12 Sep ROSH HASHANAH: EARNING HASHEM’S MERCY

I once flew to Miami for
one night, to deliver a
talk. I returned to
Brooklyn the next
morning, taking a very
early flight out of Miami.
It was too early to pray Shaharit before the
flight, so I had to pray after I arrived back in
New York.
By the time I got to Brooklyn, it was around
9am. I figured it wouldn’t look right for a
Rabbi to show up at a 9am minyan in a
community synagogue, because people
would not realize that I had just flown in
from Florida, and would be unimpressed that
I am praying so late in the day. I therefore
decided to pray in an Ashkenazic synagogue,
assuming that nobody there would know me.
I was there in the synagogue, and sure
enough, in walks a fellow from our
community, whom I knew.
Oddly enough, the first thought that went
through my mind was, “What’s this guy
doing at such a late minyan?! That isn’t
right!”
The fact that I was at a late minyan was

understandable – I had just flown in from
Miami. But the fact that he was at a late
minyan initially struck me as improper…
We have a natural tendency to look this way
at other people’s behavior. Our initial
reaction is negative and critical. Rather than
think that maybe he was up all night with one
of his children, or maybe he was working
late, or maybe he, like me, just returned from
a trip, did not immediately enter my mind.
This is something to think about as we
approach the judgment of Rosh Hashanah.
The basic mitzvah of shofar on Rosh
Hashanah requires blowing a series of
teru’ah sounds, and a teki’ah sound before
and after each teru’ah. Different opinions
exist as to what the word “teru’ah” really
means, whether the teru’ah is what we call a
teru’ah, what we call a shevarim, or a
combination of both. We therefore blow all
these sounds in order to cover all possibilities.
We can gain deeper insight into the teki’ah
and the teru’ah by looking at the situations in
which these sounds were blown in the Torah.
We read in the Torah that Moshe would blow
a teki’ah in order to assemble the leaders, or

the entire nation, to convey to them Hashem’s
instructions. The teki’ah, a straight, smooth
sound, thus has a positive association. The
teru’ah, however, was blown when it was
time for the people to embark on a journey,
or to go out to war. This sound is thus
associated with fear and uncertainty. Indeed,
the Gemara says that the teru’ah simulates a
crying sound, expressing anxiety and dread.
Taking this one step further, the Rabbis
explain that the smooth teki’ah sound
symbolizes Hashem’s attribute of kindness,
while the “crying” of the teru’ah symbolizes
Hashem’s attribute of strict justice. What we
try to do on Rosh Hashanah is to “surround”
the din (judgment) withchesed (kindness).
Rosh Hashanah is a day of judgment, but we
have the ability to “smother” the judgment
with kindness, to earn Hashem’s grace and
mercy as He judges us. This is the symbolism
of the teru’ah surrounded on both sides by a
teki’ah.
And one way we do that is by judging other
people with grace and mercy. If we are kind
and compassionate in the way we view other
people, then Hashem is kind and
compassionate in the way He views us. But
if we judge other people critically, without

giving them the benefit of the doubt or trying
to understand why they act and speak the
way they do, then this is how Hashem is
going to judge us.
Of course, this takes a good deal of effort,
and a good deal of creativity. We need to
train ourselves to come up with possible
explanations in our mind for why people do
what they do, rather than instinctively
criticizing them. If we make this effort, and
do everything we can to view other people in
a favorable light, then Hashem will view us
in a favorable light, as well, and inscribe us
all in the book of life, health, happiness and
prosperity, along with all Am Yisrael, Amen.