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Yovel on Yom Kippur –

Alarm to Freedom

Rabbanit Shani Taragin

very year, stories of trepidation and return to our national, religious and soci- on Hashem for our personal and national
anticipation for salvation overwhelm etal roots. freedom.
us as we approach Yom Kippur fol- The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 3:5) and The Chinuch further highlights the role
Elowing forty days of introspection Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 33b) compare of peer pressure as a powerful motivator;
and repentance. Since the outbreak of the and contrast the various instruments when masters hear the shofar blasts of
Yom Kippur War fifty years ago, these sen- and sounds of the shofarot of Tishrei. Most
timents have only deepened. Still flashing Rishonim maintain that on Rosh Hasha- many people, they are called to do the
same as they emancipate their slaves.
before our eyes while we pray are images nah there is a mitzvah to hear the shofar
of young men with tallit-covered heads blasts as a call to teshuva which bring the The cacophonous sounds of the numerous
racing out of shuls throughout the country shofarot echo the dissonance they feel and
to respond to military alarms. This year’s prayers of the nation to Hashem. The force them to reevaluate their personal
Rambam (Sefer HaMitzvot, #137) notes that
commemoration of fifty years since the values as social disruption ensues. Every
Yom Kippur War resonates personally as the mitzvah of shofar on Yom Kippur of a Yovel year, and particularly this one, awak-
Yovel year, however, is a mitzvah of blowing,
I was born just a few months before the ens us to the sounds of our surroundings,
war’s outbreak. incumbent upon every individual: “It is beckoning us to redefine our national
well-known that this shofar blowing for the experiences and respond with humility.
How appropriate it is to commemorate jubilee is only to publicize the emancipation, This message, explains Rav Hirsch (Vay-
the Yovel anniversary of the Yom Kippur and is part of the proclamation mandated kira 25:9) is apparent in the two shofar
War on the day when we traditionally pro- by the verse: ‘And you shall proclaim liberty sounds blown to herald Yovel – the stac-
nounce the beginning of the Yovel – i.e., on in the Land.’ It is not like the shofar blowing cato teruah and the unwavering tekiah:
Yom Kippur! “You shall count off seven weeks of Rosh Hashanah, which is ‘a remembrance “This call is sounded in the Name of G-d by the
of years – seven times seven years – so that before G-d,’ but rather designates the freeing Great Court, which represents the nation as a
the seven weeks of years gives you a total of of servants…” whole; it is then continued by every one of the
forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the horn people and spreads throughout the Land. For it
loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of Regarding Yovel, the Torah mentions the is a call from G-d into the midst of the country.
the month – the Day of Atonement – you shall blowing of the shofar twice, first in the sin- It calls everyone and everything to the Master
have the horn sounded throughout your Land.” gular and then in the plural. The Talmud of all. Its purpose is to release the shackles of
(Vayikra 25:8–9). Seven cycles of counting (Rosh Hashanah 9b) rules that there is a social bondage, in which everything is bound,
shemitta years sensitize us to recognize double obligation; first the court blows teruah. And it restores everything to pristine
Hashem as the owner of the Land, pre- the shofar, then each individual. The Chi- social conditions, tekiah.”
paring ourselves for rebirth in the jubilee nuch (Mitzvah 331) explains that while the
year. Shofar blasts herald the fiftieth year court’s shofar blowing on Yom Kippur of a May this Yovel of the Yom Kippur War
that will transform the status quo. Ances- Yovel year notifies the public, each master awaken, restore and revive brotherhood,
tral lands that have been sold are returned must also blow the shofar individually as unity and humility!
to their initial owners, and all servants a reminder to release his servants. The
are set free. The blowing of the shofar on courts blow the shofar first to recognize
Yom Kippur does not merely proclaim a and proclaim the communal message and
fleeting message to indentured slaves but then each individual master must realize
rejuvenates “all the inhabitants of his limitations and allegiance to G-d and
the Land” for an entire year release his servants. These messages reso-
of deror – liberty, as we nate loudly as we commemorate the Yovel
of the Yom Kippur War. We are reminded
of the sirens of fifty years ago, which like Rabbanit Shani Taragin
is Educational Director of Mizrachi
the shofar blasts of Yovel, and the Director of the Mizrachi-TVA
humbled us after the Lapidot Educators’ Program.
hubris of the Six-Day
War, recognizing
our vulnerabilities A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
mizrachi.org/speakers
and dependence

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