Can We Cry?

Dear Friends,

The new year is approaching! One of the central symbols of the holiday is the shofar, the rams horn, emitting its wailing cries, the possibility of their wordless meaning is infinite. There is so much for us to put into tears and cries, and sometimes we need just that, a wordless melody, something vast to give expression to everything within us incapable of being wrapped to language.

The shofar is a reminder to us that we stop up our ears. We inhibit ourselves from hearing painful truths. The waking up to systemic racism in the past months has been a mighty shofar for American society. We like to think our ears are wide open -- clearly they are not. The practice of the new year, learning to listen to the deep cry of the shofar, is an annual check-up for the inner ear.

The Baal Shem Tov tells a parable of a child who travelled far away, and stayed far from home. Upon returning the child had forgotten her language, couldn’t even converse with the townspeople to find her parents and her home. So she sat in the market and began to wail. And her parents recognized her from the sound of her cries and brought her home.

The way in which we cry is the source and truth carried within all of our words. Can we cry? Can we hear the cry of others?

Wishing you a sweet new year!

Rabbi Zach