Torah Table Talk - Rosh Hashanah A Prayer without Words: Meditating on the Sound of the Shofar This issue of Torah Table Talk is sponsored by Iris and Jeff Kubel In honor of the birth of their granddaughter, Sydney Rebecca Engel Commenting on the significance of the shofar, Moses Maimonides writes: Even though the sounding of the shofar on New Year is a statute of the Torah, it nevertheless carries a message, instructing sinners: Arouse you slumberers from your sleep. Arouse slumbers from your slumber. Scrutinize your deeds! Repent with contrition. Remember your creator! To those who forget the truth in the vanities of time and throughout the entire year devote their energies to vanities and emptiness, peer into your souls! Improve your ways and deeds and let everyone abandon his evil path and thoughts. Therefore, one has to see oneself throughout the year as having an equal number of merits and sins, which is the same outlook that the whole world should have. If one committed a sin, one is damaging and corrupting both oneself and the whole world. When one achieves a merit one brings salvation to oneself and to the whole world. (Mishneh Torah. The Laws of Repentance 3:4) As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, I thought it might be helpful to explore sources relating to the Shofar. The Shofar has been called a prayer without words. Some suggest it is the Jewish version of Morse code. Whatever it is, the sound of the shofar pierces the heavy armor we build around ourselves in our daily lives and touches our soul in ways that transcend the intellect. Leviticus 23:24-25 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month on the first day of the month, you shall observe a complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. (Teruah) Numbers 29:1 In the seventh month on the first day of the month you shall observe a sacred occasion; you shall not work in your occupations. You shall observe it as a day when the horn is blasted. (Teruah) Leviticus 25:8-9 You shall count off seven weeks of years seven times seven years then you shall sound the Shofar loud Psalms 81:4 Blow the shofar at the moon's renewal, at the appointed time for our festival day. Psalm 89:16 Happy are the people who know the shofar blast (Teruah); O Lord they walk in the light of Your presence. P shat The Torah knows of no holiday called Rosh ha-shanah, the New Years Day. It does ordain the first day of the seventh month (Tishri) as a day on which the horn is to be sounded (Numbers 29:1) or commemorated with blasts (Leviticus 23:24). Jacob Milgrom noted that the choice of the new moon of the seventh month preserves the Sabbatical cycle in the lunar calendar. Just as the seventh day is unique among days, the seventh new moon is unique among new moons. Neither of the biblical passages that mention this holiday explains the significance of the horn to be sounded. Most probably it was to indicate the advent of the pilgrimage of Sukkot, which began exactly two weeks later. (Rabbi Joel Roth, Etz Hayim Commentary Sabbath and the Holidays) Among ancient peoples the celebration of a new year was marked by the creation of shrieking deafening noises whose purpose was to frighten off evil spirits and demons. The Shofar, however, is sounded not drive off evil spirits but to bring men closer to God and to invoke His merciful remembrance of them.it is the genius of Judaism to draw on elements of popular folklore and fancy for moral instruction. Among the people there persisted vestiges of a primitive belief that the sounding of the Shofar was intended to expel evil spirits. (Max Artz, Justice and Mercy) Remez Judah son of Rabbi Nahman opened his discourse with the text, God (Elohim) ascends midst acclamation; the Lord (Adonai) to the sound of the shofar. (Ps. 47:6). When the Holy One, blessed be He, ascends and sits upon the Throne of Judgment, He ascends with intent to do [strict] judgment. What is the reason for this
statement? God ascends midst acclamation. When Israel take their shofar and blows it in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, He rises from the Throne of Judgment and sits upon the Throne of Mercy-for it is written, and changing for them the Attribute of Justice to one of Mercy. When? In the seventh month (Lev. Rabbah 29:3) Rabbi Abahu said: Why do we blow the ram's horn? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Sound the Ram s horn that I may remember on your behalf the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and account it to you as if you had bound yourselves before me! (Rosh Hashanah 16b) Saadia Gaon, a nineth century scholar in Babylonia, offered ten reasons why we sound the shofar: 1. The sound of the shofar is analogous to the trumpet-blasts that announce the coronation of a king. On Rosh Hashanah, God created the world and assumed the role of its Sovereign, and in the sounding of the shofar we acknowledge Him as our King. 2. Rosh Hashanah is the first of the Ten Days of Penitence, and the shofar is sounded to stir our conscience, to confront our past errors and return to God, who is ever ready to welcome the penitent. 