Break Down Those Walls - Rabbi Ori Strum

You're probably wondering, is it actually possible to break a glass with your scream? While it's certainly scientifically possible, it's only really doable under a specific and rare conditions. First of all, your scream needs to be loud enough to match the exact resonant frequency of the glass. At that moment, the energy, meaning the sound waves, begins to transfer into the object. Then, through amplified vibration, the glass begins to wobble and vibrate back and forth. And finally, if the sound is loud enough, the vibrations grow too intense for the brittle material to handle, causing it to shatter. However, realistically speaking, anything thicker than a wine glass, it's not going to actually break when you scream. Interestingly though, during the Jewish people's conquest of Eretz Yisrael, something absolutely incredible took place. Something [music] a lot thicker than a wine glass was broken by sound. When the Jewish people entered into Eretz Yisrael to conquer the land, the first city that they encountered was Yericho. But it was fortified by an impregnable, unbreakable wall. But the Navi describes that this powerful and protective wall actually broke. How? The Navi says that they got up and blew a shofar, the tak'u b'shofros, and the Jewish people shouted, and the walls came crashing down. Throughout the years, so many walls, thick walls, are created. Walls of separation between us and our goals. Walls of division between us and our creator. Walls of chaos and confusion. But the Gemara tells us "Af ilu machitza shel barzel", even a strong iron wall, even a thick wall, doesn't stop us from connecting to our source, from connecting to our creator. From the miraculous story of Yericho, we learn that the shofar teaches us that we [music] can break down any wall, any wall of separation between us and our spiritual goals and aspirations. So, no matter how thick those walls might be, and sometimes they are quite thick, listen to the sound of the shofar and be reminded that all [music] of the walls in your life can come crashing down. And nothing can stop you from connecting to Hashem.