"Sound the great shofar toward our liberation" are the opening words of a prayer uttered daily by Jews throughout the world and for thousands of years. Yet, though it appears throughout our liturgy and literature, the shofar is nowhere as prominent as on Rosh Hashanah. Much has been written about the symbolism of the shofar and the meaning of its sounding. Here, we'll explore the Shofar as it appears in a passage from the Book of Judges (Shoftim), in Gideon's battles against the Midianites.
After the unifying, if demanding, period of conquering the land under Yehoshua (Joshua), the tribes go off each to its own area to claim its heritage. Throughout the Book of Judges, which describes the subsequent period, a similar scenario recurs: Lacking the supportive environment of people-wide unity, the people violate the Divine will. As a result they fall under the domination of one of the neighboring idolatrous people, whose rule is oppressive and exploitative. They cry out to G-d for deliverance and G-d's response is to single out a charismatic individual, endowed with the many faculties needed to lead the people. He (or she - Deborah was also a judge) rallies the people under the banner of the G-d of Israel, and they defeat the enemy and know peace and unity until the next dis-integration.
After the victory of Deborah and Barak, the people descended into transgression, and they suffered for years the predatory raids of the Midianites and their allies (foremost among them the Amalekites, the traditional arch-enemies of the people of Israel). Each year Midian would come toward the end of the harvest season, right around Rosh Hashanah, and devastate the land, destroying the harvest and carrying off the livestock. The people were reduced to misery, and they cried out in distress to G-d.
In response, G-d chose Gideon, of the tribe of Menashe. In response to Gideon's doubts as to his fitness to lead Israel, G-d's messenger said, "Go with this strength of yours and redeem Israel." The next time Midian and their allies gathered for their yearly rampage, "the spirit of the Eternal enveloped Gideon, and he sounded the shofar." He rallied first his clan, then his tribe, then the surrounding tribes until he had mustered a considerable force.
The gathered masses of inspired Jews, 22,000 in number, were too numerous for G-d's taste. "You have too many troops with you for Me to deliver Midian into their hands. Israel might claim for themselves the glory due Me, thinking, 'Our own hand has brought us this victory'". Thus, a test was devised. Gideon brought his men to the spring of Ein Harod. Some men brought the water to their mouths with their hands, but most kneeled down and drank directly from the spring. G-d instructed Gideon to take with him only the three hundred who used their hands.
Gideon was still nervous about the outcome, so G-d had him sneak close to the vast Midianite encampment at night, so as to overhear one soldier relating to another his dream: A huge loaf of barley bread whirling through the camp, turning its tents inside out. When the other interpreted the dream as a sign of Gideon's imminent victory at the G-d of Israel's behest, Gideon felt reassured. He returned to the camp, and rallied his men: "He divided the three hundred men into three columns, and equipped every man with a shofar and an empty jar, with a torch in every jar. 'Watch me', he said, 'and do the same. When I get to the outposts of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all those with me sound our shofarot, you too, all around the camp, will sound your shofarot and shout: For the Eternal and for Gideon!'
Gideon and the three hundred men with him arrived at the outposts of the camp, at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries were posted. They sounded the shofarot and exploded the jars that they had with them, and the three columns sounded the shofarot and broke {from the root, shavar} their jars. Holding the torches in their left hands, and the shofarot for the sounding in their right hands, they shouted, 'A sword for the Eternal and for Gideon!" They remained standing where they were, and the entire camp ran and raised a cry {from the root, tara'} …and fled! For when the three hundred shofarot sounded, the Eternal turned every man's sword against his fellow, throughout the camp…
This, then, is the story of Gideon. It is also the source for several laws and customs regarding the shofar and its sounding. From this passage we learn that the shofar is held in the right hand - the hand which normally wields the weapon is now equipped only with a horn the point of which has been removed and rendered a mouthpiece. The seven-fold repetition of shofar and sound rivet our attention to the act of sounding the shofar. The word sound, tekiah, is the extended initial blast of the sets of shofar sounds which have inspired and shaken Jews on Rosh Hashanah for thousands of years. The other two types of blasts - shevarim and teruah - are three short and nine staccato sounds respectively. These also figure in our passage: the change from "exploded" to "broke" gives us shevarim, the cry raised by the Midianites/Amalekites gives us teruah.
Teki'ah, Shevarim-Terua's, Teki'ah - long, short, staccato, long - the sound of the shofar of ages echoes from the lines of the story of Gideon's conquest of fear and the enemy at Rosh Hashanah time. Can we draw the meaning and symbolism of the sounds issuing forth on this holiday from the same passage?
Let us project what we've seen as a metaphon onto the plane of our individual lives: It is Rosh Hashanah time. Hereditary, symbolic enemies sweep down to despoil all we've gained - our forces are in disarray, and the deeply felt unity which is our deliverance is palpably absent. No wonder, since we have for so long failed to cultivate it, failed to address it, cut off relations with the "Person" who is both source and model of all personhood. We long to recover that connection, but … is it real? In Gideon's words (upon hearing G-d's declaration that He is with him): "If the Eternal is with us, why has all this befallen us?"
The remedy to the spiritual malaise and distress in which we are seemingly so deeply mired:
Tekiah! Plant it firm!! The call to gather the scattered masses by inspiring them with visions of oneness. The call to move forward: the Shofar is sounded "the way it grows" - the small point emerging first, growing larger and larger: the shofar sounded is the way of growth.
Shevarim! Break it!! Gideon's men, standing before the masses of, they believe, confidant Midianite soldiers, armed with only sound and light, must shatter the vessels which hide that light, shatter the thick shell of encrusted habit of action and thought, habits which practically invite Amalek, the evil one, by presenting a motionless target for his constant depredations. True, vessels of mind and heart are needed to contain the plenty gushing from the inside of life. But the breaking of the old vessels is the first step in forming a new, more encompassing one.
Teruah! Shout for victory!! At the moment of breakage, that is the time of greatest vulnerability. Should Amalek counterattack, should the Midianites run at Gideon's men, who only by virtue of his confidence and faith have joined this venture, would they stand firm? Whose trembling does that staccato blast represent? The question is held in suspension, as Midian runs, raises the cry (what are they going to do?) and flees!!
Tekiah! Plant it firm. G-d is with us! Our facing down the enemy inside is the presencing of the Eternal, and it has been proven to us that relationship, renewal, self-transcendence are real and there for the taking.
"And the spirit of the Eternal enveloped him, and he sounded the shofar" - as Rosh Hashanah bears down upon us, and our thought are numbed by the enormity of the task of self-reappraisal and reorientation - let us, when we hear the breaking-and-healing sound of the ram's horn, sound that internal shofar, for it is "the way of our growth".
Rav Yehoshua Kahan
|
Rav Yehoshua Kahan is a teacher at Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He has held pulpits in Knoxville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, and served as educational director of Livnot U'Lehibanot. He blogs on Parashat Hashavua here |