The expressions of the shofar

RABBI SHMUEL YESHAYAHU

One of the commandments on Rosh Hashanah is that we must blow or hear the shofar (the ram’s horn). But what is the meaning behind the shofar? What do the sounds represent?

There are many reasons given for why we blow the shofar on the Jewish New Year but I’d like to discuss one that is particularly inspiring and connected to our daily life.

During the shofar blowing, we create three different kinds of sounds. The tekiah is one long note. Shevarim is three shorter notes and tru’ah is nine very quick, short notes with a total length equal to the tekiah. We play around with these sounds a lot during the holiday services.

The Torah says that Rosh Hashanah is called Yom Tru’ah. The Talmud states that tru’ah represents our crying. But what kind of crying is it referring to? Although today we call the nine short notes tru’ah, we don’t actually know the exact sound of the original tru’ah. And since we need to hear tru’ah to fulfil the mitzvah, you’ll notice when listening to the shofar that basically all combinations of the three sounds are used, but one recurring theme is that there is always a tekiah before and after the shevarim and tru’ah.

The tekiah is a joyful sound. It represents the crowning of God as king of the universe. Shevarim is a sighing sound and tru’ah, remember, is like crying, like something that is broken.

The tekiah is supposed to remind us that when we were born, and even during childhood, we were complete, innocent and happy. We were born in a perfect state and we were created with amazing potential. But then, after that state of perfection, unfortunately, we entered into a state of shevarim, when things started “breaking.” We experienced conflicts in our lives and something beautiful was broken into pieces. When we get caught up in the complications in our lives, we become, in essence, broken. We see life and death, we have personality conflicts, we make mistakes, we sin.

This is when the tru’ah comes. Nine short notes, with a total length equal to tekiah (the one long note). This represents G-d saying, you need to try to put the pieces back. But you, as a human being, will never be able to put everything back in its exact original place. So tru’ah is the same length as the perfect note but made up of broken pieces. This doesn’t mean G-d doesn’t want us to try. He wants us to overcome struggles and challenges, to take the pieces and glue them back together.

In the end, if you really do try to put the pieces back together, then comes the tekiah gedolah (the very long constant note). G-d helps us blow this note. This is G-d saying: “If you try to fix your life, I will do the long tekiah and put your life back together better than it was before.” After we put in an effort to make things better, the result is greater than the perfection that existed before the breaking and it is greater than what we would be able to reach alone. Through the breaking, the shevarim and tru’ah, something even bigger emerges, the long tekiah.

When G-d created the world, He created Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This means that G-d created us already expecting us to sin. The Kotzker Rebbe explains that G-d doesn’t want or need more angels. By creating humans, He’s creating someone who breaks things and then fixes them. Tru’ah is the power G-d gave us to do things better and to fix things and through that G-d will help purify us and put us on an even higher level than before.

At Jewish weddings, the groom breaks a glass at the end of the chuppah ceremony and people shout “Mazal tov!” There are many reasons for this, but one reason is that the breaking followed by the mazal tovs teaches the new couple that when things are broken into pieces, your first reaction should be “Congratulations!” This moment can be seen as an opportunity to grow something greater than before the break.

The shofar teaches us that our human lives are fixable. Things in life might break but we can put them back together. Then, G-d will do the rest and take us to better places than we ever were before.

Wishing you a great year full of fixing and experiencing G-d’s hand in your life.

Rabbi Shmulik Yeshayahu is head of the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel. He wrote this article with Deena Levenstein, a freelance writer living in Jerusalem. Her website is habitza.com.

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