Days of Awe

THIS is my favorite time of year: According to Jewish custom, the Days of Awe, the period and between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, is dedicated to reflection, repentance, renewal.

It is a time both celebratory (the apples and honey that symbolize sweetness and growth, with which we welcome in the New Year) and solemn (the Yom Kippur fast, the piercing sound of the shofar).

For me, the shofar is a homing signal -- calling me back to self and center in ways that are simple, primal, profound.

I am muchly moved by the Arstcroll Rosh Hashanah Machzor’s description:

“It is a primitive instrument, barely capable of modulating its tones or shifting notes. Can anyone play a symphony or even a song on a shofar? No....But it has a symbolism that we can comprehend.

It is like a bugle blowing reveille for a slumbering soul, saying, ‘Wake up, you sleepers, from your sleep, and you slumberers, rouse yourself from your slumber and return to God.’”

It is “the cry from the Jewish heart that says, ‘I belong here,’ and the echoing cry from God’s heart that says, ‘Yes, the door is open.’

It is the instrument that says that when no words are possible, no words are needed.”

Wherever you are, whatever you believe, I hope that the Days of Awe -- which also coincide with the New Moon and the Autumnal Equinox -- usher in an era of health, happiness, peace and prosperity for all.

Here’s wishing you goodness and gladness beyond words and measure. May these be the times that you treasure!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit and The Senses Bureau