The following primary source and commentary is excerpted from the forthcoming anthology Returning Higher: Hasidic Inspiration for the High Holy Day Journey by Aubrey L. Glazer, Or N. Rose, and Maeera Y. Shreiber with Jacob Chatinover and Jonah Mac Gelfand.

Kalonymos Kalman haLevi Epstein, Ma’or VaShemesh, Rosh HaShanah 2

Commentary and Personal Reflection:

Why do we read the story of the birth of Yitzchak on Rosh HaShanah? What does the story of Sarah’s giving birth have to do with the new year? R. Kalonymos Kalman haLevi Epstein of Krokow (1753-1825), known as the Ma’or vaShemesh, addresses this question by finding a hidden meaning in this story: the tale of Sarah’s birthing hints at the spiritual impact of blowing the shofar.

According to kabbalah, repentance–teshuvah– is connected to the realm of Binah. Binah, also known as the ’Imma ‘Ila’ah or “heavenly mother,” is an ethereal womb, the world from which souls, concepts, and all the earthly realms are born. This is a beautiful teaching: teshuvah, repentance, is a kind of birth that makes a person completely new. The sound of the shofar stirs us because it comes from this realm, the realm of birthing. It is a sound without words because this spiritual power cannot be expressed in human language. 

How does the shofar enable this rebirth? The call of the shofar reminds the people of divine judgment. In kabbalah, Binah (understanding / womb of creation) and Gevurah (severity or judgment) both come from the feminine side of the Divine and are strongly connected. It is the fear of judgment, this worry about being separated from the Divine, that is the agent of rebirth. The hearts of human beings tremble as they contemplate judgment. They awaken “from the sleep of time” which is their mundane experience, and reconnect to the Eternal. Because of this, they return in teshuvah.

We might see a connection between Sarah’s birth cries and the birth cries of the heavenly mother, the ’Imma ‘Ila’ah, who births the people anew on Rosh HaShanah. And we might see the response of the people to the shofar as an infant’s instinctive response, turning to the voice of the mother. It is the fear of separation that causes the infant to turn to the parent’s face for reassurance. So too, the encounter with gevurah (judgment or severity, which can also mean separation), causes the people to turn back toward the loving face of the divine, seeking comfort. By engaging in teshuvah, a person enters into the realm of Binah, the maker of souls. Teshuvah is a return to instinctive intimacy with our Creator, and that intimacy allows for the possibility that we will become new again.

The Ma’or vaShemesh continues this imagery, saying that the people's teshuvah causes them to be born into a new spiritual status called leidah or “birth.” They then enter a status called “suckling” (a kabbalistic term that refers to nourishment from higher realms) as if they are day-old innocent babies once more. By implication, this “suckling” status allows them to reconnect to the nurturing powers of their heavenly Mother. 

From there, the people move to the stage of gadlut. The word gadlut is a pun: kabbalah uses the term gadlut to relate to the realm of chesed (love and compassion), Hasidut uses the term gadlut to refer to expanded consciousness, but gadlut can also mean “growth” or “maturity,” as in growing up. In a sense, the shofar is the impetus for Jews not only to be born anew but to grow up into new and kinder adult selves each year. 

Sarah, as the birthing mother in the story, stands in for the realm of Binah, which embodies the power of birth. Her name, according to the Ma’or vaShemesh, is an acronym for “Shofar Rosh HaShanah”— “the shofar of Rosh HaShanah.” Sarah, who gives birth, is the human embodiment of the powers of Binah. The joy and laughter she experiences after her birth is the embodiment of the joy God feels on Rosh HaShanah as Her intention moves from judgment to compassion, in response to the people’s seeking of true connection. This echoes, perhaps, the separation and travail of the infant and parent during the birthing stage of labor, and the relief and catharsis of the parent and infant when the infant is placed in the birthgiver’s arms.  

In this reading of the story, when Sarah says “Everyone who hears will laugh with me,” she is not only referring to her personal human situation, but alluding to those who hear the voice of the shofar. They will be frightened by the powers of judgment, and will return in repentance, thus awakening divine compassion and forgiveness. [5] Sarah’s joy at giving birth is the same as God’s joy in rebirthing a repentant humanity into their new selves. 

In the biblical text, Sarah expostulates: “Who would have said to Avraham that Sarah would suckle children?” The word Mi, or “who,” is identified in the Zohar and throughout kabbalah with Binah, the Divine womb, the feminine transcendent principle, the realm of creation. The Ma’or vaShemesh points out that the numerical value of the letters of the word Mi is fifty (mem=40, yud=10), and Binah is said to have “fifty gates.” (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh HaShanah 21b) So far, the verse is read as “Mi (Binah) will say …” A person who returns to their full self, who makes the journey of repentance, enters into the realm of Binah, which is the primordial creative power, the uterine world of souls. 

Coming into Binah’s realm brings us laughter, for as we are reborn, all judgment on us is annulled, and we enter into the realm of Avraham, who exemplifies chesed or lovingkindness. As Yitzchak is born from Sarah into Avraham’s arms, the soul at Rosh HaShanah is born into the arms of chesed, and a loving, welcoming God. And when Sarah suckles Yitzchak, she is modeling for us how the Divine will nurture us and hold us close, once we are reborn in teshuvah. We will be intrinsically, physically connected to the nourishment of our spiritual source.

Thus the verse is re-understood to mean “Mi (Binah) will say to Avraham (Chesed) that Sarah (Shofar of Rosh HaShanah) will suckle children (cause us to seek Divine nourishment).”

The birth of Yitzchak, in the context of the original Genesis narrative, is a moment of triumph, when Sarah laughs because she has waited so long to birth her own child. The commentary of the Ma’or vaShemesh transforms this story into a divine-human drama, in which God the Mother births us into new selves. The sound of the shofar has no words, because it expresses a primal love and coming-into-being that cannot be described in language.

The cry of the shofar reminds us of our limits, of the heaviness of our past, yet also, paradoxically, awakens us to the possibility that we can return to our Source and find renewal. Birth is not a one-time-only event, but one that can miraculously happen again and again, at any moment that we are willing and able to become new. When we hear the sound of the shofar, we are hearing the sound of the Divine in labor, working to bring us to birth, to welcome us to reconnect to the infinite. 

That is truly a reason for joyful laughter.

Questions for Reflection & Discussion: 

1. How is the process of teshuvah like a process of birth? 

2. How might the experience of hearing the shofar be different if we thought of the sound as the cries of one giving birth?

3. How might our understanding of the High Holidays be impacted by the idea that these are days of birthing?

4. What feelings or images come to mind when you think of “God the Mother”?

Endnotes:

[1] Ps. 81:6. 81:5-6 are central verses of Rosh HaShana, featured in both the Shofarot and Zikhronot sections of Mussaf.

[2] "Harat olam" from the Rosh HaShanah mussaf liturgy, immediately after the blowing of the shofar.

[3] See Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 1:4.

[4] Mishnah Avot 3:14, quoting Deut. 14:1. 

[5] Ed: “Will laugh”, יצחק / yitzchaq, is read both as “laughter, joy” and as Yitzchaq/Isaac, the archetype associated with fear and judgement (Din).