This piece is part of Exploring Judaism’s 5785 High Holiday Reader. Download the whole reader here.
The shofar is a clarion call to alertness and action. Its piercing notes awaken us from the slumber of our lives, penetrating our souls and jarring our individual and collective complacency. Its prophetic cry demands that we move from disinterest and powerlessness to transformative action.
On this Rosh Hashanah, less than a month before America’s national elections, may the shofar also shatter our apathy towards civic engagement. May the strong and powerful t’kiya blast awaken us to our moral responsibility to vote. May the mournful, broken sh’varim notes inspire us to support our besieged civic infrastructure by serving as poll workers on election day.
May the staccato, rapid t’ruah sounds remind us how many citizens are at risk of disenfranchisement and compel us to help others exercise their right to vote through outreach to low-propensity voters, through combating misinformation campaigns, and through condemnation of racist, sexist, anti-semitic, or other derogatory statements made about candidates.
The blessing we recite before the shofar is blown on Rosh Hashanah commands each of us to heed the call of the shofar. To listen, intently, to its righteous sound. This year, what will be heard? Can we pause from talking within our siloed-off circles long enough to discern the pangs of our beleaguered democratic norms?
There is so much that we can do to make a difference. As Rabbi Tarfon famously stated in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Ancestors) 2:16: “You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” If we heed the shofar’s urgent call and break free of our indifferent, lackadaisical shackles, each of us can declare hineni–here I am–and take direct, non-partisan action to repair our frayed civic institutions.
May the shofar blasts this Rosh Hashanah become our catalysts for demanding “freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants” (Leviticus 25:10), inspiring us to civic participation and the preservation of our democracy.
