[Avodah] 100 kolot & Sisera's mother's

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 10:56:05AM +0300, Eli Turkel wrote:
: Anyone know of an explanation of the connection of blowing
: the shofar with the weeping of Sisera's mother?

I dunno, I thought it made a great point. Rachamnus is associated with rachem,
which may even be one of the reasons a tefillah for someone in distress
(usually a choleh) uses the mother's name. We beseech the Kel Melekh yosheiv
al kisei rachamim by associating the sound of shofar with a mother's cry. If
even the mother of someone as crass and power-hungry as Sisera would weep so
desperately for her child, can we expect the Av haRachaman to coldly ignore
the cry?

The mashal is flawed, as I'm comparing a mother's crying to a Father's
listening to His children's cry. But still, the notion of Sisera's mother
as a case of motherly empathy that exists even among warmongering barbarians
does appeal to me as a meaning of shofar.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             None of us will leave this place alive.
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