The Arvei Nachal brings a beautiful mashal about tekias shofar. There was once a powerful king who had one son who was very dear to him. The king knew that there were people in his kingdom who did not like him and wanted to take his son hostage, so he warned his son never to go outside by himself. He also gave his son some very powerful stones that could break through walls in case he was ever captured.
One day, the prince foolishly decided to take a short walk by himself, and sure enough, he was captured. He was locked in a fortress and guarded day and night. He knew he had the special stones that could break through the walls, but that would not help him much. Even if he broke down a wall, he would fall right into the hands of the guards.
Then he remembered that there was one day each year when the king traveled throughout his entire country. If he could make a hole in the wall just as the king was passing by, the king could save him!
The day finally came. The prince heard the trumpets outside and knew this was his chance. He began throwing his special stones at the wall, but nothing happened. The wall would not budge. He looked into his bag and saw that he had only one stone left!
He burst out crying. With all his strength, he threw that final stone at the wall. This time, it broke through! The king saw his son, rescued him, and finally brought him home.
When we had the Beis Hamikdash, we were close to Hashem in a very open way. But now, in galus, the yetzer hara tries to keep us far from Hashem.
Then comes Rosh Hashana, a special day when Hashem comes close and wants to hear our tefillos. We take out our special stones and try to break through all the barriers that have stopped us from connecting to Hashem during the year. Even then, the yetzer hara tries to get in the way. But when we do teshuva and cry out to Hashem for mercy, we can break through those barriers and run straight into Hashem’s embracing arms!
Story
When the famous Rebbe Reb Heshel of Krakow was a young child, his father found him sitting quietly in a corner, eating the Rosh Hashana seudah before tekias shofar.
His father was surprised. “Hershele! You couldn’t wait until after tekias shofar?”
“Well, Totty,” Hershele answered, “we do so many things on Rosh Hashana to confuse the Satan, so I came up with a great plan! I’ll eat the seudah now. The Satan will think he already missed tekias shofar, and then when we really blow the shofar, he won’t interfere!”
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 98 – Rosh Hashana.