The three books are opened in heaven. When the shofar sounds one hundred times, it blows open the gates of heaven. When the shofar sounds one hundred times, it forms a bridge between heaven and earth, and we enter heaven on that bridge. When the shofar blows one hundred times, it cracks the shell of our awareness wide open, and suddenly we find ourselves in heaven. When the shofar blows one hundred times, we hear the voice of heaven in it. We experience Revelation. God's voice comes down to earth on the same bridge we used to go up to heaven. [...]
We are completely unprepared for this. We don't know how to do Teshuvah. We are incapable of transforming ourselves.
For this, we need to enter a realm beyond the one we usually occupy, a consciousness beyond our own. For this, we need the limitless, the endless, the incomprehensible, the measureless, the mysterious. In short, we need heaven. This is where Rosh Hashanah carries us."
pp 113, 115
There is a void at the beginning of creation and a void afterward. Life is the narrow bridge between these two emptinesses. Usually all our focus is on the narrow bridge of our own life, rather than on what comes before or after. In its accounts of both the death of Moses and the creation of the universe, the Torah focuses our attention instead on the void. [...]
Like the Torah, Sherril focused not on the events of this world, bot on birth and not on death, but on the void in between, and she found this nothingness to be a wild, fecund place, a place we don't notice in our fascination with the world of things and numbers. The Kabala also points to a wild and fecund nothingness at the core of existence. According to the Kabala, before creation there was nothing but heaven. God existed as the Ain Sof, the Endlessness, an emptiness so charged, so powerful, that nothing could coexist with it. [...]
The Torah has another word for this nothingness which also permeates the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, and that is the word kadosh, or holy. [...]
Holiness is an all-encompassing emptiness. In short, holiness is heaven. And Rosh Hashanah is about our connection to heaven."
pp 116-7, 121-2
(כד) דַּבֵּ֛ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר בַּחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜י בְּאֶחָ֣ד לַחֹ֗דֶשׁ יִהְיֶ֤ה לָכֶם֙ שַׁבָּת֔וֹן זִכְר֥וֹן תְּרוּעָ֖ה מִקְרָא־קֹֽדֶשׁ׃
(24) Speak to the Children of Israel, saying:
On the seventh New-Moon, on (day) one of the New-Moon,
you are to have Sabbath-ceasing,
a reminder by (horn-)blasting (teru'ah), a proclamation of holiness."
(א) וּבַחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜י בְּאֶחָ֣ד לַחֹ֗דֶשׁ מִֽקְרָא־קֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם כָּל־מְלֶ֥אכֶת עֲבֹדָ֖ה לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֑וּ י֥וֹם תְּרוּעָ֖ה יִהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶֽם׃
(1) And in the seventh New-Moon, on (day) one of the New-Moon, a proclamation of holiness there is to be for you,
any-kind of servile work you are not to do. A day of (horn-)blasts (teru'ah) it is to be for you.
As you read these sources, consider how the shofar is being used or evoked -- what is it supposed to convey? What would the effect of hearing it have been?
The first source is about the Jubilee (Yovel) year, a Biblical institution in which every 50th year was observed as a year of release and freedom. In this year, all land was returned to its original owners and indentured servants were freed. Also, as with every 7th year, the land lay fallow and debts were forgiven (another version has servants freed every 7th year as well, not only every 50th year).
Where in American history is this passage evoked?
(ח) וְסָפַרְתָּ֣ לְךָ֗ שֶׁ֚בַע שַׁבְּתֹ֣ת שָׁנִ֔ים שֶׁ֥בַע שָׁנִ֖ים שֶׁ֣בַע פְּעָמִ֑ים וְהָי֣וּ לְךָ֗ יְמֵי֙ שֶׁ֚בַע שַׁבְּתֹ֣ת הַשָּׁנִ֔ים תֵּ֥שַׁע וְאַרְבָּעִ֖ים שָׁנָֽה׃ (ט) וְהַֽעֲבַרְתָּ֞ שׁוֹפַ֤ר תְּרוּעָה֙ בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִעִ֔י בֶּעָשׂ֖וֹר לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ בְּיוֹם֙ הַכִּפֻּרִ֔ים תַּעֲבִ֥ירוּ שׁוֹפָ֖ר בְּכָל־אַרְצְכֶֽם׃ (י) וְקִדַּשְׁתֶּ֗ם אֵ֣ת שְׁנַ֤ת הַחֲמִשִּׁים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וּקְרָאתֶ֥ם דְּר֛וֹר בָּאָ֖רֶץ לְכָל־יֹשְׁבֶ֑יהָ יוֹבֵ֥ל הִוא֙ תִּהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם וְשַׁבְתֶּ֗ם אִ֚ישׁ אֶל־אֲחֻזָּת֔וֹ וְאִ֥ישׁ אֶל־מִשְׁפַּחְתּ֖וֹ תָּשֻֽׁבוּ׃
(8) And you are to number yourselves seven Sabbath-cycles of years -- seven years, seven times --
so the time of the seven Sabbath-cycles of years will be for you (a total of) nine and forty years.