3. The shofar is reminiscent of God's revelation at Sinai, which was accompanied by the sounding of a shofar. It thus reminds us of our destiny--to be a people of Torah, to pursue its study and to practice its commandments. 4. The sound of the shofar is reminiscent of the exhortations of the prophets whose voices rang out like a shofar in denouncing their people's wrong-doing, and in calling them to the service of God and man. 5. The shofar reminds us of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and it calls us to strive for Israel's renewal in freedom and in fellowship with God. 6. The shofar, which is a ram's horn, reminds us of the ram that Abraham offered as a sacrifice in place of his son Isaac. It thus reminds us of the heroic faith of the fathers of our people who exemplified to us the highest devotion to God, of which man is capable. 7. The shofar summons us to the feeling of humility before God's majesty and might, which are manifested by all things and by which our own lives are constantly surrounded. 8. The shofar is a reminder of the Day of the Final Judgment, calling upon all people and all nations to prepare for God's scrutiny of their deeds. 9. The shofar foreshadows the jubilant proclamation of freedom, when Israel's exiled and homeless are to return to the Holy Land. It calls us to believe in Israel's deliverance at all times and under all circumstances. 10. The shofar foreshadows the end of the present world order and the inauguration of God's reign of righteousness throughout the world, with a regenerated Israel leading all people in acknowledging that God is One and His name One. (Saadia Gaon, 882-942 CE; Reprinted from Moments of Transcendence Edited by Dov Peretz Elkins) Since a person is made of the dust of the earth, he is by nature slow and inert. He has to be goaded into action. In war the troops are roused by martial music and the sound of trumpets to fight the enemy. On Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, the Shofar is the ideal instrument to spur a person to repent. The broken sound of Teruah suggests a person broken hearted remorse. It also reminds us to break our lusts and overcome our temptations. (Sefer Hachinuch #805) Din 590: The Proper Order for the Sounding of the Shofar 1 The number of blasts that a person is obliged to hear on Rosh Ha-Shanah is nine. This is because the requirement of a Teruah sound is stated in the Torah three times, in connection with the jubilee year and Rosh Hashanah. Each Teruah sound must be accompanied by a plain sound before it and a plain sound after it In other words, both on Rosh Ha-Shanah and on Yom Kippur of the Jubilee nine blasts must be blown, so that on each one of these two occasions the sounds Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah, Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah, Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah must be blown. 2 Regarding this Teruah sound mentioned in the Torah, we are in doubt as to whether it is the yelping sound that we call Teruah, whether it is the sound that we call Shevarim or whether it is a combination of the two sounds together. Consequently, in order to dispel all doubt as to whether or not we have fulfilled our obligation it is necessary for us to blow the series of sounds that we call Tekiah, Shevarim Teruah, Tekiah three times; the
series of sounds that we call Tekiah, Shevarim, Tekiah three times and the series of sounds that we call Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah three times. (Rabbi Joseph Karo, Shulchan Aruch, Orech Chaim) We are in doubt: As the traditional Aramaic translation of the word Teruah is yabava (cry), one can deduce that this sound resembles the sound that a person makes when he cries and yelps. However, we still do not know whether it resembles the sound of a person who groans from the heart in the manner of an ill person, who makes brief sounds, one after the other, but extends them somewhat, or resembles the sound of a person who yelps and laments, who makes brief sounds which rapidly follow one another, or both these sounds together. The first sound is called groaning and it is usual for a crying person to make such sounds when he begins to cry. They are the sounds that we call Shevarim. The second sound is what we call a Teruah. (Rabbi Yisroel Meir Ha-Cohen Kagan, Mishnah Berurah, commenting on 590:2) Tekiah >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Shevarim >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> Teruah >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> Tekiah >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Sod Observe that on Rosh Hashanah, the world is brought to trial before the holy judgment seat; and there stands on the