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Subject: Torah Commentary: Parashat Vayelech - Yom Kippur
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 15:12:50 -0800
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To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
From: "Root & Branch Association, Ltd."
Subject: Torah Commentary: Parashat Vayelech - Commentary on Yom
Kippur and the Weekly Torah Reading for 6 Tishri, 5759 (September 25,
1998) by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Torah Commentary: Parashat Vayelech - Commentary on Yom Kippur and the
Weekly Torah Reading for 6 Tishri, 5759 (September 25, 1998)

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

EFRAT, ISRAEL, September 25, 1998, Root & Branch: The outstanding symbol
of the High Holy Day Period - specifically Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur -
is the ram's horn, or the shofar. The central prayer on Rosh Hashanah is
punctuated by the exultant and plaintive sounds of the shofar, and the great white fast of Yom Kippur
reaches its climactic conclusion to the very same shofar blasts.

Indeed, the very quality - form and length - of the shofar sounds of Rosh
Hashanah are derived from the command to blow the shofar of freedom for all
and the return to familial land lots on the Yom Kippur of the Jubilee Year
- every fiftieth year, when slaves were freed and those who had been forced
to divest themselves of their property would receive the opportunity of a
fresh start with their initial holdings and property.

As the Torah commands: "You shall proclaim with the blast of the horn
(shofar truah) on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the Day of
Atonement shall you make proclamation with the horn throughout the land.
And You shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the
land unto all the inhabitants thereof..." [Leviticus 25:9-10]

It seems to me that if we wish to consider the nature and the symbolism of
the shofar's central role during these ten days of repentance, perhaps the
best place to turn is to the Book of Genesis, where we read about the first
sin committed by humanity (Adam and Eve) and the sound of the Divine which
shattered their complacency.

Placed inside the Garden of Eden with only one commandment, Adam and Eve
prove unable to keep even this solitary command that beseeches them to
refrain from eating from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. The first human beings have sinned - and what transpired in the
Garden of Eden in effect becomes the model for the entire experience of
repentance and atonement. Beyond the thematic parallel between Rosh
Hashanah and the Garden of Eden, we also find linguistic evidence: "And
they heard the voice (kol) of the Lord G-d walking in the garden..."
[Genesis 3:8]

This particular Hebrew word for sound or voice - "kol" - resonates with
another "kol", the sound (kol) of the shofar. Indeed, in his commentary,
the Ibn Ezra includes a number of voices in the Torah that "walk", and it
turns out that one of these walking (holeich) "voices" appears in a context
directly related to a shofar: at Mt. Sinai, just prior to the giving of
the Torah, we read, "the voice (or sound) of the shofar became stronger and
stronger (holeich - literally walked, v'hazek)". [Exodus 19:19]

Furthermore, the "kol" of G-d in the garden looms significant because the
shofar blessing on Rosh Hashanah, which reasonably could have stressed the
"blowing" of the shofar, stresses the sound or voice, "lishmoah kol hashofar," to hear (or
internalize) the sound of the shofar. And Maimonides likewise sees the
shofar as a Divine call: "... Awake, awake, you who sleep... Search your
deeds, return in repentance, remember your creator". [Laws of Repentance 3, 1]

In the garden, Adam and Eve are addressed by this "voice of G-d", after
their transgression just as we are each addressed by a similar voice of G-d
in the guise of the shofar. And what is the sound of the shofar actually
communicating to us? "And the Lord G-d called unto the human being and
said unto him, Where art thou?" [Genesis 3:9]. This is the famous
question, "Ayekah?" Where are you, where do you stand
morally and spiritually, to what place are you directing your efforts?

Clearly G-d knows Adam's physical location, where he is on the corporate
ladder, where he's spending the holidays. But it's Adam's spiritual state
that G-d is addressing, Adam's internal "image of G-d" with whom the G-d
without is seeking to make contact.

And the following set of shofar sounds is our human response - from the
very innermost depths of our being - to the call of the Divine. Now Adam
initially hides from G-d, just as we all hide from an uncomfortable
confrontation with an incisive questioner and we hide behind many physical
objects such as fancy garments and material accoutrements. It's not by
accident that G-d sends Adam into exile (the punishment for his sin) with
garments - and the Hebrew `beged' means to rebel, just as "meil" (coat)
means to steal.

"Clothes make the man," scream Fifth Avenue advertisers. Clothes can
sometimes "cover up" our truest, most godly selves, teaches our Torah! And
so the opening Mishna in the third chapter of Talmud Rosh Hashanah rules
that the ram's horn must be devoid of gold at its mouth-piece, it dare not
have a crack so that it seems to be two shofars, and a sound heard from
deep inside a pit or a cavern which gives off an additional echo is
disqualified. We must respond to the Divine call without the influence
of material wealth without the blandishments of gold or the appearance of
additional substance or volume; we must look at our spiritual place without
the comfort of slaves and extra property - which explains why the basic
sounds of the shofar are derived from Yom Kippur of the Jubilee Year.

Perhaps this is also why our Sages deduce that on Rosh Hashanah we are to
sound the shofar with one-hundred sounds, because of the hundred sobs of
the "mother of Sisera who looked out of the window and moaned (vateyabev)
through the lattice..." Her son, the general pursuing the Israelites, has
just been vanquished, and Deborah the judge
sings a song of victory.

We deduce the shofar sounds from the mother of our arch-enemy? Perhaps
because she has no identity of her own, who is known only as Sisera's
mother, and she feels totally bereft without her famous son. We must
therefore understand that when we
respond to G-d's agonizing question "Where are you", it matters not at all
who our parents are or who our children are; the Divine question cuts
through rank, political affiliation and all physical trappings! We must
answer the Divine only from the depths of our internal beings!

On Yom Kippur we sound the shofar simply dressed in a white kittel, in a
synagogue far removed from the beautiful surroundings of home and family.
We must respond from our truest essence, which is the image of G-d within
us, the Torah that the angel taught us when we were mere foetuses in our
mother's womb.

If we understand the shofar as G-d's call "where are you", and we respond
from the essence of our Divine selves, we will of necessity move to a much
higher place this Yom Kippur.

A Joyous Festival and a Meaningful Fast.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova from Efrat,

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel

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