The Auckland Hebrew Congregation

In 1975 Bill Gates defined his goal - A computer on every office desktop and in every home.

And by Yom Kippur 2002, I should like to install in all our houses the latest Repentium chip.

It is amazing how technology advances. My Palm Pilot really carries the whole Siddur - and I can program it to wake me up with Am Yisrael Chai on a Shabbat morning - and automatically scroll the entire service slowly down the screen - without me needing to pick it up, use the stylus or press a single button.

Just last year I was logging into the celestial web-site, heavenly-tribunal.com. Through Oyvey-dafone you can now call the Almighty on local rates. It is only fair that today we use the phone to deliver text messages. For too long, Judaism has had to use books for its Oral tradition! I'm told, though, that in one Yeshiva they still think that SMS stands for Shabbes Morning Service.

Pictures via phone - a recent breakthrough. They call it PXT. It's been banned in the more right wing yeshivot. Of course - Pigst are noxt kosher!

Locally - the shul plans to invest in RoamAD technology. Everyone in the Auckland CBD will soon be able to attend virtual Minyanim on their laptops and pocket pcs without the need for a modem. And apparently, broadband coverahge has nothing to do with the width of your tefillin straps or the stripes on your talles....

Friends - Rosh Hashana has its own high-tech.
Patented 3500 years ago by a Mr Abraham of Ur - the Shofar-phone.

The Shofar-phone started out as mobile - till the ram got caught in the bush. Abraham freed it again. We are told that G-d called Abraham. The Angel of the Lord called Abraham. Now, finally, with his Shofar-phone, Abraham could return the call.

It comes in a number of styles and colours - horn through sleek black... Micro through to Macho. It requires no battery, no need to recharge. There are no electronic parts to fail. Calls through to Heaven are immediate, always taken, even on Yom Tov... The Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps so there is a round the clock help-desk.

If you call through to our operators in the next five minutes we'll throw in free the new Shofar-phone plus upgrade with three distinctive ring tones.

And yet - outside of the Temple in Jerusalem - and despite the fact that the Torah describes Rosh Hashana as Yom Teruah, the day of the blowing of the horn - today, Shabbat - I must set my Shofar to silent.

We all know the cry of the Shofar. We all know the haunting, penetrating notes. Tekiah, Shevarim & Teruah. Indeed, we shall hear them tomorrow. Not today. But this morning, friends, let me introduce you to the latest in Shabbat technology - the voice of the silent Shofar.

The word for a Shofar blast is "Kol" - voice. In this morning's leining G-d tells Abraham - "Listen to the voice of Sarah" - "Tishma bekola." Hagar bemoans her banishment "Ve-tisa et Kola" she lifts her voice. G-d hears the cry of Ishmael. Vayishma' Elokim et kol ha-naar.

In the Haftorah that we just read, Hannah is praying for a child. Her lips move but her voice is not heard - Kola lo yishame-a. And in tomorrow's leining "Mini kolech mibechi" - G-d entreats Rachel to stop weeping and to look forward to the redemption that will come.

In U'netane Tokef, that stirring composition of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz, we shall hear "the great Shofar will be sounded and a still thin sound will be heard." "U-va-shofar gadol yitaka, vekol demama daka yishama."

Kol - the voice is the subliminal theme of Rosh Hashana. It means instruction and prayer, pleading and weeping... the kol can be great, can be still, can be muted - or like Hannah's - can be silent.

The Shofar, we are told, is the call to us to awake, to arise, to repent. The Shofar, we are told, is the unvocalised cry of Israel to G-d. We don't need to find words - just the passion - just the emotion rises instantly to Heaven. Indeed, the mitzvah is to hear the Shofar - not to blow the Shofar. It is a symbol of Abraham's faith, a symbol of G-d's imminence; it is a symbol of our prayers; it is a fanfare as we proclaim G-d as King.

First day Rosh Hashana only falls on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Shabbat - so three days out of four - or seven days of the full Rosh Hashana out of eight - we hear the Teruah of Yom Teruah - and we arise and we awaken and we cry.

While the book of Bemidbar describes Rosh Hashana as Yom Teruah - a day of the blowing of the horn, in Vaykra, Leviticus, the expression is subtly different. In Leviticus, we are told to celebrate Shabbaton Zichron Teruah - a Shabbat of remembrance of the horn. Not so much a blowing, but a recollection.

Without making the sound of the Shofar - we are expected to hear the sound of the Shofar. It is a silent presence - a silent cry, a silent bonding with G-d. The sound is already in our hearts and our minds

If the Shofar is but a symbol of a cry - the G-d who fashions our hearts and our voices and our thoughts can evince the sincere intention to cry - the passion to cry without any need of a symbolic cry. If it is real it can be felt without a sound being made.

"Words, words, words..." chides Eliza Doolittle "there isn't one I haven't heard..."

Words! Words! I'm so sick of words!
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?
Don't talk of stars Burning above; If you're in love,
Show me! Tell me no dreams
Filled with desire. If you're on fire,
Show me!

The zichron terua is privately demonstrative. G-d can perceive the intensity of the passion - though for us, like Eli the high Priest in today's Haftora, when he stands next to Hannah, no voice is heard.

Every year, for the last five years, I have suggested a thought or a meaning for the Shofar when it is sounded - something to hold in your mind - a resolution for the year ahead. This year is no different - for we will blow a full 100 notes on the Shofar tomorrow - and I shall entreat you to pay heed to the cry.

