All the prospective shofar blowers practiced these Kavanot for months. They were difficult and complex. And there was one fellow who wanted to blow the shofar for the Ba'al Shem Tov so badly, that he had been practicing these Kavanot for years. But when his time came to audition before the Ba'al Shem, he realized that nothing he had done had prepared him adequately for the experience of standing before this great and holy man, and he appled. He choked. His mind froze completely. . . . He just stood before the Ba'al Shem in utter silence, and then, when he realized how egregiously - how utterly - he had failed this great test. His heart just broke in two and he began to weep, sobbing loudly, his shoulders heaving and his whole body wracking as he wept.

"All right, you're hired," the Ba'al Shem said.

"But I don't understand," the man said. "I failed the test completely. I couldn't even remember one Kavanah."

So the Ba'al Shem explained with the following Mashal, the following parable: In the palace of the king, there are many secret chambers, and there are secret keys for each chamber. But one key unlocks them all, and that key is the axe.

The king is ribono shel olam, the Ba'al Shem explained. The palace is the House of God. The secret chambers are the sefirot, the ascending spiritual realms that bring us closer and closer to God when we perform mitzvot such as blowing the shofar with the proper intention, and the secret keys are the kavanot. And the axe - the key that opens every chamber and brings us directly into the presence of the King wherever he may be - the axe is the broken heart, as it says in the book of psalms - karov adonai lishburey lev. -- God is close to the broken hearted.