The Shofar in Three Dimensions

“Three books are opened on Rosh Hashana. One of the righteous, one of the wicked and one of the medium people. The righteous are immediately assigned to life, the wicked immediately to death and the medium people are pending and waiting until the day of atonement.”

(Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashana.)

What is the meaning of this judgment, ask the early commentators, have evil people never lived past Rosh Hashana? Some suggest that this judgement is not played out in this physical world rather there is a judgment about the person's place in the world to come. This option is also difficult to understand. Why should there be an annual discussion about what will happen to a guy after he dies? Why not give the verdict post-mortem?

Moreover what does this description of the the judgement teach us about how to experience Rosh Hashana? How does the knowledge of the divine court translate into our relationship with G-d?

Perhaps these three groups of people are not out there in the world, rather the righteous, wicked and medium all reside in the individual soul. We each have at least a little bit of clarity of mind or a little bit of unwavering conscience. When that part of us is manifest we feel no struggle, we are with the Master of the world and that is it. We also each have a place inside where our ego is tenacious or even tyrannical, and place is seemingly selfish and God-less. And obviously we have that inner place of struggle where the different voices vie for control.

With the blast of the shofar on Rosh Hashana we receive help for each of these inner places.

What is the sound of the shofar? Is it shouting? Crying? Rejoicing? Why do we just listen to the sound and not blow the shofar ourselves?

The verses we say together with the mitzva of shofar begin to reveal meaning of the blasts. We recite verses of Kingship, of Remembrance and of Shofar, and there is a special blessing said following each set. One of the great kabalists writes that the verses of kingship correspond to the medium people, Remembrance to the righteous and shofar to wicked. We will attempt to clarify his words.

1) The Shofar affect the 'wicked' part of ourselves most directly. It awakens and shocks us out of our sad slumber of despair. There is a magic in waking up from a deep sleep, we can allow the sleeping beauty awake while keeping all the ogres asleep.

Besides for being a wake up bugle, the shofar is also a kind of desperate scream or wail. It that wordless primal energy directed towards the most high, using the horn of an animal. We scream so hard that something inside breaks; that obstinate piece of wickedness. We come to the knowledge that its just a parasite steal our mind and body. So then we do not want it anymore and it dissolves like smoke. That what our sages meant that in the judgement of Rosh Hashana the wicked are judged immediately to death. Perhaps it should be better termed euthanasia.

2) For that middle place in us where experience struggle and choice our main focus is the divine kingship. If we feel both sides of a choice with equal intensity, then how can we choose? The answer is that the commitment to the relationship with G-d is what gives us the power. In this context the blowing of the shofar is act of joyous celebration as we declare him our loving king.

['The medium people are pending until the day of atonement.' It is particularly the middle part in us, the part that chooses that requires time. Choice is real when developed and maintained over time. During the Ten days of Return we tell God that we are serious about the relationship.]

3) Then there is the totally righteous part inside. That part connects with the Remembrances. The Remembrances speak of God forever remembering us. It is about the covenant that is unaffected by choice. The mystical soul is not thinking in terms of duality; am I good or am I bad? Rather it is thinking about the Oneness; about us being in Him and Him being in us.

The Shofar of remembrance is not about crying and its not about celebrating, rather it's about listening deeply. We listen to the hidden unity of G-d until we actually see it, just like the Children of Israel's vision of the sounds at the foot of the fiery Mount Sinai.

The shofar transforms our whole person, speaking to the body, mind and spirit, each in its own language. On Rosh Hashana, the day of man's creation, the whole self is elevated, and more broadly the entire community; the holy, the wicked, and the normal.