Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on the Rosh Hashana service and the blowing of the shofar.
As we approach the Jewish New Year of 5785, we are faced as usual with the three aspects of the synagogue service: malchiyot, zichronot and shofarot. These translate as sovereignty, overviews and the sounding of the shofar.
What is the role of the sovereign? In his recent book about Queen Elizabeth II, A Voyage around the Queen, Craig Brown offers two contrasting images. To many, the Queen exuded radiance. To eminent paediatrician and psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicott (1896-1971), the prime expert in his day on the relationship between mothers and babies, the Queen was a 'transitional object'. Just like 'the baby with a piece of cloth (or comfort blanket) or teddy bear, she is essential for security and happiness and symbolic of an ever-available mother.' Shades of Paddington Bear, maybe?
In addition, the Queen 'gives rise to a feeling of stability in a country where the political scene is in a state of turmoil as it periodically should be.' And, 'we need the formality, the deference, the dream-come-true paraphernalia.'
All these descriptions and more relate to the feeling of both awe and closeness we feel during the Rosh Hashana service, which this year starts late on October 2.
For Jews another factor plays an important role in the Rosh Hashana service. What are the different sounds made on the shofar that is blown throughout the service on a ram's horn?
The teruah sound reminds us of the siren. Sirens call us to attention as they disrupt our lives. In Israel sirens are ubiquitous, sounding danger, so that we are primed to run immediately to safe rooms and/or barracks, ready for war. The siren is sounded in preparation for battle. 'Siren' is also the name of a best selling short story, compulsory reading on the Israeli school syllabus. The question being, what exactly is the siren for?
To properly heed the sound of the siren blown at Rosh Hashana it must be done not on a trumpet made by man, but on a ram's horn. This reminds us of the ultimate sacrifice made by Abraham when his son Isaac was saved at the last minute by a ram entangled in the undergrowth. The ram replaced Abraham's favourite son in the ultimate sacrifice, just as we need to accept G-d's sovereignty, His radiance,as well as His symbolic role for us as an ever-present parent figure.
At this time of year the shofar also reminds us of the coronation of a new king. At the same time we are crying out to this king. We are broken. We are also however sounding the voice of war as described in Exodus 32. And this is where the siren comes in. Rosh Hashana is above all the the re-creation of the world when the siren is sounded. At this moment the world is turned upside down and G-d is regarded as the Commander in Chief.
Recently the significant northern Israeli towns of Haifa and Nazareth have been hit by rockets from Lebanon and as usual the sirens were sounded. People rushed to their safe rooms. I've worked in both places, which are a good mix ofJews, Christians, Muslims, Druze and Baha'i.
My friend in Haifa was extraordinarily upbeat as she recommended a new book to me when I phoned a couple of days ago. We both remember the 2nd Lebanon War of 2006, the last time Haifa was hit by rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon and the sirens sounded daily. Deaths occurred then as now.
This year there has been too much sorrow and destruction for Rosh Hashana not to take on a very special meaning. Here is where the sounds known as 'overviews' will play such a prominent part.
We'll look over the year since last October and remember all those who were murdered, those who fell in battle and those we knew personally who will never return, from babies to people in their 90s.
My son-in-law has daily been blowing the shofar for the parents of one of the executed young hostages. Now, in addition, he prepares to take the service for the second day of Rosh Hashana, as requested by the Jerusalem community where they are currently living, forcibly displaced from their home in the North.
One can only marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people who are universally hated and despised for all they have achieved and for their heroic resilience in the face of total destruction. Truly we are the 'suffering servant' as depicted in the Book of Isaiah.
At this time of year it is probably overly optimistic to hope for a change of heart in a world that wants to destroy us. But the sound of the siren shofar will give us hope as we remember that G-d will always love and protect His chosen people.
When the rest of the world abandons the Jewish people, we know in our hearts that just as when we were all once helpless babies, our G-d will never abandon us now.
As we cling to Him at this period of prayer and repentance, we know that G-d will always be there for us, and it is this knowledge that will keep us, the Jewish people, going forever, in expectation of what the New Year of 5785 will bring.
