Ki Savo 5766Volume 3 · Issue 3

Year of My Redemption

Accordingly, Rosh Hashanah begins the Giving of the Torah. Indeed, one of the ten reasons offered by R’ Sa’adiah Gaon for the sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is to bring us back to the shofar of Mount Sinai. This clearly is the preponderant reason, for the Shofar Prayer mentions only this. It begins, “You were revealed in Your cloud of glory upon Your holy people

In Days of Repentance · Chapter 20View Sefer

Ki Seitzei 5769Volume 6 · Issue 1

Confident of a Miracle

In only one other instance, we praise the Creator with the praise of incomparability. Following the verses of shofar, in Musaf of Rosh Hashanah, it says, “For You hear the sound of the shofar and listen to the blast, and none is comparable to You.” Nowhere else do we refer to Him as incomparable—only by the Resurrection

In Days of Repentance · Chapter 10View Sefer

Naso 5776Volume 12 · Issue 34

Soul of Sinai

Our masters openly consider this the reason why we blow the shofar to prevail in judgment. Blowing the shofar parallels the Breath of Life that was blown into us. We perform the very same act that the Creator had performed and we blow the shofar with that very Breath of Life. In response

In Omer & Shavuos · Chapter 25View Sefer

Ki Seitzei 5751Volume 15 · Issue 2

End of Time

commandments of the day of Rosh Hashanah as stated in the Written and Oral Torah. It is a day of blowing, a day of remembrance (cf. Bamidbar 29:1; Vayikra 23:24). We are obligated to sound the shofar, to recite verses of Kingship, Remembrance, and Shofar (Rosh Hashanah 16a), and to fulfill all the other laws of Rosh Hashanah.

In On the Torah V · Chapter 188View Sefer

Behaaloscha 5757Volume 18 · Issue 33

Hewed Pillars

And they are enumerated. “It was on the third day when it was the morning and there were sounds,” the plural implies two, “and lightning, and a heavy cloud upon the mountain, and the sound of the shofar…. The sound of the shofar kept becoming very much stronger, Moshe would speak, and the Lord would answer him with sound” (Shemos 19:16-19).

Nitzavim 5765Volume 2 · Issue 4

Rosh Hashanah: The Decision of Being

The Rambam continues and writes two outcomes that emerge from the fact of this judgment. “Although the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a Biblical decree, it contains an allusion, as if to say, awake from your sleep, you who sleep, and arise from your slumber, you who slumber, and search your deeds and return with repentance and remember

In Days of Repentance · Chapter 26View Sefer

Bechukosai 5772Volume 8 · Issue 28

Beyond the Sabbath

says (Vayikra 25:8-10), “Count for yourself seven cycles of Sabbatical Years—seven years seven times; the years of the seven cycles of Sabbatical years shall be for you forty-nine years. Sound the blowing of the shofar in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on Yom Kippur, sound the shofar throughout your land. Sanctify the year of the fiftieth year…, and it shall be the Jubilee for you.”

In Sabbath & Prayer · Chapter 7View Sefer

Shoftim 5774Volume 11 · Issue 1

Signposts of the Torah

everyone returns to his heritage. Its sanctity is the sanctity of the Jubilee. Indeed, the redemption of the Jubilee Year itself was manifest on Yom Kippur, as it says (Vayikra 25:9). “On Yom Kippur, you shall sound the shofar throughout your land.” The Talmud states (Rosh Hashanah 8b), “Once the court sounded the shofar, the slaves departed to their homes, and the fields returned to their owners.”

Shoftim 5775Volume 12 · Issue 1

Days of Fearsomeness

Let us try to understand a fundamental point—as well as the way to proceed toward the Days of Fearsomeness. What must we do—aside from sounding the shofar and reciting the aforementioned chapter of Psalms; our Sephardic brethren also recite prayers of forgiveness. All is fine and well. But is that all? Is it enough?

