שופר Shofar

(19) Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. (20) Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and amidst herds. (21) And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe.

(1) In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day when the horn is sounded.

(23) יהוה spoke to Moses, saying: (24) 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.

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Have two silver trumpets made; make them of hammered work. They shall serve you to summon [military bodies of] the community and to set the divisions in motion. (3) When both are blown in long blasts,*long blasts Meaning of Heb. uncertain. the whole company [of fighters]*company [of fighters] See note at 1.2. 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,*short blasts Meaning of Heb. teru‘a uncertain. 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 [military bodies of] 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*When you are at war Meaning of Heb. uncertain. in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before your God יהוה and be delivered from your enemies. (10) And on your joyous occasions—your fixed festivals and new moon days—you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I, יהוה, am your God.

(1)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 mitzvos. 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.”
(2)And in Your holy words it is written: “God has ascended with a blast, Adonoy, with the sound of a shofar.” And it is said: “With trumpets and the sound of a shofar raise your voices before the King, Adonoy.” 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 Yaakov.” And it is said: “Praise God. Praise the Almighty in His Sanctuary Praise God in the firmament of His might. Praise Him for His mighty deeds, Praise Him according to the abundance of His greatness. Praise Him with the blowing of a shofar, Praise Him with lyre and harp. Praise Him with drum and dance, Praise Him with stringed instruments and flute. Praise Him with resounding cymbals, Praise Him with clanging cymbals. Let every soul praise God, Praise God.”
(3)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 Adonoy, on the holy mountain in Yerushalayim.” And it is said: “And Adonoy will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning; and my Master, Adonoy, will sound the shofar and go forth in the whirlwinds of the south. Adonoy Tzevaos will protect them.” So may You be a shield over Your people, Yisrael, with Your peace.
(4)Our God and God of our fathers, 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 Adonoy, your God.” For You hear the sound of shofar, and listen to the teruah; and there is none like You. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Who hears the sound of the teruah of His people, Yisrael, with compassion.
(5)Se toca el Shofar, siempre que la festividad no acaezca en ShabatTEKIA, SHEVARIM TERUA, TEKIA
(6) On this day, the world came into being; On this day, He makes stand in judgment— all the creatures of the worlds— whether as children, or as servants; if as children, have compassion on us as a father has compassion on his children! If as servants, our eyes are fixed on You until You favor us, and bring forth our judgment as the light, Revered and Holy One!
(7)This paragraph is omitted on Shabbos May the utterance of our lips be pleasing unto You, Almighty, Most High and Uplifted, Who understands, and gives ear, Who perceives and listens to the sound of our shofar blast, and accept with compassion and desire the order of our prayers concerning the shofar.

(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 יהוה had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain*the whole mountain Some Hebrew manuscripts and the Greek read “all the people”; cf. v. 16. trembled violently. (19) The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.

(15) All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance. (16) “You speak to us,” they said to Moses, “and we will obey; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.”

(14) And GOD will be made manifest to Judah,kJudah Heb. “them.” With arrows that flash like lightning;My Sovereign GOD shall sound the ram’s hornAnd advance in a stormy tempest.lstormy tempest Lit. “tempests of wind”; for teman in the sense of wind, cf. Job 9.9; 39.26.

(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 GOD on the holy mount, in Jerusalem.

(7) If one sounds a shofarinto a pit, or into a cistern, or into a large jug, if he clearly heard the sound of the shofar, he has fulfilled his obligation; but if he heard the sound of an echo, he has not fulfilled his obligation. And similarly, if one was passing behind a synagogue,or his house was adjacent to the synagogue, and he heard the sound of the shofar or the sound of the Scroll of Esther being read, if he focused his heart, i.e. his intent, to fulfill his obligation, he has fulfilled his obligation; but if not, he has not fulfilled his obligation. It is therefore possible for two people to hear the shofar blasts, but only one of them fulfills his obligation. Even though this one heard and also the other one heard, nevertheless, this one focused his heart to fulfill his obligation and has therefore indeed fulfilled it, but the other one did not focus his heart, and so he has not fulfilled his obligation.
(8) Incidental to the discussion of the required intent when sounding the shofar, the mishna cites the verse: “And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed” (Exodus 17:11). It may be asked: Did the hands of Moses make war when he raised them or break war when he lowered them? Rather, the verse comes to tell you that as long as the Jewish people turned their eyes upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they prevailed, but if not, they fell.Similarly, you can say: The verse states: “Make for yourself a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he sees it, he shall live” (Numbers 21:8). Once again it may be asked: Did the serpent kill, or did the serpent preserve life? Rather, when the Jewish people turned their eyes upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they were healed, but if not, they rotted from their snakebites. Returning to its halakhic discussion, the mishna continues: A deaf-mute, an imbecile, or a minor who sounds the shofarcannot discharge the obligation on behalf of the community. This is the principle with regard to similar matters: Whoever is not obligated to do a certain matter cannot discharge the obligation on behalf of the community.

