The Shofar

The mitzvah of the shofar, practiced on Rosh Hashanah, teaches us about an inner power that we must plant within ourselves even if there is no intention to actually bring it into practice — a power of self-sacrifice.

A person is commanded to preserve his life. But alongside this preservation there is always the understanding and the knowledge that there is something greater than us in reality — an immense power to which we are entirely nullified. And this knowledge, when it enters on the day of crowning the Holy One, blessed be He — Rosh Hashanah — expresses more than anything the uniqueness of this day. An understanding that we have great powers on one hand, and on the other that everything is subordinate to the might that is greater than us. And this understanding is not in action, but rather in thought, in inner acceptance — in a very deep awareness that influences the whole of our lives, even if it has no practical aspect as every other mitzvah does.