A year ends, a new year begins, and the time comes to take stock of the old, the new and all that is in transition. This year, Rosh Hashanah falls even closer to the start of the school year than usual, with only six school days before the High Holy Day season begins. Each year as we start the school-year here at MetroWest Jewish Day School, as in Jewish schools everywhere, we do our best to balance our focus between establishing school routines, and taking out special time to celebrate the High Holy Days. This year, especially, both parents and teachers have been heard doing some kvetching about the challenge of not having a full school-week before mid-October. Transitions can be hard, and the transition into a new school year can be particularly hard when it is drawn out by the High Holy Days.
But the timing of the holidays this year brings with it its own blessings, not the least of which is the synchronicity of the beginning of the school year with the beginning of the Jewish year. Elul, the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah is traditionally a time for cheshbon hanefesh, spiritual accounting. It is a time for taking stock of who we were, and how we acted in the last year, and how those ways of being and behaving served us, our loved ones and our communities. It is a time for looking ahead to the changes we anticipate, hope for, dread or strive for in the year to come, and for taking upon ourselves intentions for who we will be and how we will behave.
I have been struck in the opportunities I have had to do a little cheshbon hanefesh with students of various ages this past week by how natural it feels to be reflecting on these things in the transition into a new school year. The concepts of starting anew, with a clean slate, with lofty intentions, with broader opportunities and with greater wisdom resonate with students as they reflect on how much they’ve grown academically and personally since last year.
The call to introspection of the month of Elul is punctuated by the sound of the shofar blast. There is a tradition to blow shofar each day of the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, reminding us that the holy day is coming, and that we have spiritual work to do before it gets here. Here at MWJDS, this becomes part of our morning assembly routine, with students signing up for a turn to blow shofar for the school. In years when Rosh Hashanah is not so close to the beginning of the school year, there is time for students to think about whether they are ready, to hem and haw, to wait and worry. But this year, with only five days of morning shofar blowing, there was a clamoring of students to get a turn before it was too late. We’ve had three official shofar blowers a day this week!
I am thrilled to see so many of our students’ enthusiasm for blowing shofar, but actually, the mitzvah of shofar is not in the making of the sound, but in the hearing. It has been a joy to see how the school listens intently, cheers each student on and congratulates them with the traditional, “yeshar koach!” (more power to you!) This daily mini-celebration has blessed our community with a start to the school year that is full of energy, initiative, and camaraderie, and has set a beautiful precedent for who we will be as a school community this year.
Shofar is not the only mitzvah that revolves around hearing. The declaration of faith “Shema Yisrael, hear O Israel”, calls us daily to listen to God’s singularity. On Purim the mitzvah is to hear the megilah, and the mitzvah of Torah reading is that the community hear it. Many blessings can be fulfilled by hearing them. The Shofar, however, is unique in that the mitzvah to hear the shofar has no verbal content. What is heard is a pure sound, a sound likened to a cry. We are asked, as we take stock of our past year and anticipate the next, to listen to all that is said without language, to hear each other and to hear the divine in all the myriad modes of communication that are available to us. In a community that celebrates everyone’s individual learning styles, I could think of no better way to kick off a year of learning than by calling our attention to the sound of the Shofar. May we all be blessed in the new year to listen intently to each other, to our children, to the still small voice of that which is beyond our comprehension, and to the piercing tone of the Shofar, calling us to attention. L’shanah Tovah umetukah, wishing you a good and a sweet new year.
Rav Shira Shazeer
*Bonus Material: I often end my music classes with a fun video of the week. Here’s one that I think the parent community might appreciate more than the students:
And here’s one for everyone: