My thoughts while the shofar was blown near the end of Shacharit this morning.

The Akedah, read each morning in Shacharit, tells of the ram being caught in the thicket by its horns.

The last verse of Psalm 148, also read each morning - and also read as the Torah scroll is taken up after the reading to begin its journey back to the Ark - speaks of G!d raising up the horn of G!d's people as a praise to G!d's chasidim, people of chesed, lovingkindness.

Maybe our task on Rosh Hashanah, when the shofar is blown in rabbinic communities, is to free the ram's horn from the thicket so G!d can raise it up and we can be people of chesed.