NUM347 Sound the shofar on the New Year. People are physical beings, and due to the coarseness of the material that comprises our makeup, we are not awakened and stirred into action except by means of an outside stimulus. In wartime, for example, at the start of a battle, it is necessary to blow trumpet blasts and shout in order to arouse the soldiers that they need to fight for their lives. It is no different on Rosh Hashanah--Judgment Day for all beings. If a person's merits outweigh his sins, he emerges from the judgment safely, but if, God forbid, his sins outweigh his merits, he is subject to the death penalty or some other frightening decree. Accordingly, it is fitting for a person to fight his nature and arouse himself to ask Hashem to have mercy and forgive him for his sins, for Hashem is the Master of Mercy. The sound of the shofar has great power to stir the human heart. All the more so the note that we call the teruah, for its shrill, broken, staccato sound when it breaks the air has unique power to open one's heart. In addition to this aspect of stirring the heart, when a man hears broken notes emitting from the shofar, he is reminded of his obligation to break the hold that his evil inclination tries to put on him by enticing him to indulge his lusts for worldly pleasures. Furthermore, as explained in [See [[LEV956]] Leviticus 25:9 shofar CHINUCH 202-3], the blast from the shofar call to our minds Akeidas Yitzchak [i.e., “The Binding of Isaac—AJL]. We are moved to be as Yitzchak, who was ready to sacrifice his very being out of love for his Maker. As a result of such thoughts of supreme devotion, our remembrance arises before Hashem for the good.