The Rambam tells us that the shofar is calling to us, מתרדמתכם ישנים עורו, "Awaken all people who are in a slumber." The call of the shofar – of Rosh Hashanah and Elul – tells us to inspect our deeds and improve our ways.
A talented and popular speaker from Eretz Yisrael organized a trip to kivrei tzaddikim in Poland, and several people from Eretz Yisrael signed up. The trip would begin on a Monday morning in Elul, and they would be returning home by the following Sunday night.
The speaker would speak well, and the audience would be inspired and entertained, but a lot of organizing was still needed for this trip to be a success. Hotels needed to be booked in advance, food for a week's time needed to be prepared or arranged, buses needed to be ordered, and recreational activities and interesting places to visit in addition to kivrei tzaddikim were also part of the itinerary. For many days and nights, this popular speaker was busy with arranging all these details, and on the night before the trip, he was exhausted.
The flight from Eretz Yisrael to Europe was scheduled for 5:00 a.m. The organizer planned to be awake most of the night until someone picked him up to go to the airport at 2:00 a.m. to make last-minute arrangements. At 1:30 a.m., he was finally ready for the trip, so he took out a pen and paper and began planning his first speech.
As planned and on schedule, at 2:00 a.m., the driver arrived at his door to pick him up and take him to the airport, but he didn't hear him knock, and he didn't hear the subsequent phone and bell ringing. He had fallen into a deep sleep, and he didn't wake up until 2:30. At that point, they had to rush to catch the flight. For him to miss the flight would be terrible because, as we wrote, he was in charge of every detail of this trip.
The driver was very anxious and worried that they would miss the flight, and he rebuked the speaker/organizer for falling asleep at this critical time.
The speaker didn't respond. He accepted the humiliation in silence. Anyway, there was no time to respond because he had to quickly gather his bags and get into the car.
In his haste and confusion, he also grabbed a bag of garbage and took it with him, thinking it was part of his luggage. His wife had put it next to the door to be tossed into the garbage bin outside.
At the airport, he placed his bags on a conveyor belt, and when the garbage bag passed through the machine, the machine started beeping. The bag contained empty metal cans of tuna, corn, and so on. The TSA staff opened the suspicious bag, and needless to say, the smell was terrible. There were also screws in the garbage bag, which could be used for creating a bomb.
He was immediately called to the side for questioning. This was the last thing he needed at this hectic time. Fortunately, they quickly realized it was a mistake, and they accepted his explanation that he was rushing and tired and didn't realize what he was taking.
This delay proved to be beneficial for him because they helped him get on the plane in time. Aboard the plane, he decided to put aside the drashah he had halfway prepared, and he told them the story of what happened to him in the few hours before the flight. He explained to the group that this is the lesson of the shofar. The shofar is calling to us to awaken. If we don't heed its call, we will come along with the garbage. (This is what happened to him. He didn't hear the phone and doorbell ring, so he ended up taking along garbage.) But if you wake up in time, you can cleanse yourself from the bad and come to Rosh Hashanah with taharah from aveiros.
A train conductor noticed a fool walking on the tracks. The conductor quickly sounded his horn, but the fool didn't get off the tracks.
The fool said to himself, "The bell sounds hoarse. I remember that last year, the train's bell had a clearer trill." The conductor pulled his bell even louder, and the fool said, "Ah! That's better! He is getting closer to the sound of the bell from last year," but he still didn’t get off the tracks. The end of the story is self-understood. Some listen to the shofar and say, "Last year, the baal tokeya blew nicer tekiyos." They are missing the point. The shofar is telling us to change our ways, and if we don’t realize that, then we miss the message of the shofar.
Reb Shalom Shwadron zt'l told a similar mashal. Someone stopped his car in the middle of the street, leaned back, and began reading the newspaper. The cars started piling up behind him, and they beeped their horns viciously, urging him to drive on. Annoyed by all the noise, he gets out of his car and shouts, "Do you think I don't hear you? Why do you keep on beeping your horns? I heard you already." One wise person responded, "Until you move your car, we will keep beeping our horns. And that you say that you heard us already isn't so. As long as you feel comfortable staying in your place, you don’t understand what our horns tell you."
The shofar is telling us a message, and we must pay attention. This year, we won't be hearing the shofar on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and therefore, it is especially important to listen well to the shofar of Elul.
Reb Shlomo Kluger zt'l said that this is alluded to in the pasuk (Tehillim 81:4) תקעו .חגנו ליום בכסה שופר בחדש We can translate to mean that we should blow shofar בחודש, in the month Elul, חגנו ליום בכסה, when the shofar will be concealed and put away by the yom tov (as it will be this year).
Reb Yerucham zt'l, the mashgiach of Mir, was in a mineral-water health resort, and he overheard a conversation between two yungerleit who had just arrived. One yungerman told his friend, "Let us go to our hotel room and arrange our bags, and then we can go to the springs. We arrived during the hours that the springs are open for use, and if we arrange our room quickly, some time will be left for us to catch some bathing in the water springs before they close for the day." The other replied, "We can organize our bags later. Now the springs are open, so let's take advantage of them."
Reb Yerucham repeated this episode, saying it is a lesson for Elul. People have many things that they need to take care of, but now it's Elul. We should make good use of our time.
