Monday, September 2, 2019

The shofar is strikingly loud in the conference room, especially since I'm not expecting it. In the month preceding the New Year, some communities blow the ram's horn everyday at the morning service. My boss has decided that, since many of us who gather in the afternoon don't attend services in the morning, he will do it now. He has been holding the shofar inconspicuously throughout the service. At what would usually be the end, he makes a brief announcement that I don't quite understand, then lets loose with the traditional blasts: one long tone, three shorter ones, nine staccato blips, then another, even longer than the first. Its tone hits the resonant frequency of the room and bounces around, even louder than usual, before stopping. We then say one additional psalm, and the leader and mourners recite the Kaddish prayer for the fourth time in the fifteen-minute service. The shofar is supposed to awaken us, at least metaphorically, when it is heard. I have started to doze at the end of the service in the crowded room when the sound rings out. It works.