L'shanah tovah!

Thirteen years ago I was working as an activities assistant at a nursing home in suburban Minneapolis with a large Jewish population. On the morning of Rosh HaShanah I was employed by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, Religious Coordinator there at the time, to call out a series of Hebrew words as he sounded the shofar to herald the Jewish New Year. The words are "tekiah", "shevarim" and "teruah", and they are instructions for the trumpeter. Of course, the rabbi really already knew what to do without me ignorantly "telling him", but the instructions are part of the ritual. Afterwards he told me, good-naturedly, that I had mispronounced "teruah" - I was saying it like "TERR-oo-ah", when it's really more like "t'ROO-ah" - but it was nothing to worry about ...

To all those out there observing the High Holy Days beginning after sundown tonight, L'shanah tovah!