Uncategorized18 Sep 2009 10:02 am - כט טבת תרס
Annulment of Vows – Hatarat Nedarim
Annulment of our vows this morning Erev Rosh Hashanah.
September 2009 - אלול תשסט / תשרי תשע
Uncategorized17 Sep 2009 07:43 pm - כט טבת תרס
Rosh Hashanah 5770
Rabbi David Lapin, iawaken.org
When Poskim (Halachik authorities) have a safek (doubt) about the correct interpretation of a law, there are various formulas by which to resolve it. It is unusual that the Poskim decide to accept all possible interpretations requiring us to practice the law in all of its permutations. Yet in determining the required sounds from the shofar, this is precisely what they have done.
The Torah makes reference to Rosh Hashannah as a Yom Teruah. Teruah is clearly the musical sound produced by a wind instrument. Elsewhere when the Torah talks of the sounds to be blown on the Yom Kippur of the Yoveil year, it refers to a Shofar Teruah implying that the instrument to be used to create the Teruah sound is a Shofar. But what are these musical notes called a Teruah? What does a teruah sound like?
Unkelos translates teruah as yevvava, a cry. So now we know the sound to be made by the shofar is a crying sound. This still leaves us in doubt, because there are two distinct sounds of crying: one can sob and one can wail. Since we have no clear indication which of these two sounds the teruah is, the gemarra decided that we should blow all permutations: a) a wail, that we call shevarim; b) a sob, that we call teruah; and c) a combination of both that we call shevarim-teruah. The gemarra also learns that before and after every teruah (in its different forms) there should be a long unbroken sound of the tekiah.
We use all permutations because the cry of Rosh Hashanah is not just one cry, it is a process of crying in all its evolving forms. It starts with a confident and optimistic cry of triumph, the tekiah. Then it moves into the wail of the shevarim, and breaks into the heartfelt sob of the teruah. It ends with the combination shevarim-teruah. Each cry is preceded and followed by the triumphant tekiah. If we hear these sounds in the right order and in the 100 different phrases determined for each day of Rosh Hashannah, we have technically filled the Torah’s commandment to listen to the Shofar.
Uncategorized17 Sep 2009 01:24 pm - כט טבת תרס
Our esteemed Mr Paul Appleby who has blown the Shofar for us for the entire month of Elul.
Uncategorized13 Sep 2009 09:32 am - כט טבת תרס