(3) Another comment on And the Lord uttereth His voice before His army. This refers to the thunderous sounds that precede the host of the Holy One, blessed be He. For example, when the thunder goes forth it roars, and mankind know that rain will fall; and when thunder resounds, lightning will follow.3The Etz Joseph commentary corrects the text, noting that lightning precedes the thunder. Another comment on And the Lord uttereth His voice. This refers to Rosh Hashanah, the day on which the shofar is sounded. Before His army refers to the Israelites, who tremble and quake at the sound of the shofar and then repent in order to be judged meritoriously on Yom Kippur.

(3) Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Naḥman began: “God ascends with a blast, the Lord with the sound of a shofar” (Psalms 47:6). When the Holy One blessed be He sits and ascends on the throne of justice, He ascends in justice.6He begins the proceedings with the divine attribute of justice. What is the source? “God [Elohim]7Elohim is the name of God that represents the attribute of justice. ascends with a blast.” When Israel take their shofars and sound them before the Holy One blessed be He, He rises from the throne of justice and sits on the throne of mercy, as it is written: “The Lord8The Tetragrammaton, translated as Lord, is the name of God that represents the attribute of mercy. with the sound of a shofar.” When? In the seventh month.

(6) Rabbi Berekhya began: “Sound the shofar at the New Moon [at the covering of our festive day]” (Psalms 81:4). Are all the months not the New Moon?12How is it clear from the verse that the mitzva to sound the shofar is specific to Rosh HaSshana? “At the covering,”13The moon is not visible at the beginning of every month. – is [the moon] not covered [at the beginning] of all months? Rather, “of our festive day.” But is Nisan also not a month that is covered and has its own festival? Rather, which is the month that is covered, has a festival, and its festival is on that day? You find it only in the month of Tishrei. In this month, renew your actions.14The phrase “at the New Moon [baḥodesh]” is expounded to mean renew [teḥadeshu] your actions, meaning reexamine and improve your ways. “The shofar” – in this month, improve [shaperu] your actions. The Holy One blessed be He said to Israel: ‘If you have improved your actions, I will become like this shofar for you. Just as this shofar takes in from this side and lets out from that side, so I rise from My throne of justice and sit on My throne of mercy and transform the attribute of justice to the attribute of mercy.’ When? In the seventh month.

(1) With regard to the Festival day of Rosh HaShana that occurs on Shabbat, in the Temple they would sound the shofar as usual. However, they would not sound it in the rest of the country outside the Temple. After the Temple was destroyed, Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai instituted that the people should sound the shofar on Shabbat in every place where there is a court of twenty-three judges. Rabbi Elazar said: Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai instituted this practice only in Yavne, where the Great Sanhedrin of seventy-one judges resided in his time, but nowhere else. They said to him: He instituted the practice both in Yavne and in any place where there is a court.(2) The mishna adds: And Jerusalem in earlier times had this additional superiority over Yavne after Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai instituted this practice, for in any city whose residents could see Jerusalem and hear the sounding of the shofar from there, and which was near to Jerusalem and people could come to Jerusalem from there, they would sound the shofar there as well, as it was considered part of Jerusalem. But in Yavne they would sound the shofaronly in the court itself, not in the surrounding cities.

(9)The order of the blasts is three sets of three blasts each, which are: Tekia, terua, and tekia. The length of a tekia is equal to the length of three teruot, and the length of a terua is equal to the length of three whimpers. If one sounded the firsttekia of the initial series of tekia, terua, tekia, and then extended the secondtekia of that series to the length of twotekiot, so that it should count as both the second tekia of the first set and the first tekia of the second set, he has in his hand the fulfillment of only onetekia, and he must begin the second set with a new tekia. With regard to one who recited the blessings of the additional prayer, and only afterward a shofar became available to him, he sounds a tekia, sounds a terua, and sounds a tekia, an order he repeats three times.Just as the prayer leader is obligated in the prayer of Rosh HaShana, so too, each and every individual is obligated in these prayers. Rabban Gamliel disagrees and says: Individuals are not obligated, as the prayer leader fulfills the obligation on behalf of the many.