ראש השנה תשפ"ג לפני תקיעות

The shofar (horn): Whereas the content of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is [as follows]: Behold the Holy One, blessed be He, judges the whole entire world and renews all of existence with regard to the new cycle - meaning the new year. And see that the courts are arranged and the case is prepared for all of the creation, according to the arrangements of supreme justice, as we wrote in Part II (On the System of Providence 5). And the prosecutor is prepared to prosecute according to people's iniquities. So see that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded us to blow the shofar. And its intention is to bring down merciful - and not harsh - direction; and to confuse the prosecutor, so that he will not prosecute. And note that we have already explained in Part II (On Specific Modes of Prophecy 1) that just like the attribute of strict justice does not allow that good come to people if they have not merited it, so too is it an axiom of justice that the appropriate and case-specific reward for some actions that people do be that it treat them in their general judgement with mercy and compassion, and not be precise with total exactitude towards them. And it is like the matter which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Rosh Hashanah 17a), "[Regarding] anyone who forgoes his reckonings [with others for injustices done to him, the heavenly court] forgoes [punishment] for all his transgressions." For this is poetic justice - just as he yields, so will they yield to him. And it comes out that they act with mercy towards him; but this too is from [God's] characteristic of justice. However this is not the only act for which one is rewarded this way. Rather any act that the Supreme Wisdom decreed appropriate for it to be rewarded this way, will be rewarded this way. And among them is this commandment of blowing the shofar, about which Israel was commanded, so as to bring down merciful direction [of the world]. So when they observe it properly, this will be the fruit that they can reap from it. Of course, the specific relationship between the blowing of the shofar and the bringing down of mercy is dependent upon the roots of the direction and its true foundations: The true intention of this is to arouse the patriarchs of the world, to be strengthened by their merit - such as to arouse mercy and appease the attribute of strict justice, enhance the good over the bad, suppress the forces of evil, take away the power of the prosecutors and intend that the Master, blessed be He, use His preeminence to act with the rule of His Unity, so as to forego transgression. And all of this [happens] through this commandment when it is combined with Israel's proper repentance. And all the details of this matter are according to the details of this refinement with its attributes.

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 our acknowledgments of Your sovereignty.

We cried to ה', the God of our ancestors, and ה' heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression.

Hashem accepted our prayer. They merited to have their prayers accepted even though they had no words, but simply cried out from the depths of their hearts.

Background
According to Rabbi Lorberbaum there is a common theme to the comments in the Haggadah Deuteronomy 26:7. It would seem that these comments are exploring why God chose to bring the redemption sooner than he had predicted to Abraham in Genesis 15:13: “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs and they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years…” God had foretold to Abraham that his offspring would be both enslaved and oppressed; they were simply living out the prediction that had already been given to them (in order to rid themselves of the dross and impurity of their former idolatrous past). So why then did God bring them out of Egypt sooner than expected? It must have been that the Egyptians’ oppression went above and beyond what God allowed for. The Israelites were therefore purified sooner and the Egyptians were deserving of punishment.
We cried out to the Lord – Many people, when confronted with suffering and tribulations, cry out to God (that’s why we say that there are no atheists in a foxhole). So how about the Israelites? How did the children of Israel cry out to God? Was their cry motivated by faith or by pain and suffering? Was their cry one of one of sincere and heartfelt prayer and a desire to return to God, or was it simply a cry that came out of the pain and suffering they experienced in Egypt?
The proof text from Exodus implies that they cried out of suffering (“They groaned because of the bondage”); none the less, their sigh still rose up to God despite the fact that it was not motivated by sincere and heartfelt faith (“Their cry because of the bondage rose up to God”). Interestingly this interpretation depicts the Israelites in a less than positive fashion. God answers the prayers of those who suffer whether or not they are faithful servants.

The Gemara raises an objection based on a baraita: One who sounds his voice during his Amida prayer is among those of little faith, as he seems to believe that the Lord cannot hear his prayer when it is uttered silently. One who raises his voice during prayer is considered to be among the false prophets, as they too were wont to cry out and shout to their gods.

And one should not only pray in one's heart, but one must actually enunciate the words with one lips and let them be heard in a whisper tone by one's own ears, [however] one should not let one's voice be heard [fully during the Amidah]. [However,] if one is unable to direct one's intention [to the Amidah] while in a whisper tone, one is allowed to raise one's voice. And this is [only] when one is praying privately, but [if one is praying] with the congregation, it is forbidden, as this is a nuisance for the congregation. Gloss: If one is letting one's voice be heard in one's home when praying so that the members of one's household will learn from one, it is permitted (Tur).

Some say that on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur it is permitted to let one's voice be heard in one's prayer, even in publicGloss: And this is what we practice; however, people must be careful not to raise their voice too much (D'rashot Mahari"v [Ya-akov Weil])

MISHNA: 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 first tekia of the initial series of tekia, terua, tekia, and then extended the second tekia of that series to the length of two tekiot, 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 one tekia, and he must begin the second set with a new tekia.

§ The mishna continues. The length of a terua is equal to the length of three whimpers. The Gemara asks: Isn’t it taught in a baraita that the length of a terua is equal to the length of three shevarim, i.e., broken blasts, which presumably are longer than whimpers?

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.