But this year is different - inasmuch as this year I invite you to pay heed to the silent Shofar and to hear its notes with the same clarity and the same definition as the symbolic blasts on the real horn.

The audible Teruah proclaims our relationship with G-d to all in earshot. There is a sense of occasion and of presence. The audible Teruah calls out loud from the Jewish world to the Jewish world - wake up to the covenant, be alert. As much as the symbolic cry reaches G-d - there is a voice that reverberates in our world and lives.

This year, I should like that cry to echo with one public demonstration of Jewish pride and covenant - and that's the Mezuzah. It is a symbol of our relationship that is supposed to be there and is supposed to be seen. And it is sadly missing on so many of our doors.

Though many of us teach our kids to say the Shema morning and evening - when we tell them daily to learn to put a mezuzah on the doorposts and yet we leave our doorposts barren - we are signalling to our kids that our Judaism is empty words, empty promises, a voice lacking in substance. It diminishes our Judaism. It also diminishes us as teachers.

A Jewish house has a mezuzah on every door. Excepting the loos and the cupboards. A mezuzah is a part of the public voice of Judaism that shows our pride in our identity. That we know that we have a place in the world. That that place is our covenant with G-d.

On Rosh Hashana, the day we celebrate G-d as king - we should fly his standard with pride. Not conceal our identity. "I ask but one thing," says King David, "that I may dwell in the Lord's house for ever." It is for us to make our homes a house of G-d - with a mezuzah at the gates - and on the kitchen, dining room, lounge and bedrooms.

The message we send out otherwise is that "G-d is welcome at my front door - but He has no place inside."

If the audible Shofar calls for a public token of affection, today's silent Shofar calls for a real and meaningful relationship that needs no words.

When you are in love, time moves at a different pace. When you are in love, you make time and find time and you seek to know your partner in all his or her ways. Kol Dodi Dofek, says Solomon in Shir Hashirim - "The voice of my beloved is in my heartbeat." Without a sound or tangible presence when you are in love, you can hear the voice and it follows you... and it stirs you to seek it yet more.

Such is ardour.
Shabbat is time out of time - And on Shabbat we must pursue that silent Shofar.

We show our love of G-d by finding the time and making the effort to know Him. You can buy a Jewish book - like I wrote in Kesher - and make that time at home. You can set aside ten minutes a day - or fifteen minutes a week - and read a passage of the bible - I'm actually staggered by how many people in this literate and educated community have never read the scriptures - even in English.

And please - don't hold back - come to the Adult Ed classes on Mondays, when we'll be looking at the Book of Ruth. Or Basic Judaism classes, where this series we'll be looking at Kashrut. From 15 to great-grandparents, observant, interested, or rebellious and heretical - these classes are for you. And you are welcome. Your enquiring minds are welcome. Your questions are welcome. Your ideas and observations are welcome. Members and non-members are welcome. You are welcome!

One way or another - whether you read and buy a book - or you come a class - pursue that silent Shofar. Listen to its voice - Ve-ahavta et Hashem Elokecha - Love the Lord Your G-d - Give Him some time.

I should like to thank this community for a phenomenally challenging - yet rewarding year. I have found tremendous support in my work and my classes - from our President, our Board, and the administration as well as so many of you.

I continue to admire the unstinting, unselfish dedication to Chesed, particularly by the Board of the Chevra Kadisha. We shall all miss David Pezaro - if ever there was a man who made time and gave time, it was he. But from relief and welfare, through visitation and immigration - we have in our community wonderfully special people, who inspire...

Shmaya and Riki will be a very hard act to follow. The interregnum only highlighted how much they had taught and led and entertained. It also saw outstanding volunteers step into the breech, to take on the Bar Mitzvah tuition and the leining. Aron & Nomi have already come in and made their mark - with enthusiasm and drive. I wish them hatzlacha.

Our Community school has been and is in the most excellent hands. Sue Nevezie's stewardship saw excellent management and also the beginning of a restructuring of Jewish studies that will shortly be felt in the curriculum. The new Principal, Jeff Cohen, fills us with eager anticipation - a man of vision, of learning, of charisma and zest. We wish Jeff, Tracy and David a long and fruitful time with us. May Kadimah College grow, grow stronger and mature into a well supported, primary, intermediary and secondary school - a place of excellence.

The public and private work of the Relocation Steering and sub-committees has yielded the most welcome of results. So many strands have been pulled together - different visions, different priorities, different styles... We go into 5763 with the pledges necessary to guarantee us a community centre, a school and a shul. We shall more than replace what we have. We shall have the scope to build and to grow as a community. We go into 5763 with our application for resource consent lodged. We go into 5763 with enthusiasm and with optimism.

As we look forwards to the future of this Jewish community, may we hark back to the voice of our tradition, the voice of our people and the voice of our covenant. A Jewish community centre needs a Jewish community at its centre.

May we be welcoming in our houses. To our friends and our neighbours... To the new immigrants...

May G-d be welcome and His presence felt in all of our houses. May we make time for Him in all of our lives. And may He bless us and our families and our friends with happiness and health in the year ahead. A shana tova u'gemar chatima tova. May we hear the Shofar of redemption, the voice of song and laughter and look forward to peace in Jerusalem and all Israel. Amen.