Rosh Hashana is a time to step back and regain our lost vision. And the call of the Shofar is how we do it. The Rambam states that the message of the Shofar is to “Awaken those who are asleep”. The Rambam’s analogy to sleepashanaHhhhhhhhhRHHH is profound. The dreams we experience in our sleep seem so real at the time, yet the moment we wake up, we realize they were merely allusions.

So to, we often live life in a spiritual slumber. We dream of accumulating material possessions and all the latest Hi-Tech gadgets, and we forget about our true purpose in life. The Shofar is G-d’s call to wake us up, to remember why we are in this world. The shofar calls us to regain our vision, to transcend our daily mundane affairs and return to who we really are. It is a call to our souls to return to the reality of why G-d created us. The Shofar is the alarm clock to the G-dly soul. It calls us to live a life of doing Mitzvot and making the world a better place.

It is significant that Rosh Hashana, the day of Judgement, takes place on the anniversary of the creation of Adam. There is a profound connection between these two aspects of the day. The fact that G-d created the world and the human being means that life has a Divine purpose.

At the heart and soul of Judaism’s world view is that life has an elevated purpose. G-d created each and every one of us to carry out a unique mission, by fulfilling His Mitzvot. People can forget the true purpose of life, and slip into a dream-like world, where trivial matters such as smart phones, assume inflated importance, and spiritual values are forgotten.

The Shofar, with its simple call, awakens us to see the world the way it really is, instead of how it appears when we are in a state of spiritual slumber. G-d has given us the incredible gift of Rosh Hashana to wake us up and reconnect us with whom we are and why we are. Reconnecting with our soul and with our true divine purpose in this world brings with it great joy. This is why Rosh Hashana, though it is a day of judgement and introspection, is also celebrated as a joyous Festival. It is a day in which we celebrate the profound joy of knowing our unique purpose, of renewing our sense of, “that no one can do it my way”.