Why is the shofar so important to the Jewish people?
The command to blow the shofar is given in the Torah without explanation, but Rabbis have provided many interpretations to the meaning of the Shofar. Maimonides (Jewish philosopher and physician born in Spain in the 12 century) writes: ” Awake, sleepers from your sleep! Arise, slumberers, from your slumber! Scrutinize your deeds and return to repentance and remember your creator! Those forgetters of the truth in the vanities of time and those who stray all their year in vanity and emptiness which can neither help nor save. Look to your souls, better your ways and deeds. Let each one of you abandon your evil way and your thoughts which are not good.” Hilkhot Teshuvah, chapter 3 The shofar symbolizes the major theme of the Days of Repentance, during which we commemorate the beginning of the world. We try to make a new start within ourselves, and to return to the beginning of the cycle. The shofar, with its powerful and profound calls, removes the obstacles before us and helps us reach th
