Rosh Hashana Meditation Series PART 3: BIRTHING

Rosh Hashana Meditation Series PART 3: BIRTHING

BASED ON TEACHINGS BY RAV DOVBER PINSON & RAV GINSBURGH

A shofar with its narrow mouthpiece and wider opening resembles a birth canal. Shifra was the midwife to the Jewish people. Her name means “to make beautiful,” because she would ensure babies were healthy, loved, and cared for. Shifra is composed of the same Hebrew letters as “Shofar”. 

The shofar is the midwife of the new year. We squeeze our deep prayers into the mouthpiece, and out emerges a piercing cry. The shofar allows new energies to enter our world and new life to birth. Kabbalah says that every year before the blowing of the shofar,  there is a great cosmic inhale, and then a retention. Then at the blowing of the shofar, finally a great deep exhale emerges and fills the cosmic void with new energy and divine light that has never existed before. Every moment, according to Kabbalah, the world fluctuates between 2 states of being: AYIN, and YESH. AYIN is nothingness, a totally nonbeing. YESH is being, existence. So every moment there is a mini “Rosh Hashana”, the world is being continually recreated at every moment. Rosh Hashana is the ULTIMATE renewal. 

Rav Dovber Pinson teaches that everything is rooted in the Name of G-d, and when we blow the Shofar we are the agents to bring down G-d’s light into this world. Using our breath, we are filling the empty space of creation with renewed light and blessings. The ritual of blowing the Shofar mirrors the four letters of the name of G-d: yud, heh, vav, and heh. 

Yud’ is the small opening of the mouth that blows

‘Heh’ is the inhale, the expansive, widening breath.

‘Vav’ is the reverberating, transcendent sound

‘Final Heh’ is the deep exhale

To prepare for this great cosmic exhale, let’s use our breath for renewal: 

Practice

Blink the eyes closed, and here we find perfection. The perfect world underneath the cloak of the eyelids. Start to bring your awareness to your breath; filling up with each inhale, deepening with every exhale. 

The essence of Rosh Hashana is the power of renewal ..and this power of renewal fluctuates constantly from the point of ayin, the state of non-being, to yesh, a state of being. Entering into our breath, we are tapping into the recreation of being at every moment. Breathing is awakening to this flow of life, the life that moves from ayin to yesh, an act of self revival.

We are born again on each in-breath, and we use the exhale to let it go.

Every exhalation we are emptying ourselves of our old yesh: our old state of being, our old habits, our own thought patterns, our old reactions.

Every inhalation we are filling ourselves with new yesh: new potential, new beginnings, new landscapes, new eyes.

And then we let it go. We let it die in each exhale, coming closer to our own death.. our own reincarnation in each respiration.

Take your last series of breath. Gently open your eyes.

Also read Rosh Hashana Meditation Series Part 1 & 2

Enjoyed this meditation? Consider booking Jenna for an online zoom meditation series or Jewish learning workshop for the high holidays.