As we all know, on Rosh Hashanah we blow three different sounds:
תקיעה – a long, straight, unbroken sound;
שברים – three broken sounds;
תרועה – a long series of short, rapid blasts.
The Shelah Ha’kadosh explained the symbolism of these three sounds. The תקיעה represents the fact that we are all born “straight” and unbroken. By nature, we are good and pure, like the simple, straightforward תקיעה. At some point, however, we become “broken.” We make mistakes, we fail, we sin, we slip, we act in a way that we aren’t supposed to act. This state of “brokenness” is represented by the שברים.
The תרועה sounds like a frantic crying sound. It represents our remorse, our pain, our regret, our feelings of repentance when we realize we’ve become broken and we want to get better.
When we sound the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, we begin with a תקיעה, followed by the שברים and תרועה, and we then conclude with a תקיעה. The Shelah explains that we begin pure and pristine, like a תקיעה, and we then go through the process of שברים and תרועה – being broken, and repenting. Through the process of teshuvah, we repair ourselves and end up with a תקיעה – pure and pristine like how we began.
This is why Rosh Hashanah is called in the Torah יום תרועה – the day of the תרועה sound. Although we blow all the different sounds on Rosh Hashanah, the primary sound is the תרועה, the regret, the recognition that we have erred, that we have faults which need to be corrected. This is what we need to focus on.
The pasuk says in Tehillim (89:16), אשרי העם יודעי תרועה – “Fortunate is the nation who knows about the תרועה.” We are fortunate if we understand the message of תרועה, if we are honest and humble enough to recognize that we are broken and that we need to fix ourselves.
There is a natural tendency to assume that whatever we do is, necessarily, correct, and that whatever we think is, necessarily, correct. We don’t like the uncomfortable feeling of acknowledging that we did something wrong, or that the opinion we had was wrong. We have a hard time blowing the תרועה, crying out of remorse, humbly realizing that we aren’t living the way we’re supposed to be living. If we muster the courage and the humility to blow the תרועה, the “cry,” to experience sincere regret, then אשרי העם – we are truly fortunate, because we are then able to grow, become better people, and get closer to Hashem.
If we stubbornly insist that everything we do is right, that we have no need to improve, then we are never going to grow. Growth happens when we sound the תרועה, when we are honest enough to recognize where we’ve gone wrong and what we need to fix.
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, let us all take some time to think honestly and seriously about our behavior. Let us have the strength to admit that we are not always right, that we are far from perfect, that not everything we do is what we’re supposed to do. If we assess our behavior with honesty and humility, then we will truly have a productive Yamim Noraim season, and begin the new year on the right foot, prepared to grow and become better.