Some of us come to pray, and some of aren't sure what it means to pray. Some of us come to hear the melodies we've heard every year of our lives on this night, and some of us come to hear them for the first time. We come to share sweet wine, apples with honey, and round challas with raisins inside. And some of us come just for the sounding of the shofar. It's the shofar that I want to talk with you about tonight-about what it does, and where it can take us.
Tonight is shabbat.
And traditionally, when Rosh Hashanah falls on shabbat, the shofar isn't sounded. But, being a community that has about equal respect for tradition and innovation, we decided to do it anyway. And it wasn't such a hard decision. We love the sounding of the shofar. The ancient song from the horn of the ram is primitive, plaintive, and piercing.