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.
Rabbis in Midrash
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
