Heads or Tails?

 

Rosh Hashana literally means "head of the year."

The Bible commands us to sound the ram's horn on this day.

Not coincidentally, the horn extends prominently from the top of the ram's head.

Indeed, Rosh Hashana is the time of Year to use your own Head.

Do not be a tail that follows obsequiously behind the dog that wags it. Don't be a hind to the hound.

Be a head instead. Think for yourself. That's how you will get ahead. That's how we will all get ahead.

That's why we implore G-d to "sound the great shofar for our freedom."

Freedom is only possible when you use your mind. If you blindly follow the herd, you are not free by definition.

When you use your own mind, you will likely face antagonism by those who insist that you follow the herd.

That's why you will need a formidable and prominent horn to fend off herd-enforcing predators.

Be resolute, fearless, and loud.

Be a ram's horn and blast the truth.

Blast it long and hard (tekia).

Blast it with humility & a broken heart (shevarim).

Blast it out and shake up the status quo (teruah).

Shake up the silence and complicity.

Shake up the adversary's narrative which all tails blindly wag to.

Demand truth, accountability, and objective morality.

Sound the shofar of your freedom.

Acknowledge the sovereignty of G-d and none other.

Reject blind subservience to human masters in public and private sectors.

Declare yourself free from pharmaceutical and media overlords.

Cast off your chains of subjugation.

Remember the Torah's timeless words etched in the iconic bell that was rung on the day our nation came into being:

"Proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live on it. It shall be a year of Shofar Blasts for you, and you shall return, each individual to one's own birthright. You shall all return to [what is safest for] one's own family." [1]

Freedom is your birthright. Reclaim it.

Don't ever sacrifice it for the sake of an alleged herd.

Sound your shofar throughout the land and proclaim freedom for all and for each individual.

Blast it a hundred times and more, even if it sounds repetitive.

Blast it out unambiguously and boldly.

Don't hide behind a mask. Don't cower under a tallis.

Don't be an ostrich with your head in the sand.

Take off that mask and show your face. Let your true colors shine.

Stop being a sheep. Be a ram's horn.

Call out to G-d from a place of constriction and He'll answer you with expansiveness. [2]

Cry out from your narrow & constricted world view. Open your mind to accept an expansive and liberating reality, a G-dly reality.

By sounding your shofar, you'll invoke the great shofar that will usher in a time of true freedom, the ingathering of all exiles and ultimate Redemption.

So what will it be for you this Rosh Hashana? Heads or Tails?

"Behold, I placed before you this day good and evil, life and death." Freedom or subjugation.

Choose freedom, "so that you and your children may live." [3]

May we be heads and not tails -- יהי רצון שנהיה לראש ולא לזנב.

Notes:

[1] Leviticus 25:10

[2] Psalms 118:5

[3] Deuteronomy 30:19