"Yom Teruah" and the Real Work of Teshuva

(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) 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.

(3) For the LORD Most High is awesome, great king over all the earth; (4) He subjects peoples to us, sets nations at our feet. (5) He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom He loved. Selah. (6) God ascends midst acclamation; the LORD, to the blasts of the horn.

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

Rabbi Joshua, son of Ḳorchah, said: Forty days was Moses on the mountain, reading the Written Law by day, and studying the Oral Law by night. After the forty days he took the tablets (of the Law) and descended into the camp on the 17th of Tammuz, and he broke in pieces the tablets, and slew the sinners in Israel. He then spent forty days in the camp, until he had burnt the calf, and powdered it like the dust of the earth, and he had destroyed the idol worship from Israel, and he instituted every tribe in its place. And on the New Moon of Elul the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: "Come up to me on the mount" (Ex. 24:12), and let them sound the Shofar (trumpet) throughout the camp, for, behold, Moses has ascended the mount, so that they do not go astray again after the worship of idols. The Holy One, blessed be He, was exalted with that Shofar, as it is said, "God is exalted with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet" (Ps. 47:6). Therefore the sages instituted that the Shofar should be sounded on the New Moon of Elul every year.

We have the custom to get up at the break of dawn to recite Selichot and tachanunim from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur. Rema: The minhag of Ashkenazi Jews is not like that. Instead from Rosh Chodesh on we blow the Shofar after Shacharit ...

It is understood that the blast of the shofar causes a person to quake from fear of God and from the glory of His might.

(4) Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if [the shofar's call] is saying: Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator. Those who forget the truth in the vanities of time and throughout the entire year, devote their energies to vanity and emptiness which will not benefit or save: Look to your souls. Improve your ways and your deeds and let every one of you abandon his evil path and thoughts.

Now let us return and see what would be the first cause to have a person be aroused to examine his actions and meditate introspectively during the month of Elul ... Our early rabbis - Eden is their rest - trembled about this thing. They relied upon the Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer and instituted the blowing of the shofar in Elul; and it became the first cause for someone to be aroused from his sleep and from the vanities of his slumbers to examine his actions. It is like the statement of the verse (Amos 3:6), "When a ram’s horn is sounded in a town, do the people not tremble?"

The Sages ordained the blowing the shofar [after morning prayers] from the first of the month [of Elul], as was the case in the desert. That is, if the leaders of the generation seclude themselves from the first of Elul in order to improve (m’shaper) their deeds, like Moses in the desert, then they will ascend and join with the people of their generation. But if not – if they are in the exile of the evil inclination – then, the nation must work for itself.
Tzafnah Paneach, p. 25d

Rabbi Abbahu said: Why does one sound a blast with a shofar made from a ram’s horn on Rosh HaShana? The Holy One, Blessed be He, 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.

Master of the Universe! May it be Your will HaShem, our God and God of our fathers, to recall for our sake the covenant of our fathers. Just as our father, Avraham suppressed his compassion for his only son and would have slaughtered him to do Your will, so may Your compassion suppress Your anger against us; and may Your compassion prevail over Your [other] attributes, to deal with us more leniently than the letter of Your law. Deal with us, HaShem, our God, kindly and with compassion. In Your great goodness, turn Your fierce anger away from Your people, and from Your city, from Your land, and from Your territorial heritage. Fulfill for us, HaShem, our God, the promise You made, through Your servant Moshe, as was said, “I will recall My covenant with Yaakov, also My covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Avraham will I recall; and I will recall the land.”

Rabbi Yitzḥak said: ... 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.