There is a beautiful custom to blow the Shofar each day during the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah. It gets us into High Holiday mode. You can't just show up to the Olympics without a bit of training first.
So this week, as I blew the Shofar in the hospital for a dear friend, the obvious question was what did the nurses and other patients think of this
strange sound? What is the significance of the Shofar?
There are many reasons; the wailing sound encourages feelings of remorse for past wrongs or missed opportunities. The trumpeting blasts are like royal fanfare at king's coronation, as we once again recommit to our relationship with Hashem. But here's a personal reflection.
When we were kids, my mother of blessed memory taught us to recognize a unique whistle that she had learned from her dad. This became our safety net, a means to connect above the ruckus of our surroundings. Went down the wrong grocery aisle? The whistle would lead us back. Separated on a hike or at our favorite game farm in the Catskills? The familiarity of the whistle guided us back to her soothing presence.
So for me this year, I'll be thinking about how the Shofar is our distinctive signal. While a passerby on the street (or in a hospital hallway) may be wondering about this particular instrument and pattern of sounds, it's really a pretty simple explanation.
We are just finding each other.