Did you hear that?

I’m not sure when it started, but it seems as if all vehicles today make a sound that I somehow associate with spaceships when backing up. So now, when I hear a high-pitched hum, I no longer worry about an alien invasion. I just make sure to get out of the car’s way.

Somehow, that eerie sound effect reminded me of other innovations in the sounds that cars make.

I still remember when people first started installing alarms in their cars. When that honking sound started going off in a parking garage or in the neighborhood, it was a big deal. Everyone assumed that the alarm was going off for a legitimate reason. Perhaps an auto thief was at work nearby. I definitely remember calling the police when I heard a car alarm in my neighborhood.

Today, when we hear the incessant honking of car alarms, we collectively shrug our shoulders, assuming that someone set it off by accident. We rarely even look to find the source of the noise.

Sometimes, I worry that the same thing could happen with the sound of the shofar — that somehow, it could lose its effect on us.

Tomorrow morning, in synagogues around the world, the shofar will be sounded to let us know that it is exactly one month until Rosh Hashanah. Let me say that again: it is exactly one month until Rosh Hashanah – by the Jewish calendar, anyway! From now until the day before Rosh Hashanah, we will blow the shofar each morning, except on Shabbat, at the conclusion of services.

If you have not yet had your first cup of coffee when it happens, the sound of the shofar can serve as a wake-up call in a very literal sense. For all of us, though, the shofar should serve as a wake-up call in the spiritual sense.

It is a reminder that we should immerse ourselves in the very important process of teshuvah (repentance). It reminds us, too, that we must take care to be moral and fair in our interactions with others. It is not sufficient simply to make up for past errors. We must also take a proactive stance toward changing our behavior in the present and in the future.

This week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, provides us with the ideal toward which we should strive: “Justice, justice you shall pursue in order that you may live and inherit the land that Adonai your God has given you” (Deut. 16:20).

So, when you hear the shofar blasts, remember that it’s not just some little kid playing his parent’s fob. It really means something. It’s worth checking to make sure that it wasn’t just a mistake. It’s worth making sure that you don’t simply tune it out.

And yes, it’s worth making sure that it’s just a car in reverse — and NOT an alien invasion.