High Holidays are in the air - Just check out D Street on you next cross town journey. Seasonal flowers blooming. Time to start tuning my trusty Shofar.
But what is the Shofar telling us? It reminds me of a story.
A village boy on his first visit to the Market in the big city. He is taking in teh sights and smells, when all of the sudden he hears the blast of bugle. He looks up to see a fellow up in the clock tower blowing the bugle with all his might. There's a fire in the town, and he's sounding the alarm.
Immediately the vendors and townsfolk drop what their wares, pick up pails, and form an efficient line from the lake to the fire, and in a matter of minutes the last embers are doused and a neighborhood destroying crisis is averted.
Our young boy is mesmerized and decides to bring this gem of an idea back home with him. He purchases a second-hand-only-a-little-rusty bugle from the instrument vendor, and heads back home whistling a happy tune.
He confidently tells everyone that he has discovered the best and newest of firefighting skills while on his world travels, and their village will now be safe. Leave it up to him.
So the next time a fire breaks out, everyone is waiting to see what magic tricks our young hero has up his sleeve.
He pulls his bugle from his valise and runs up the hill to the highest spot and triumphantly begins blowing. The fire is spreading. He blows and blows until he's blue in the face, and the flames rage on without care for the sad, dejected notes emanating from his now-polished fire chasing noise device.
Of course, without knowing what the message of the sound was, without understanding the urgency of its call, and the procedures that should ensue, the bugle was just meaningless noise.
So as we approach Rosh Hashanah, let's pause and think. What does the sound of the Shofar mean to you?