Rosh Hashanah: A Wake-Up Call | Rabbi Mordechai Alster

As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, we know that the Mitzvah of the day is blowing the Shofar. The Torah itself calls Rosh Hashanah, A Day of Shofar-Sounding. The Rambam in chapter 3 in the Laws of Teshuva says that although the Mitzvah of Shofar Blowing is a Scriptural decree, it has an allusion, a message. Meaning, Awaken, you who are sleeping from your sleep, and you who are slumbering, awaken from your slumber. Wake up from your deep sleep. Examine your deeds, and return in repentance. And look into your actions and do Teshuva. Who are those people that are sleeping? The Rambam explains, Those who forget the truth amid the vanities of the fleeting world. Those that forget the truth in their habits, in the desires, in the Yetzer Haras, in the pressures, in everything that's going on in daily life, those are the people that are asleep. The Shofar is, therefore, a call to Klal Yisroel. Wake up and remember to do Teshuva. The Shofar is not the only Mitzvah that serves as a reminder. Matzah reminds us that we went out of Egypt so quickly that the dough didn't have time to rise. Maror reminds us of the bitterness of Egypt. The Sukkah reminds us that we were surrounded by the Clouds of Glory. Chanukah reminds us of the miracle of the Menorah. And the Mezuzah reminds us of the Oneness of Hashem. In each of these Mitzvos, the reminder contains the message. Matzah didn't rise. Maror is bitter. Sukkah surrounds us. Chanukah is a light. Mezuzah has the Parsha of Krias Shema. But Shofar? Shofar is just a loud sound. Where in the Shofar is there the message of Teshuva? How does one sound convey the Rambam’s entire elaboration and the Rambam’s entire allusion? There was once a man from a large city that visited a farm. He asked the farm workers: What do you do? So he said: In the morning, we clean the stables. In the afternoon, we feed the animals. In the evening, we milk the cows. And between the different jobs, the farmers would sit down to rest under a tree. Sometimes they would even fall asleep. When the time came to do the job, somebody would ring a large bell. All the workers jumped up and each one jumped to their job. The man from the city asked the workers, The bell doesn't tell you what to do. The bell just makes a sound. How do you know each time which job to do? The workers answered, We were born on this farm. We were raised on this farm. Our parents were farmers. Our grandparents were farmers. We know instinctively what we have to do. The bell has one purpose to wake us up. Once we're awake, we know exactly what we have to do. That's the essence of the Shofar. The Shofar doesn't have to tell us to do Teshuva. The Shofar doesn't have to tell us how to be a Yid. All the Shofar has to do is wake us up. Because we’re Yidden, our parents were Yidden, our grandparents were Yidden. We're sons of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Our history stretches back all the way to the Giving of the Torah. It's in our bones. It's in our veins. But sometimes we fall asleep. Sometimes we get so involved in the vanities of this world, in the habits, in the pressures, in all the desires of the time. It makes us fall asleep. All the Shofar has to do is wake us up. Once we're awake, we know exactly how to do Teshuva, we know exactly what we want, we know internally what we have to do. All we need is the Shofar. We need a wake-up call. Therefore, this Rosh Hashanah, when we hear the sound of the Shofar, let us have the proper intention to fulfill the Mitzvah, but let us also think about the allusion of the Rambam and use the Shofar to wake up, to shake off the vanities of this world from ourselves, to shake off the cravings from ourselves, shake off the Yetzer Haras, shake off our desires, and then naturally, we'll gravitate to Torah, we’ll gravitate to Mitzvos, and we’ll naturally gravitate towards the Creator. We have it within us. And through that, we all will merit to be inscribed and sealed for a good year.