With our K-6 students back on campus, one of my very favorite Wise School traditions has returned yet again. Based on a custom of hearing the shofar during the month of Elul, the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we begin our days here on campus with the blast of the shofar each morning. There is something about seeing the entire student body, along with teachers, administrators, clergy—along with the occasional parent—gathered together in the morning sun that really does, as the shofar is meant to do, stir the soul.
As with many Jewish traditions, there
are many explanations as to why we sound the shofar during Elul. The Torah describes Rosh Hashanah itself as yom teruah, or a day of blasting, but the Torah never mentions the month of Elul specifically. Additionally, most other times that the Torah refers to the shofar or the blasts it makes, it is in reference to the hakhel, the gathering of the community—or more specifically, the army. Rabbi Stewart Weiss suggests that “sounding the shofar in Elul, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, accentuates the importance of coming together as a People.” Furthermore, he writes: “God is more apt to forgive our sins when we pray collectively, rather than individually.”
For so many of us, the sound of the shofar is a visceral one. While not a call to battle, it is a call to community, to prayer, and to reflection. Each morning, as I see our Wise School community gathered, I am reminded of what it means to connect with each other and with our tradition. Here in the dog days of August, the sound reminds me that in just a few weeks, we will be together on our beautiful campus, together in community. Deep in my own spiritual, and practical, preparations for those days—I hope that the sound of the shofar, or the anticipation of it, inspires you towards your own reflections.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer