Rosh Hashanah is known in the Torah as Yom Teruah, the day of blasts (later identified as the shofar blasts). Rabbinic Sages connected the shofar with the Akedah, developing the meaning of both the Rosh Hashanah symbol and the Biblical story.
Why with a shofar do we sound teruah in merit of Isaac? In memory of the horns of the ram (which became the substitute sacrifice).
(Pesikta Rabbati 41)
(Pesikta Rabbati 41)
“God [Elohim] ascends with a blast.” When Israel take their shofars and sound them before God, the Holy One rises from the throne of justice and sits on the throne of mercy, as it is written: “The Lord with the sound of a shofar.” When? In the seventh month. (VaYikra Rabbah 29)
The angels of mercy assembled before the Lord pleading for Isaac, and saying: Oh Lord, You who art full of mercy and compassion for all Your creatures which You have created in heaven and on earth, and thou who supportest them all, give a ransom and substitute for Isaac, and have mercy and compassion upon Abraham and Isaac, his son. (Sefer Hayashar 46b)
May You fill Your people with mercy, and look upon the ashes of Isaac our Father which are heaped upon the altar. May You behave towards your children with the attribute of mercy, and remember today the Binding of Isaac for his descendants.
(Tefilat HaTokeah, Prayer for the Shofar Blower, Isaac Luria).
(Tefilat HaTokeah, Prayer for the Shofar Blower, Isaac Luria).
Why do we sound the shofar of a ram? The Holy One said: 'Sound before Me the ram's horn so that I will remember for you the Binding of Isaac, son of Abraham, and reward you as if you had bound yourselves before Me. [emphasis mine]
(Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 15a)
(Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 15a)
