Shofar: Soundscape of Repair

Friday September 12, 2025/ 19 Elul 5785/Parshat Ki Tavo

Hevre/Friends,

My close friend and master Jewish educator, the late Rachel Brodie, z”l, taught about the sounding of the shofar as part of the spiritual soundscape necessary for human wellbeing, much like in nature the soundscape of animal communication, whether a mating call or an alert to danger, is essential to their ability to survive and thrive.  

The acoustics of this time in the Hebrew calendar are unique and powerful. During the entire month of Elul preceding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur the shofar is blown each weekday morning, inviting us into deeper introspection as we prepare for the Days of Awe and the journey of return and renewal we call Teshuvah. 

My late grandfather, Rabbi Mendell Lewittes, z”l, reflected on the power of the shofar and specifically on the three distinct sounds we produce with the shofar - tekiah, shevarim, teruah -  for how they call us all to live more loving and compassionate relationships with one another. They also echo timeless, much-needed wisdom as we navigate our dangerously broken world - as human beings and as Jews.

The first sound we hear from the shofar is the tekiah:  a long, steady, unbroken note. While most commentators explain how the powerful tekiah is designed to shatter the complacency of our lives, it can also be heard as an inspiring expression of the long, steady, unbroken existence of the Jewish people. At a time when we fear for our future from both internal and external threates, this uninterrupted note is a reminder of our long history and our long destiny ahead. 

The next sound of the shofar is the three-part sound of shevarim which can be heard as an echo of the diversity of the Jewish people. The shevarim note calls us to honor, celebrate and protect our differences which distinguish and strengthen us as a people. It calls us to cultivate within ourselves, in my grandfather’s words,  “ahavat yisrael, a feeling of kinship with every Jew, no matter their circumstances, no matter their personal manner of expressing their Jewishness, no matter their beliefs; provided they believe in the right of the Jewish people to survive as a nation and to flourish as a cultural entity.”  This call of the shevarim to recognize and respect differences in one another as we strive to build strong and vital bonds is as critical for intimate relationships as it is for communal ones. The measure of love, after all, isn’t our willingness to live in someone else’s image or our ability to coax them to emulate our own. Rather, the measure of love is our capacity to hold our own and each other’s truths in a single embrace. While this is a particularly challenging time to hear the message of the shevarim as Israeli society fractures and the Jewish diaspora battles over which are legitimate Jewish ideas and which are not, it is especially urgent that we strain to listen.

The third sound of the shofar is the teruah, the staccato succession of notes in which the Sages heard an echo of someone crying. These notes are meant to stir in us compassion for those who are suffering, to listen for their pain even when it defies words, to hear their cries even when we can’t - or won’t - listen to their stories - and then to respond as best we can. 

The sounding of the shofar isn’t complete without one more final tekiah - one more long, unbroken, steady and unflinching burst of sound. To many this is the clarion call of the prophetic vision of peace and justice in the world, the call of redemption for all of humanity. This final note is meant to ensure our steadfast optimism and conviction that we can and will heal our fractured world, that our actions can affect change, that tikkun/repair is possible. 

For individuals and for communities, the vigorous extra long tekiah that concludes the shofar ritual is our primal and visceral declaration that despite the inevitable challenges life brings, we relentlessly believe that brokenness will yield to wholeness, that darkness will yield to light, that sadness will yield to joy, and that love - human and divine - will carry us forward. May it be so.

With continued prayers for our ability to bring home all the hostages, protect the soldiers, heal the injured, comfort the bereaved, and build a lasting peace in Israel and around the world, and with blessings for a Shabbat Shalom,

Dini

(Photo by Ronen Avisror)