On Rosh Hashanah, it is a mitzvah to hear the blowing of the shofar. To fulfill the mitzvah, one must truly hear the shofar. An echo doesn’t count, and neither does a recording. It is a climactic moment in the cycle of the Jewish year. But what if you weren’t allowed to hear the shofar blown on Rosh Hashanah?
During the Spanish Inquisition, when openly practicing Judaism was illegal, many Spanish Jews pretended to live as Catholics but continued to practice Judaism in secret. A constant fear of discovery hung over the conversos (converts) who, in darkness and whispers, kept their traditions alive for generations.
When a concert coincides with Rosh Hashanah, the conductor of the Barcelona orchestra and his son, conversos, come up with a plan to blow the shofar in public. The conductor’s son takes it upon himself to learn the traditional notes of the shofar. He plays with all his heart so that every secret Jew in Barcelona will hear the call.
Read about how the concert turned out in The Secret Shofar of Barcelona. Sometimes, the easiest place to hide something is in plain sight, and not just from others. There are also things right in front of us that, if we do not make a sincere effort to look with new eyes, we just fail to see.