Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- The High Holidays
- The Month of Elul
Answer:
1) After Israel sinned with the golden calf, Moshe spent 40 days pleading for our forgiveness. Then he ascended Har Sinai once again for another 40 days, after which he descended with the 2nd Luchot. This ascent, which began on 1 Elul & lasted until Yom Kippur, was accompanied by shofar blasts. To commemorate this, we blow the shofar during Elul, ending on Yom Kippur, 40 days later, with a final, dramatic shofar-blowing.
2) The soul-stirring shofar blasts are a kind of spiritual wake-up call to inspire us to come closer to G-d, as we read, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? (Amos 3:6).
3) The shofar, or trumpets, were customarily sounded whenever the Jewish community was called together (e.g. Hakhel, or times of war). Sounding the shofar in Elul, in advance of Rosh Hashana, accentuates the importance of coming together as a People. G-d is more apt to forgive our sins when we pray to Him collectively, rather than individually.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss
Was ordained at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, and led congregations in Chicago and Dallas prior to making Aliyah in 1992. He directs the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra'anana, helping to facilitate the spiritual absorption of new olim.
Jewish Laws and Thoughts Shul “etiquette:” can we honor Hashem while respecting our fellow congregants?
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
