The Meaning of the Shofar and Its Blasts

(5) The order of blessings [in the Musaf Amidah of Rosh Hashanah]:He says “Avot”, “Gevurot” and the “Kedushat HaShem” and includes the kingship verses with them and does not blow [the shofar].

The sanctification of the day and blows [the shofar], the remembrance-verses and blows [the shofar], and the shofar-verses and blows [the shofar].

Then he says the blessing of the Temple service and “thanksgiving” and the blessing of the priests, the words of Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri.

Rabbi Akiva said to him: if he does not blow the shofar for the kingship-verses, why should he say them? Rather he says: “Avot”, “Gevurot” and the “Kedushat HaShem” and includes the kingship verse with the sanctification of the day and blows the shofar, then he says the remembrance-verses and blows, and the shofar-verses and blows. Then he says the Temple service and “thanksgiving” and the blessing of the priest.

You were revealed in Your cloud of glory to Your holy people to speak to them. From the heavens, You let them hear Your voice, and revealed Yourself to them in pure clouds. So too, the entire world quivered before You, and the works of creation trembled before You, when You, our King revealed Yourself upon Mount Sinai to teach Your people Torah and mitzvot. You let them hear the majestic splendor of Your voice, and Your holy words from flames of fire; amidst thunder and lightning You revealed Yourself to them, and with the sound of a shofar, You appeared to them, as it is written in Your Torah:

“And it was on the third day, as morning dawned there was thunder and lightning, and a dense cloud over the mountain, and the sound of a shofar was exceedingly loud; and all the people in the camp trembled.”

And it is said: “And the sound of the shofar became increasingly louder; Moshe spoke and God answered him by voice.”

And it is said: “And all the people saw the sounds and the flames, and the sound of the shofar, and the mountain in smoke; and the people saw and were shaken, and stood from afar.”

And in Your holy words it is written:

“God has ascended with a blast, Eternal One, with the sound of a shofar.”

And it is said: “With trumpets and the sound of a shofar raise your voices before the King, Eternal One.”

And it is said: “Blow a shofar on the New Moon, as the appointed time for our festive-day. For it is a statute for Yisrael, a day of judgment of the God of Ya'akov.”

And it is said: “Praise God. Praise the Almighty in God's Sanctuary. Praise God in the firmament of God's might. Praise God for God's mighty deeds, Praise God according to the abundance of God's greatness. Praise God with the blowing of a shofar, Praise God with lyre and harp. Praise God with drum and dance, Praise God with stringed instruments and flute. Praise God with resounding cymbals, Praise God with clanging cymbals. Let every soul praise God, Praise God.”

And by the hand of Your servants, the Prophets it is written:

“All who inhabit the world of man and who dwell on earth— when the banner is raised on the mountains you will see it; and when a shofar will be sounded, you will hear it.”

And it is said: “And it will be on that day, that a great shofar will be sounded, and they will come— those who were lost in the land of Ashur, and those who were outcasts in the land of Mitzrayim, and they will prostrate themselves to the Eternal, on the holy mountain in Yerushalayim.”

And it is said: “And the Eternal will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning; and my Master, Eternal, will sound the shofar and go forth in the whirlwinds of the south. Eternal Tzevaot will protect them.” So may You be a shield over Your people, Yisrael, with Your peace.

Our God and God of our ancestors, sound a great shofar for our liberty and raise a banner to gather our exiles. And bring near our scattered people from among the nations, and gather our dispersed from the ends of [the] earth. Bring us to Tziyon, Your city, with joyous song,— to Yerushalayim, House of Your Sanctuary, with eternal joy.

And there we will offer before You our obligatory sacrifices, as we were commanded in Your Torah, through the hands of Moshe, Your servant, from the mouth of Your glory, as it is said: “And on the day of your rejoicing, and on your appointed festivals, and on your Rosh Chodesh days, you will sound the trumpets over your burnt-offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God; I am the Eternal One, your God.”

For You hear the sound of shofar, and listen to the teruah; and there is none like You. Blessed are You, Eternal One, Who hears the sound of the teruah of God's people, Yisrael, with compassion.

(16) On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. (17) Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. (18) Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the Eternal had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (19) The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.

Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.

(9) Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month—the Day of Atonement—you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land (10) and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to his holding and each of you shall return to his family.

(1) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Have two silver trumpets made; make them of hammered work. They shall serve you to summon the community and to set the divisions in motion.

(3) When both are blown in long blasts (tekiah), the whole community shall assemble before you at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; (4) and if only one is blown, the chieftains, heads of Israel’s contingents, shall assemble before you.

(5) But when you sound short blasts (t'ruah), the divisions encamped on the east shall move forward; (6) and when you sound short blasts a second time, those encamped on the south shall move forward. Thus short blasts shall be blown for setting them in motion, (7) while to convoke the congregation you shall blow long blasts, not short ones.

(8) The trumpets shall be blown by Aaron’s sons, the priests; they shall be for you an institution for all time throughout the ages.

(9) When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts (t'ruah) on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Eternal your God and be delivered from your enemies.

(10) And on your joyous occasions—your fixed festivals and new moon days—you shall sound (tekiah) the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I, the Eternal, am your God.

3. Rabbi Yehuda son of Rabbi Nachman opened and said, "God ascends in acclamation (lit. in truah), The Eternal in the call of the shofar" (Psalms 47:6). In the moment when the Holy Bountiful One sits on the Throne of Judgement, God ascends with judgement. What happens? God ascends with acclimation, at the time when Israel takes their shofarot and sounds them before the Holy Bountiful One, God stands up from the Throne of Judgement and sits on the Throne of Mercy, as it says, "the Eternal One in the call of the shofar," And they are filled with mercy and God has mercy on them, and switches their treatment from the attribute of judgement to the attribute of mercy. When? In the seventh month...

(6) When a ram’s horn is sounded in a town, Do the people not take alarm (literally 'tremble')? Can misfortune come to a town If the Eternal has not caused it?

(4) Even though the blowing of the ram's horn trumpet on Rosh ha-Shanah is a Scriptural statute, its blast is symbolic, as if saying: "Ye that sleep, bestir yourselves from your sleep, and ye slumbering, emerge from your slumber, examine your conduct, turn in repentance, and remember your Creator!

They that forget the truth because of the vanities of the times, who err all of their years by pursuing vanity and idleness, which are of neither benefit nor of salvation, care for your souls, improve your ways and your tendencies, let each one of you abandon his evil path and his thought which is not pure!"

It is, therefore, necessary for everyone to see themselves throughout the whole year in a light of being evenly balanced between innocence and guilt, and look upon the entire world as if evenly balanced between innocence and guilt;

thus, if they commit one sin, they will overbalance themselves and the whole world to the side of guilt, and be a cause of its destruction; but if they perform one duty, behold, they will overbalance themselves and the whole world to the side of virtue, and bring about his own and their salvation and escape, even as it is said: "But the righteous is an everlasting foundation" (Prov. 10. 25), it is he, by whose righteousness they overbalanced the whole world to virtue and saved it.

And, because of this matter, it became the custom of the whole house of Israel to excel in alms-giving, in good conduct and in the performance of duties during the intervening days of Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom ha-Kippurim above what they do during the whole year. It also became a universal custom to rise early during those ten days, to deliver in the synagogues prayers of supplication and ardor till the dawn of the day.

(13) And in that day, a great ram’s horn shall be sounded; and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt shall come and worship the Eternal on the holy mount, in Jerusalem.

(6) God ascends midst acclamation; the Eternal, to the blasts of the horn.

(6) With trumpets and the blast of the horn raise a shout before the Eternal, the King.

And recite before Me on Rosh HaShana verses that mention Kingships, Remembrances, and Shofarot:

Kingships so that you will crown Me as King over you;

Remembrances so that your remembrance will rise before Me for good; and with what will the remembrance rise? It will rise with the shofar.

Similarly, Rabbi Abbahu said: Why does one sound a blast with a shofar made from a ram’s horn on Rosh HaShana?

The Holy Bountiful One said: Sound a blast before Me with a shofar made from a ram’s horn, so that I will remember for you the binding of Isaac, son of Abraham, in whose stead a ram was sacrificed, and I will ascribe it to you as if you had bound yourselves before Me.

Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Why does one sound [tokin] a blast on Rosh HaShana?

The Gemara is astonished by the question:

Why do we sound a blast? The Merciful One states in the verse: “Sound [tiku] a shofar” (Psalms 81:4). Rather, the question is: Why does one sound a staccato series of shofar blasts [terua] in addition to a long continuous shofar blast [tekia]? The Gemara is still surprised by the question: Sound a terua? The Merciful One states: “In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns [terua]” (Leviticus 23:24).

Rather, Rabbi Yitzḥak asked about the common practice in Jewish communities, which is not explicitly stated in the Torah: Why does one sound a long, continuous shofar blast [tekia] and then a staccato series of shofar blasts [terua] while the congregation is still sitting before the silent prayer, and then sound again a tekia and a terua while they are standing in the Amida prayer?

He answers: In order to confuse the Satan, for this double blowing of the shofar demonstrates Israel’s love for the mitzvah, and this will confuse Satan when he brings his accusations against Israel before the heavenly court, and the Jewish people will receive a favorable judgment.

"And Avraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold another (achar) ram (Gen. 22:13)".

...

Rabbi Hanina b. R. Isaac said: All days of the year Israel are in sin’s clutches and are victims of prosecutions, but on New Year they take the shofar and blow on it, and are remembered by the Holy One of Blessing and God forgives them, and their end is to be redeemed by the ram’s horn, and it says, "And the Eternal God will blow the horn."

Rabbi Levi said: Because Avraham our Father saw the ram extricate himself from one thicket and go and become entangled in another, the Holy Bountiful One said to him: ‘So is the future of your children to be entangled in reigns, from Babylon to Media, from Media to Greece, and from Greece to Edom; and their end will be to be redeemed by the ram’s horn,’ as it is written, “And the Eternal God will blow the horn.” “And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son (Gen.22:13).

Rabbi Banai said: Avraham said in front of God: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! Look upon the blood of this ram as though it were the blood of my son Itzchak; its lambs as though they were my son’s lambs (descendants),’ even as we learned: When a man declares: This animal be instead of this one, in exchange for that, or a substitute for this, it is a valid exchange.

The sounding of the Shofar is reminiscent of an ancient custom in Israel that when someone died, the sounding of the Shofar was a signal for people to attend the burial (Moed Katan 27). The seventieth year, which symbolizes the end of a normal lifespan, is to remind one of impending death and the accounting one has to render. The blowing of the Shofar is also in order on the Day of Atonement (25,9) when one renews one's life after having secured forgiveness. When verse 10 speaks about "return to one's original possession," the spirit returns to God - a person should constantly contemplate this, and not have incidental thoughts...

The word shofar hints at the admonition, “Improve [shapru] your deeds and abandon your evil ways!”

The tekiyah [a long unbroken blast] is a form of prayer and the one who hears it should say, “Master of the Worlds! Insert [teka] Your name Y-ah [the last two letters of the word tekiyah] among Israel like a peg that is firmly imbedded [takua], as it is written, ‘His hand was upon the throne of Y-ah’ (Shemos 17:16).

The shevarim [a blast broken into long segments] is a hint that the Holy One Blessed is God will shatter [yeshabeir], cast down and eradicate the throne of the Sitrah Acharah so that it no longer has any dominion over Israel.

This is followed by a teruah [a blast broken into many short segments], indicating that at that time, “they will make a joyful sound [yisro’a’u] and sing together” (Tehillim 65:14).

For the letters vav and heh of the word teruah (תרועה) represent the vav and heh [of Hashem’s name], which will join together [with the first two letters, i.e. the yud and heh alluded to above], in fear and love in the name of all Israel.