Rabbi Daniel Siegel

לשמוע קול שופר

To hear the call of the shofar

On the last day of Machaneh Ayekah, which was the first day of Elul, our Year 10 students sounded the shofar. At Machaneh Krembo, just last week, our Year 8 students sounded the shofar. During Monday tefillot, after birkat hamazon and during Kabbalat Shabbat, our students from all years, Primary and High School, sounded the shofar. We opened this week with our students sounding the shofar during our Rosh HaShanah Grandparents Day celebration.

The sounding of the shofar, from the start of the month of Elul, calls upon us to engage individually and collectively in reflection and introspection, as we prepare for the most sacred days of our Jewish calendar, Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. 

The blessing we recite on sounding the shofar, however, is לשמוע קול שופר “to hear the sound of the shofar”. Accordingly, the mitzvah for us is not to sound the shofar but to hear it. 

But what does this mean? Is one who is “deaf” not able to fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the shofar?

Even more, according to Jewish law, if you are unable to fulfill a certain mitzvah you cannot enable others to fulfill this mitzvah through you. A deaf person, then, could neither fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the shofar nor could he sound it for others to fulfill this mitzvah. 

Does Judaism then preclude a deaf person from hearing the shofar and fulfilling this mitzvah?

There is only one prayer in Judaism that the Rabbis agree can be read in the language that one best understands (though it not be Hebrew). That prayer is the שמע/Shema. For our Jewish tradition, שמע/Shema “Hear”, does not simply mean in an auditory sense, but it means to understand, in one’s heart and mind.

Solomon was considered the wisest of all people because he possessed a לב שומע/lev shome’a, an understanding heart and mind. 

Understandably, then, do our Rabbis say: “If one has mindful intent, he fulfills the mitzvah of hearing the shofar if one does not have mindful intent he does not fulfill this mitzvah.”

If, then, one hears aurally but not mindfully he does not fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the shofar. Conversely, it would seem, one who is aurally deaf but engages mindfully in hearing the shofar, fulfills the mitzvah of hearing the shofar.

Yet we might reasonably ask, together with our tradition, that if we don’t physically experience the shofar being sounded how can we be engaged mindfully, we may not even know it is being sounded?

In many synagogues today, “deaf” congregants embrace the shofar with their hands when it is being sounded. The vibration enters their body, their physical being, while the hearing of mind and heart may then be present, as well.

The “sound” of the shofar calls upon us to consider our past so we can create a better future.

Many of us “hear” the shofar but are deaf to its call.

As we approach Rosh HaShanah, may we work on acquiring a לב שומע\lev shome’a, an understanding heart and mind.

May we be guided by the call of our shofar within even as we hear its voice from without.