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Harvey Belovski, rabbi at Golders Green United Synagogue:

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There was once a man who refused to buy a watch.听 A neighbour noticed that he often asked people for the time but wondered how he would find out the time during the night.听 Very early one morning he was woken suddenly by a very long, loud noise.听 He ran to the door to see the fellow standing in the street blowing a trumpet.听 Before long, a furious neighbour opened her window and shouted, 鈥榶ou idiot; what the hell are you doing blowing a trumpet at three o鈥檆lock in the morning.鈥�

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This weekend will be Rosh Hashanah 鈥� the Jewish New Year.听 It鈥檚 not party time, although it鈥檚 one of my favourite days of year.听 There are special foods and some of the most moving melodies I know.听 The synagogue is decked out in white, for purity, and I will switch my sombre rabbinic frock coat for a white robe.听 We enjoy meals with family and friends and think a lot about God, our aspirations for the year ahead and how we hope to make the world a better place.

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Although the day is universally known as Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish bible actually calls it Yom Teruah, the Day of Blowing.听 This is because centre-stage is the blowing of a ram鈥檚 horn, whose rasping notes pepper synagogue services.听 The sounds are blown on a ram鈥檚 horn known as a shofar and its powerful sounds are remembered long after the services and my sermon are forgotten.

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The great Jewish thinker Maimonides explained that the shofar is a kind of ancient alarm clock, designed to shake us awake at the start of the year:

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Sleepers, arise from your slumber.听 If you鈥檙e dozing, wake up and review your actions, repent your sins and remember God.

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I believe that we all benefit from opportunities to think about the direction of our lives, the things we鈥檝e done we鈥檙e not proud of and our relationship with God.听 But I suspect that many of us, including me, are so busy that we鈥檇 never get around to it without a shock to get us started.

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The shofar isn鈥檛 a trumpet, and the neighbours of my synagogue are delighted that I blow it during the day inside a building, but it calls on me and people across the world to wake up and celebrate a wonderful New Year.

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