Rosh Hashanah 1st day 5765

Preface 4 הקדמות:

a) שתי נשימות. There are הלכות about how בע"ת should breathe? Why? I would think breath is just way to get שופר to emit sound, the main thing is the sound.
Apparently: the נשימה is part of essence of תקיעה – essentially a נשימה, which שופר converts into sound.

b) שופר של פרה is פסול. Says the Gemara, because לא אקרי קרן – Explains the Ramban, it’s not called a שופר because it’s not hollow. A שופר has to be naturally hollow.

c) לכתחילה של איל – למה תוקעים בשופר של איל כדי להזכיר עקידת יצחק \

d) Finally, last הקדמה, from kabbalah: How does creation begin? What is created first? The first act of creation is צמצום, the creation of חלל ריק, empty space. The first thing to be created is the fabric of empty space, which is arena in which creation takes place.

Take these 4 ideas together – נשימה, has to be hollow, עקידת יצחק, first בריאה is חלל ריק – and something amazing emerges:

RH is moment of בריאה. Each year I explain that on ר"ה creation takes place again. And in particular – בריאה of man, culmination of creation, who was created on that first ר"ה when ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים.

That בריאה is mirrored in שופר – the שופר is also a חלל ריק – be definition, as the Ramban says – into which the breath of life is breathed. And therefore should be שופר של איל, because אדם ממקום כפרתו נברא, אדם was created at מקום המזבח, and our connection to מקום המזבח is through עקידת יצחק.

The basic elements of בריאה – from the first חלל ריק, to the culminating ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים, are contained in the שופר.

Take that further. What was the שם השם that was employed in מעשה בראשית? אלקים. ויאמר אלקים גו'. That is the שם of בריאה.

Said the אריז"ל – the גימטריא of אלקים is 86 - פו. The גימטריא of אלקים in מילוי - i.e. אלף למד הי יוד ממ - is 300 - ש. And the גימטריא of אלקים in ריבוע - i. e. aleph + aleph lamed + aleph lamed hei etc. - is 200 - ר. So ש-ופ-ר consists of aspects of this שם which is the שם of בריאה.

That is the power of תקיע"ש, the reason it fills us with such awe. The whole majesty of creation – is in that sound. When we hear it – we hear – we are allowed to hear the process of בריאה being renewed all around us.

אשרי העם יודעי תרועה – the whole world is being created anew and we are vouchsafed the privilege of hearing the sound. And that is given to us for a reason – so that it can summon us to participate in that renewal by creating ourselves anew, as well.

We allow ourselves through the year to get caught up in the many petty concerns of day to day existence, and to forget the deep meaning and truth that lies like a subterranean ocean beneath our feet. In the press of daily life we forget that life is a precious gift, that it is painfully short, that it is given to us for a purpose, and that purpose challenges us.

The sound of the שופר brings us up short, it brings us face to face with the stark truth that we are created beings – that the בורא עולם has given us a finite time here on earth,, and that we will one day have to return that gift and give an accounting of how we used it.

With every תקיעה שברים תרועה תקיעה we should feel that existence is being given to us, that life is being breathed into us for another year – we hope for a full year, and we should realize that next ר"ה we shall have to give an accounting of how we used it.

As we listen to the שופר, as we hear reverberating in it the echo of בריאה itself, as we receive that breath of life, let us resolve to use that breath of life well, to fill the life we are receiving with תורה and מצוות, with חסד and אהבת ישראל, with עבודה and תפילה, to the best of our ability. Let us resolve to use that life for the greater glory of the One Who gives it, and to walk in His light the sound of Whose might creation reverberates around us – as it says:

אשרי העם יודעי תרועה ה' באור פניך יהלכון