RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL ; ECO-JUDAISM ; God blows the Shofar for us!
Shalom my dear chaverim, talmidim v rabbanim:
A question was posed to me a few days ago by a fellow rabbi, a good friend, he being on the bimah of a Reform temple. ''With Yom Kippur falling on Shabbat in this year, 2010, what do we do, if we can't blow the shofar on Shabbat?''But the question is a really a trick question. And as we say in Ivrit, "Abracadabra," meaning "I create (A'bra) what (ca) I speak (dab'ra)." And as one of my Rebbe's reminded me recently, a Rav must know his audience, or if not, will be inflicted with their ire. And as I am reminded way too often, we rabbis wear targets on our backs.While we see rules about not blowing the shofar when Rosh ha Shana falls on Shabbat, we do not see any rules about what to do if Yom Kippur falls on a Shabbat. This is because, we never ever blow the Shofar on Yom Kippur!! Even when we announce the Yovel, every 50 years, on Yom Kippur, we are not blowing the Shofar on the actual Yom Kippur.But, many a congregation would yell, "Horse feathers...we have heard the Shofar blown every Yom Kippur at the end of services.'' Perhaps, but that is only in non-traditional temples ending Yom Kippur early. In Emet, we blow the Shofar after Ne'ilah. As we are well aware, Ne'ilah, the 'closing' prayer, when the 'gates of prayer'' are closed, starts a little bit before sunset and ends a bit after sunset. We then say the Shema and then blow the shofar. In actuality, the shofar blowing is not on Yom Kippur, but is in the first few minutes of the 11th of Tishrei. For 2010, when Yom Kippur is on Saturday, Shabbat, after the Shofar blowing, we then do havdallah, and then break the fast. Traditionally breaking of the fast, is always on the 11th of Tishrei as well.The confusion comes with non-traditional Jews, ending Yom Kippur early, while still on the 10th of Tishrei, breaking fast before the sun sets. Hence if Yom Kippur, is on Shabbat, if they want to do what is correct regarding the Shofar v Shabbat, they find themselves stuck on the 'horns of a dilemma'' [ pun poorly intended], of either keeping their Yom Kippur service to a traditional time table, or blow the Shofar, after they break their fast, and it becomes nightfall.Of course the question becomes moot in a non-traditional congregation, which picks and chooses what halakah, if any, it wishes to follow or not, with so- called ''ritual committees.'' [When I was ritual chair of a Reform congregation, and just started intense study which would lead to my semicha, I proudly told one of my Traditional rabbinic teachers that I was ritual chair of a Reform Temple . He said this was an ''oxymoron.'' ]For traditional Jews, the problem of the Shofar blowing is not if Yom Kippur falls on Shabbat, but if Yom Kippur ends on Erev Shabbat! If Kol Nidre starts at sun down on a Thursday night, and Ne'ilah ends at the beginning of Erev Shabbat, one has the problem of blowing the Shofar during the first few minutes of Shabbat. But this question is not addressed in Halakah for the simple reason that Rabbi Hillel, II, in 358 CE, set our calendar in such a way that the day of Yom Kippur will never be on a Friday!!{Yom Kippur also doesn't fall on a Sunday nor a Tuesday as well, as that would set in motion for Yom Kippur to eventually fall on a Friday. Rosh ha Shana only can be on a Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday. This keeps Hosanna Rabbah from falling on a Shabbat and keeps the first day of Sukkoth when there is a full moon. But again, if I were trying to teach this in answering the posed question, I'd be lynched. And while the Rambam in his Hilchot Kiddush Ha Chodesh 11:04, says that understanding the Jewish calendar would only take a child 3 days of study, I explain the Jewish calendar so the Modern Jew can understand it in my essay on Parasha Bo on pages 129 -133 in a A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud in an hour or less}.On the other hand, {and isn't there always another hand?