hashanah is to renew our relationship with the infinite Creator, to delight in Him, and he in turn renews his relationship, his delight, with all of reality.
Shabbat is also a time of oneg, delight. The prophets tell us to "call the Shabbat a delight." If so, on Shabbat the delight and desire to continue with our world and with our relationship is already there—no need to blow the shofar to renew it.
Whatever shofar can do? Sitting as a Jew and delighting at the Shabbat experience already accomplishes it.
🏃 DO:
🍎 Join our bespoke Rosh Hashanah meal, Friday, September 15th. Welcome in the Jewish new year with a sumptuous meal.
🐟 Hear the shofar, take part in the tashlich ceremony - join us for our annual Rosh Hashanah experience on Sunday, September 17th at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden!
🌴 Join us either Night One or Night Two of Sukkot for a delicious meal under the stars!
💬 Googlers join Jewglers x Tech Tribe for a pre-Rosh Hashanah schmooze. Thursday, September 14th, check the Jewglers calendar.
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🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 6:59PM
For Shabbat candle-lighting time in your area click here.
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