Rabbi's Message

Rosh Hashanah is only a few days away (ready or not, here it comes!).  As we approach the new year of 5785, I have been thinking a lot about the shofar. The sound of the shofar comes from the inner breath. In a way, it is a reversal of the breath God breathed into Adam – “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” (Genesis 2:7). The shofar sound releases the breath of God breathed into Adam, breathed into all of us. The 19th-century commentator known as the Sefat Emet explained that by sounding and hearing the shofar, “we can stir the inner voice found in the souls of the Jewish people.” 

A beautiful Jewish legend reinforces this idea. A short apple tree grew beside a tall cedar. Every night, the apple tree looked up and sighed, believing that the stars in the sky were hanging from the branches of its tall friend. The little apple tree lifted its branches heavenward and pleaded, “But where are my stars?”

As time passed, the apple tree grew. Its branches produced leaves, passersby enjoyed its shade, and its apples were delectable. But at night, when it looked to the skies, it still felt discontented and inadequate; other trees had stars, but it did not.

It happened once that a strong wind blew, hurtling apples to the ground. They fell in such a way that they split horizontally instead of vertically. At the very center of each apple was the outline of a star. The apple tree had always possessed stars; it just required a different approach to find them. The inner core had always concealed the celestial.

If this is true for apples, how much more so for us, human beings created in the image of God? Every person has an inner star, an inner spark. Our task is to find the way to ignite the light.

This is one of our important tasks as we enter the High Holy Day season. The shofar invites each of us to ask: “How will I uncover my inner star and bring light to the world in the new year of 5785?” Answering this question requires teshuvah, a process of turning inward in order to turn outward.  

So, as we approach Rosh Hashanah, enjoy an apple, but maybe slice it horizontally and notice the star. And as we stand together next week and hear the blasts of the shofar, may we be inspired to find our own stars as well.
Shabbat Shalom and an early ShanahTova!