Then you are to give-forth (on the) shofar a blast (teru'ah),
in the seventh New-Moon, on the tenth after the New-Moon, on the Day of Atonement (Yom HaKippurim),
you are to give(-blast on the) shofar throughout all your land.
You are to hallow the year, the fiftieth year,
proclaiming freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants;
it shall be Homebringing for you,
you are to return, each-man to his holding,
each-man to his clan you are to return."
On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud voice of the shofar; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for YHWH had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The voice of the shofar grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder. YHWH came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and YHWH called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.
(א) הַ֥לְלוּ יָ֨הּ ׀ הַֽלְלוּ־אֵ֥ל בְּקָדְשׁ֑וֹ הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ בִּרְקִ֥יעַ עֻזּֽוֹ׃ (ב) הַֽלְל֥וּהוּ בִגְבוּרֹתָ֑יו הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ כְּרֹ֣ב גֻּדְלֽוֹ׃ (ג) הַֽ֭לְלוּהוּ בְּתֵ֣קַע שׁוֹפָ֑ר הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ בְּנֵ֣בֶל וְכִנּֽוֹר׃ (ד) הַֽ֭לְלוּהוּ בְתֹ֣ף וּמָח֑וֹל הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ בְּמִנִּ֥ים וְעוּגָֽב׃ (ה) הַֽלְל֥וּהוּ בְצִלְצְלֵי־שָׁ֑מַע הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ בְּֽצִלְצְלֵ֥י תְרוּעָֽה׃ (ו) כֹּ֣ל הַ֭נְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּ֥ל יָ֗הּ הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃
(1) HalleluYah/Praise Yah. Praise God in God's sanctuary; praise God in the sky, God's stronghold. (2) Praise God for God's mighty acts; praise God for God's exceeding greatness. (3) Praise God with the shofar blowing; praise God with harp and lyre. (4) Praise God with timbrel and dance; praise God with lute and pipe. (5) Praise God with resounding cymbals; praise God with loud-clashing cymbals. (6) Let all that breathes praise Yah. HalleluYah/Praise Yah.
(כח) בְּעַד֩ הַחַלּ֨וֹן נִשְׁקְפָ֧ה וַתְּיַבֵּ֛ב אֵ֥ם סִֽיסְרָ֖א בְּעַ֣ד הָֽאֶשְׁנָ֑ב מַדּ֗וּעַ בֹּשֵׁ֤שׁ רִכְבּוֹ֙ לָב֔וֹא מַדּ֣וּעַ אֶֽחֱר֔וּ פַּעֲמֵ֖י מַרְכְּבוֹתָֽיו׃
(28) Through the window peered Sisera’s mother, Behind the lattice she wailed: “Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why so late the clatter of his wheels?”
אמר אביי בהא ודאי פליגי דכתיב (במדבר כט, א) יום תרועה יהיה לכם ומתרגמינן יום יבבא יהא לכון וכתיב באימיה דסיסרא (שופטים ה, כח) בעד החלון נשקפה ותיבב אם סיסרא מר סבר גנוחי גנח ומר סבר ילולי יליל
As it is written: “A day of (horn-)blasts (teru'ah) it is to be for you.” (Numbers 29:1), and we translate this verse in Aramaic as: A day of yevava it is to be to you. And to define a yevava, the Gemara quotes a verse that is written about the mother of Sisera: “Through the window she looked forth and wailed [vateyabev], the mother of Sisera” (Judges 5:28). One Sage, holds that this means moanings, broken sighs, as in the blasts called shevarim. And one Sage, holds that it means whimpers, as in the short blasts called teru'ot.
"There is a hint at the 100 (shofar) voices that we blow on Rosh HaShanah in what it says in Midrash Tanchuma on Parashat Tazria 4, where it says "the woman cries 100 cries... when she crouches on the birthing stool: 99 for (fear that she will meet her) death and one for (joy, know that she and the baby will continue in) life." And [on] the Day The World Is Born (Rosh HaShanah), as the Earth and its fullness, as it were, are crouching on the birthing stool, (not knowing) whether it will be for loving-kindness/mercy or for judgment, we blow 100 voices (on the shofar)."