On Rosh Hashana, we hear the sound of the shofar: the deep cry of the rams horn, infused with the breath of man.
The shofar’s piercing wail cuts through the noise. It forces us to stop in our tracks.
The Shofar’s sound is often described as a “call to action.”
I’d like to propose another perspective.
The call to action comes from the “still, small voice” within us. We cannot hear this voice amidst the noise of the hustle, the clanging and clamoring for success and achievement.
The shofar’s sound is a call to silence. A call to stillness.
It is a call from your soul, inviting you to go within.
The vibration reverberates within us, causing us to turn inward to examine our lives. It creates what the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called “a silence in the soul” that allows us to hear the still, small, voice within.
That voice asks some simple yet deep questions:
- Who are you?
- Where are you?
- Are you fully present, or just here in body only, going through the motions, while your mind is in the past or the future or another place?
- What is your purpose here?
- How are you using this life that you were given?
We pray to be inscribed in the book of life, but we get to choose.
Are you imbuing your life with meaning and purpose, or are you walking around as a hollow shell, numbing out through escapism, living a lifeless life or suffering through a deathless death?
This is the call to action that the shofar catalyzes. It long wail that pierces our core and implores us:
Wake up to who you are. Choose to live a life of meaning and purpose.
as the shofar sounds
hear the still small voice within
you are being called
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