Balak 5776Volume 12 · Issue 39

Truth Endures

As we know, the Torah is called Rachmana, the Merciful. This is found throughout the Talmud, as in (Temurah 4b), “Any matter that Rachmana, the Merciful, said not to do…,” or (Rosh Hashanah 16a), “Why is the shofar sounded? The Merciful said, “Sound the shofar.””

In On the Torah V · Chapter 171View Sefer

Haazinu 5750Volume 14 · Issue 5

The Sabbath of Sabbaths

The Torah also reveals the concept of Yom Kippur by another subject, in the section that discusses the Jubilee Year. “Then, you shall sound the shofar of blowing in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month. On Yom Kippur, you shall sound the shofar throughout your land. Thereby, you shall sanctify the year of the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land

In Sabbath & Prayer · Chapter 11View Sefer

Nitzavim 5751Volume 15 · Issue 4

Gifts for the Poor

Immediately, “God spoke to Moshe saying, “Speak to the Children of Israel saying, “In the seventh month on the first of the month there shall be a cessation of work for you, a remembrance through the shofar, a call for consecration”” (Vayikra 23:22-24).

Vayelech 5752Volume 15 · Issue 5

Beyond the Protocols of Mercy

The entire Torah is called Rachmana, Merciful, because it is the manifestation of the attribute of mercy. This term applies to every command, as we find throughout the Talmud. ““Why is the shofar sounded? The Merciful said, “Sound the shofar (Rosh Hashanah 16a), “Any matter that Rachmana, the Merciful, said not to do…,” (Temurah 4b). But this mercy follows the protocols of the Torah. Any matter that the Merciful said not to do cannot

Vayechi 5754Volume 16 · Issue 14

Tenth of the Tenth

Of the Ultimate Future, it famously says (Yeshayahu 27:13), “It shall be on that day the great shofar shall be sounded, and those lost in the Land of Assyria and those driven away in the Land of Egypt shall come, and they shall bow to God on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.”

Nitzavim-Vayelech 5753Volume 16 · Issue 4

Cast into the Depths of the Sea

awareness. “Do with me as all that Your attribute of justice necessitates. But I plead for mercy.” And in merit of the Binding of Yitzchak, in merit of our declaration of His Kingship, of Remembrances, and of the Shofar, He brings our remembrance before Him for goodness (Rosh Hashanah 16a).

In On the Torah V · Chapter 191View Sefer

Mattos-Masei 5756Volume 17 · Issue 33

Repelled and Lost

Of the Ultimate Future, it says (Yeshayahu 27:13), “It shall be on that day the great shofar shall be sounded, and those lost in the Land of Assyria and those repelled in the Land of Egypt shall come, and they shall bow to God on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.”

Vayelech 5756Volume 17 · Issue 5

Interdependent Lots

point of all its aspects—and surpassing all of them is the one we essentially find explicit in the Torah. It is the day when all go free. In the Jubilee Year, which is synonymous with Yom Kippur, the shofar is sounded and freedom is declared throughout the land, “And you shall return every man to his heritage, and you shall return every man to his family” (Vayikra 25:9-10).

Emor 5757Volume 18 · Issue 28

Cry of the Counting

Of this, it says (Shemos 19:16), “There was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud upon the Mountain, and the sound of the shofar was very powerful—and all the people in the encampment trembled.” It is self-understood that their trembling was not because they were worried something would happen. It was clearly due to their fear of the loftiness.

Bamidbar 5757Volume 18 · Issue 31

Beloved Encampments

For these four Torah Readings, one of the commentators, Hagahos Maymoni, cites a mnemonic from Rav Amram Gaon, “Command and celebrate Passover, count and celebrate Shavuos, fast and pray, stand and sound the shofar.”

Balak 5757Volume 18 · Issue 36

War of Words

This translation follows one interpretation of the sages, where the root word teruah is defined as rei’us, denoting love and closeness. In another interpretation, the sages define it as the sound of the shofar (Bamidbar Rabbah 20:20).