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 דין (judgment) with חסד (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, אמן.