one side the evil spirit who regards intently and makes a record of all those that are doomed to death. But at the moment that Israel awakens mercy by means of the sound of the shofar, he becomes all-together confused and distracted and turns his gaze from the doomed ones. This continues until sometime after. Then all those under decree of death who have not repented of their sins are delivered into the hands of the evil power under a final order of death which is irrevocable. All of Israel must be on guard against him and how much more so one who is by himself. We have thus to assign him a he-goat as his portion so that he will abstain from acting as an accuser. The sacred moon will thus draw sustenance in holiness and be fittingly renewed Zohar 2:237 Praying With Our Breath: On Rosh Hashanah we pray in the purest form for spiritual guidance and understanding. We want to choose a life based on the needs of our spiritual well-being. We no longer want to go astray with lust and desire for the impermanent. Normally, during the entire year, we pray for our physical needs. Then we pray with our physical being: our throat, tongue, teeth, and lips. But on Rosh Hashanah we use only our breath, our spiritual essence, and blow into the shofar. The shofar sound is our Rosh Hashanah prayer to God: "May this year be one in which we seek the path of spiritual benefit, and not purely physical lusts. (Moshe Braun: Jewish Holy Days: Their Spiritual Significance) The shofar has many meanings. It is a call to repentance, a siren of alarm, and a sound of triumph and celebration. Yehudah Amichai, the great Hebrew poet, writes about the shofar as part of our battle struggle with our selves. On the New Year you give the blower of the ram s horn orders: long blast, short blast, tremolo. Wrath, Fierce wrath, long blasts, fire at every target before you, fire! Cease fire. It s over. Be seated. Today the world s day. Today all creatures on earth will be judged. Synagogues are fortresses facing Jerusalem, their windows slits facing the Holy East. This land speaks only if struck. If hail rain and shells strike her, like Balaam s ass who spoke only after her master struck her. I speak, I speak: I ve been hit. Ram s blast, long blast. Be seated. Today is the day of the world. My own poem about the Shofar:
How you make a shofar By Rabbi Mark Greenspan First you raise a ram from innocence Until it is virile and strong. As it grows more strident, Treat it tenderly but forcefully, Loving it as one of God s creations. When it reaches adulthood, Its horns fully developed, Take it to the shochet, Finding comfort in knowing that It will call us to repentance. (Never tell children the truth; They want to believe the horns grow back, Like nails; not believing That we would foreshorten a creature s life For such frivolity.) Now you re ready to gently shape The horn, scraping out the marrow And boiling the outer shell To rid it of death s smell, knowing, That this was our forefather s substitute.
Questions to Ponder 1. What can we deduce from the biblical verses above about Rosh Hashanah and the sounding of the Shofar? 2. What problem did the Rabbis have in figuring out what the sound of the shofar should be? How many blasts of the shofar are we required to hear; how many do we actually hear? Why? 3. Satan apparently plays a role in the significance the shofar. If you look at the passage in the Machzor which we read just before the sounding of the shofar you will see that the first letter of each line spells out Kara Satan destroy Satan! What does Satan have to do with the Shofar? 4. In what ways is the Shofar a wakeup call to us; in what way is it a wakeup call to God? 5. Which interpretation of the Shofar most appeals to you: P shat, Remez, Drash or Sod? How does each level of interpretation influence your thoughts and experience of this Mitzvah? 6. What does the sounding of the shofar mean to you? What do you think about as you listen to the sound of the Shofar? 7. How is Yehudah Amichai s experience of Rosh Hashanah colored by his life as an Israeli? Would you consider becoming a sponsor for TTT for a week, a month, for a whole book of the Torah or for an entire year? Weekly sponsorships are $54. Dedications can be made in memory of loved ones or in honor of special occasions on the week of your choice. Donations will be used to support life-long learning at the Oceanside Jewish Center and around the world. For more information or if you would like to receive Torah Table Talk, send a written request to haravmark@optonline.net. To download TTT you need Adobe Acrobat Reader; http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep 2.html Rabbi Mark Greenspan Wishing all the students and readers of Torah Table Talk a sweet new year filled with learning, wisdom and good deeds! All it takes to study Torah is an open heart, a curious mind and a desire to grow a Jewish soul. Copyright Rabbi Mark Greenspan 2012