This sheet on Numbers 29 was written by Jonathan Sacks for 929 and can also be found here
On the meaning of the shofar of Rosh HaShana there are two radically different interpretations. The first is that of Rabbi Abahu in the Talmud: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Blow before Me a ram’s horn that I may remember for you the binding of Isaac, son of Abraham, and I shall account it to you as if you had bound yourself before Me” (Rosh HaShana 16a). The shofar recalls the ram, caught in a thicket by its horns, sacrificed in Isaac’s place.
In this view the shofar is a cry from earth to heaven, from us to God. It represents Jewish faithfulness and sacrifice. For millennia Jews suffered for their faith yet, for the most part, they did not abandon it. The shofar, Rabbi Abahu is suggesting, is a way of saying, “Master of the Universe, we may have faults and failings, but we stayed true to You and to our covenant with You. We come before You with a history that began with Abraham and Isaac’s
lonely ordeal. Forgive us for the sake of our ancestors’ suffering, loyally and willingly endured.”
Maimonides gives the opposite interpretation: “Even though the blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShana is a scriptural decree, nonetheless it contains an allusion, as if to say: Wake, sleepers, from your sleep, and slumberers wake from your slumbers. Examine your deeds and turn in teshuva. Remember your Creator, you who forget the truth in the vanities of time, spending the year in vanity and emptiness that neither helps nor saves. Look to your souls and improve your ways and deeds” (Maimonides, Laws of Repentance 3:4).
In this alternate view the shofar is not a cry from earth to heaven, but a call from heaven to earth, God’s call to us to return to Him. Both views are true. In the tekia, the powerful clarion, we hear God’s call to us. In the terua, the broken tones of weeping, we hear our ancestors’ tears.
On Rosh HaShana the primary sound is the terua, for that is how the Torah names the day. It is “the day of the terua” (Num. 29:1) or “the remembrance of the terua” (Lev. 23:24). On the basis of Judges 5:28, the sages understood terua to be the sound of weeping, as the mother of Sisera wept when her son failed to return from battle.
In this view the shofar is a cry from earth to heaven, from us to God. It represents Jewish faithfulness and sacrifice. For millennia Jews suffered for their faith yet, for the most part, they did not abandon it. The shofar, Rabbi Abahu is suggesting, is a way of saying, “Master of the Universe, we may have faults and failings, but we stayed true to You and to our covenant with You. We come before You with a history that began with Abraham and Isaac’s
lonely ordeal. Forgive us for the sake of our ancestors’ suffering, loyally and willingly endured.”
Maimonides gives the opposite interpretation: “Even though the blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShana is a scriptural decree, nonetheless it contains an allusion, as if to say: Wake, sleepers, from your sleep, and slumberers wake from your slumbers. Examine your deeds and turn in teshuva. Remember your Creator, you who forget the truth in the vanities of time, spending the year in vanity and emptiness that neither helps nor saves. Look to your souls and improve your ways and deeds” (Maimonides, Laws of Repentance 3:4).
In this alternate view the shofar is not a cry from earth to heaven, but a call from heaven to earth, God’s call to us to return to Him. Both views are true. In the tekia, the powerful clarion, we hear God’s call to us. In the terua, the broken tones of weeping, we hear our ancestors’ tears.
On Rosh HaShana the primary sound is the terua, for that is how the Torah names the day. It is “the day of the terua” (Num. 29:1) or “the remembrance of the terua” (Lev. 23:24). On the basis of Judges 5:28, the sages understood terua to be the sound of weeping, as the mother of Sisera wept when her son failed to return from battle.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"k (1948-2020) was the former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth, and the International 929 president.
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