Raise Your Voice Like a Shofar

MISHNA: The shofar that was used on Rosh HaShana in the Temple was made from the straight horn of an ibex, and its mouthpiece was plated with gold.

And in contrast, the shofarot used on public fast days were made from the curved horns of rams, and their mouths were plated with silver...

GEMARA: Rabbi Levi said: The mitzva of Rosh HaShana and of Yom Kippur of the Jubilee Year is to blow with curved shofarot, and that of the rest of the year, on fast days, is to blow with straight shofarot. The Gemara raises a difficulty: But didn’t we learn differently in the mishna: The shofar that was used on Rosh HaShana was made from the straight horn of an ibex? The Gemara answers: Rabbi Levi said his statement in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, as it was taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yehuda says: On Rosh HaShana they would blow with the curved horns of rams, and on the Days of Atonement of the Jubilee Years with the horns of ibexes.

The Gemara asks: With regard to what principle do these tanna’im disagree? One Sage, Rabbi Yehuda, holds that on Rosh HaShana the more a person bends his mind the better. But on Yom Kippur, the more a person straightens his mind the better. Therefore, a straight shofar is sounded. The other Sage, the anonymous tanna of the mishna, maintains the opposite: On Rosh HaShana, the more a person straightens his mind the better. On fasts, on the other hand, the more a person bends his mind the better.

It explains in the Gemara that the reason that we need a straight ibex, representing the "pashtut" (simplicity) of our prayers.

Rashi explains that the mitzvah is to blow the Shofar with a straight ibex horn, as the Gemara says that the straighter the better, based on the verse in Eichah which states, "We lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven."

Rabbi Yehudah believes that the mitzvah is performed more ideally on Rosh Hashanah with a bent shofar, to remind God of how bent over we are in our prayer and our supplications before God, like "the prayer of a poor person who is faint" (Psalm 102) .

Rabbi Meir follows the position of Rabbi Yehudah, arguing that the Mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is to blow with a bent Shofar, based on the idea that the more bent and lowly a person is in their approach to God on this day the better, coming from God's statement to Solomon (after Solomon finished building the Temple) that, "My eyes and My heart shall be there (in the Temple) for perpetuity.

On fast days they would use a bent Shofar from a ram: The use of a bent Shofar is based off of the verse in Isaiah: "They bow their heads like a bulrush" (Isaiah 58:5), like a person who is ashamed and sheepish because his actions have caused him this distress.

(1) It is a biblical commandment to hear the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashannah as it says "it is a day of blowing the horn unto you." The horn which is blown, both on Rosh Hashannah and for the Jubilee year, is a bent ram's horn.

(4) There are those who have the custom to pray on Rosh HaShanah and on Yom Kippur while bent over;

Bent over: Since our fate is hanging in the balance, it is appropriate to pray in a manner which demonstrates our fear and reverence

(1) Cry with full throat, without restraint; Raise your voice like a ram’s horn! Declare to My people their transgression, To the House of Jacob their sin. (2) To be sure, they seek Me daily, Eager to learn My ways. Like a nation that does what is right, That has not abandoned the laws of its God, They ask Me for the right way, They are eager for the nearness of God: (3) “Why, when we fasted, did You not see? When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?” Because on your fast day You see to your business And oppress all your laborers! (4) Because you fast in strife and contention, And you strike with a wicked fist! Your fasting today is not such As to make your voice heard on high. (5) Is such the fast I desire, A day for men to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush And lying in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast, A day when the LORD is favorable? (6) No, this is the fast I desire: To unlock fetters of wickedness, And untie the cords of the yoke To let the oppressed go free; To break off every yoke. (7) It is to share your bread with the hungry, And to take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the naked, to clothe him, And not to ignore your own kin.