“The teru’ah which the Torah mentions … — we do not know what it is: whether it resembles the wailing with which the women cry when they moan, or the sighs which a person who is distressed about a major matter will release repeatedly, or perhaps a combination of the two. They are called teru’ah, because a distressed person tends to sigh and then sob. Therefore, we fulfill all [these possibilities in our blowing of the shofar].” – Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Shofar, Sukkah, and Lulav 3:2.
As the year 5784 comes to a close, with the Jobian news it has been bringing us since it began, there will be those who will indeed hear among the sounds of the shofar those sobs of grief and loss, of brokenness, the sounds of groaning and fear. Let us hope that this year the sound of the shofar will bring with it also the sound of mutual support, faith, and hope. May there be 101 blasts of teqi‘ah shevarim–teru‘ah, one for each of our sisters and brothers given over to confinement and captivity, that they might soon return home. As a popular song reminds us, “we need nothing more than that.”
