Skip to main content

God’s Friendship for Us

 

The Shofar Expresses God’s Friendship for Us

 

            One of the sounds of the shofar is terua, which may be translated as “friendship.” In keeping with this meaning, a verse states, “The friendship [terua] of the King is with [the nation of Israel]” (Numbers 23:21).

            When we blow the shofar during Elul, we experience God’s friendship. The shofar represents God calling out to us. It is the way in which He declares, “I love you.”

            My rebbe, [?], once said: Imagine two scenarios. In one, as you pass by a window, you hear someone call out, “Help!” In the other, as you pass by a window, you hear a scream.

            The second scenario will move you more, because a scream is primal. It expresses a person’s essence. In speech, the listener has to care about what the speaker is saying, but that is not necessary in the case of a scream.

            During Elul, the shofar is God’s voice calling out to us. It is His outcry: “I am pained because you are not doing everything that you can with your life. I am pained because you are wasting your potential.”

            During Elul, listen to the shofar with the knowledge that it is God’s outcry communicating His concern for us.

By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, n''y

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hoda'ah

  “Were the existence of gratitude and recognition of the good lacking from existence, the human spirit would be left without sparkle or shine.” Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook For the Perplexed of the Generation 4:9     I recently was honored to receive the following email:   Dear Rabbi Weinberg;   I am grateful that both my parents survived Covid in the ICU.   I am grateful that my husband is home, although with oxygen, but no longer on a ventilator.   I am grateful for the Jewish community, of which I am not connected, for food, drivers, shopping, and all sorts of help too much to list.   Someone printed a page from Partners In Prayer and scribbled your email on the bottom. Can you teach me how to pray? Is there a way I can use prayer to express my gratitude? Can I pray without becoming religious?   My husband and I and our children are willing to celebrate Hanukah this year. Is that okay?   My ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Skills- Joy- As A Story

One must perform the Mitzvot with such great joy that one does not even want any heavenly reward for it. He wishes only that God should prepare another mitzvah for him, for he derives pleasure from the mitzvah itself. Through   this one may know what has been decreed for the world, whether the decree have been confirmed or not, and upon whom the evil has been decreed, Heaven forbid. One thus knows how to pray for the world, for after the judgment has been decreed, the righteous must clothe their prayers in the form of stories. One merits all this by performing the mitzvah in great joy derived from the mitzvah itself. This may be merited by praying fervently and with great awe and love. (Likkutei Eitzot, Simcha 2-3)   Question : How can we clothe prayers in the form of stories? Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, n''y
Post a Comment
Read more

TERUMAH-ALL OUR HEARTS

The divine soul of man is transmitted and descends to this world to be clothed in a human body, through the mystery of speech. This is the supernal Breath, regarding which it is written, “And God breathed into man’s nostrils,   a soul of life, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).” Whoever exhales, does so from his innermost being.   It is also written, “For a part of God is His people, Jacob, the cord of His possession (Deuteronomy 32:9).” Jacob is compared to a cord, where one end is bound above, and the other end below. We can learn an important lesson from this simple meaning of the verse, “He breathed into his nostrils.” When a person blows on something, if there is a barrier or an obstruction separating the two, his breath cannot reach that place at all. The same is actually true when there is something separating and intervening between man’s body and the Supernal Breath. Of course, nothing physical or spiritual can actually act as a barrier before God’s Essence ...
Post a Comment
Read more