Maternal Cries of the Shofar

20:2 He took Isaac his son and led him up hill and down dale, and took him up one of the mountains, built an altar, arranged wood and prepared the sacrificial array. He took the knife to slaughter him, and had an angel not called out to him from heaven, he would have been slaughtered already. Know that it is so, for Isaac returned to his mother, and she said to him, 'Where have you been, my son?' He said to her, 'My father took me and led me up hill and down dale ...' She said, 'Woe to the son of a woman drunk [with grief]! If it were not for the angel, you would have been slaughtered already?!' and he answered, 'Yes.' Thereupon she screamed out six cries, corresponding to the six [shofar] blasts. They said: no sooner had she done so, than she died.

(5) While all this was transpiring, Satan visited Sarah in the guise of Isaac. When she saw him she asked: “What did your father do to you, my son?” He replied: “My father led me over mountains and through valleys until we finally reached the top of a certain mountain. There he erected an altar, arranged the firewood, bound me upon the altar, and took a knife to slaughter me. If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not called out, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, I would have been slaughtered.” He had hardly completed relating what had transpired when she fainted and died, as it is written: And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her (ibid. 23:2). From where did he come? From Moriah.

(8) When Abraham returned from Mount Moriah in peace, the anger of Sammael was kindled, for he saw that the desire of his heart to frustrate the offering of our father Abraham had not been realized. What did he do? He went and said to Sarah: Hast thou not heard what has happened in the world? She said to him: No. He said to her: Thy husband, Abraham, has taken thy son Isaac and slain him and offered him up as a burnt offering upon the altar. She began to weep and to cry aloud three times, corresponding to the three sustained notes (of the Shophar), and (she gave forth) three howlings corresponding to the three disconnected short notes (of the Shophar), and her soul fled, and she died.

(1) (Lev. 12:6:) “And when the days of her purification are fulfilled [for either a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering….]” Why does she bring an offering? Our masters have said, “She screams a hundred times when she sits on the birthing chair, as stated (Is. 41:24), ‘Behold you are like nothing, and your actions are less than zero.’ What is [the meaning of] ‘less than zero (me’effa)?’ There are one hundred screams (meah puot), ninety-nine for death and one for life. And when the pangs arrive for her, she vows that she will never favour her husband [with sexual intercourse] again. She therefore brings an offering, as stated (ibid.), ‘she shall bring a lamb in its first year.’”

The measure of a teru'ah is equal to three wailing calls. ... And in the Arukh it explains that they would do likewise, for in the entry on [the root] ayin-resh-bet it explains that those who are strict and blow thirty [blasts] while seated [i.e. after the reading of the Torah], thirty during the silent prayer, and thirty in the order [i.e. the repetition of the Amidah], [do so] to correspond to the hundred moans that Sisera's mother moaned. The [remaining] ten are when the whole Tefillah is completed, so the sound of the lone teki'ah has to amount to ten: teki'ah shevarim-teru'ah teki'ah, teki'ah shevarim teki'ah, teki'ah teru'ah teki'ah - making a total of a hundred.

(28) Through the window peered Sisera’s mother, Behind the lattice she wailed: “Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why so late the clatter of his wheels?” (29) The wisest of her ladies give answer; She, too, replies to herself: (30) “They must be dividing the spoil they have found: A damsel or two for each man, Spoil of dyed cloths for Sisera, Spoil of embroidered cloths, A couple of embroidered cloths Round every neck as spoil.”

(13) The LORD goes forth like a warrior, Like a fighter He whips up His rage. He yells, He roars aloud, He charges upon His enemies. (14) “I have kept silent far too long, Kept still and restrained Myself; Now I will scream like a woman in labour, I will pant and I will gasp. (15) Hills and heights will I scorch, Cause all their green to wither; I will turn rivers into isles, And dry the marshes up. (16) I will lead the blind By a road they did not know, And I will make them walk By paths they never knew. I will turn darkness before them to light, Rough places into level ground. These are the promises— I will keep them without fail.