}, when Yom Kippur does fall on Shabbat as it will in 2010, there are changes in the service. We add some prayers and delete others.But our calendar doesn't preclude Rosh ha Shana from falling on a Shabbat and hence when it does, we are not to blow the Shofar. The Shofar in a shul on Shabbat or a Rosh ha Shana which is on a Shabbat becomes keli she-melachto l'issur and is muktzeh. In a traditional sense, just showing a beautiful Shofar on Shabbat, and leaving it out, where one, ignorant of Shabbat law's, could have picked it up, and blown it, would be a mega no-no in a traditional shul, as not only does it break Melacoth rules of Shabbat, but also would be Lifne Iver, putting a stumbling block before a 'religiously' blind congregant and leading him to sin. Ouch. :-)But there is a greater spiritual and ethical aspect in all of this, and that is where my interest lies. When any holiday coincides with Shabbat there would be changes at least minimally to the prayers. But on the Shabbat of Sukkoth we don't shake the Lulav and Etrog, we omit or change the 'circle' called Hoshanot on Shabbat, we omit the priestly blessings on the Shabbat of the holiday etc. There are many changes, omissions or additions. But the spiritual lesson is we do these changes, including not blowing the Shofar on a Shabbat, because most of these are not necessary BECAUSE of Shabbat!!What am I speaking about? Hang in there with me please. Not withstanding other reasons our sages have put forth for the various changes e.g. not blowing the Shofar on Shabbat because a person might carry it in the street on Shabbat and thereby desecrating the Shabbat, and this would be the same with the Luluv and Etrog. Hence by accomplishing the mitzvah of Shofar blowing or Shaking the Four Species on Sukkoth, on Shabbat, we are doing so through desecrating the Shabbat. This would negate the positive affects of the Mitzvah because the Mitzvah only came about due to the desecration.Let's use the Shofar as an example if we blow it on Rosh ha Shana if the New Year is on Shabbat. (Keep in mind that I explained why the sages don't discuss the problem of blowing on Yom Kippur, as it can't happen with their rabbinic calendar). Our sages have explained that a person might accidentally carry the Shofar to synagogue on Shabbat in order to blow it, or ask a Rabbi if the Shofar is a kosher one and this is prohibited on Shabbat. Or it may break or be clogged, and need to be fixed, and this also is not allowed on Shabbat. This would be akin to stealing wood in order to build a sukkah or stealing a luluv or etrog in order to make the beracoth to Ha Shem for them. Or as a newspaper, had a full color picture of, a town's Rabbi , hammering nails on Shabbat to erect a sukkah. It is what is known as a Mitzvah haba b'aveira, a mitzvah that comes about through a sin. (Now I am putting aside a long discourse on Sabbatai Zvi , Kabbalah, enantiodromia, and the Jewish idea that good can be born from evil as I discuss in detail in my D'var Torah on Parasha Eikev on pages 390- to 398 in a A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud )So what is this spiritual lesson I was referring to three paragraphs above? Here is it: "On Shabbat all of our work is done for us, already accomplished by GOD," our sages teach. By NOT hearing the Shofar on a Rosh Ha Shana on Shabbat, we ARE hearing it!!
We find in the Torah reference to NOT blowing the shofar on Rosh Ha Shana! The Torah at one point [Lev 23:24] uses the expression, "Zichron Teruah", a remembrance of the Teruah ( shofar blast). We see that there are times when we merely remember the blast and don't actually blow it. On a more spiritual level, we know that the Shabbat is the day that the Divine 'rested.' Better said, because One Who is Omnipotent does not need to rest, He imbued Shabbat with holiness, as we state in the kiddush on Friday nights.[While the Talmud Bavli Rosh Ha Shana 29b initially assumes that "Yom Teruah" refers to Rosh Ha Shana that falls on a weekday (hence the active "day" of blowing) and "Zichron Teruah" refers to Rosh Ha Shana that coincides with Shabbat (on which the Shofar is not blown; hence the mere "remembrance" of blowing), the Talmud ultimately concludes that the disparity of language does not actually teach the abstention from Shofar blowing on Shabbat. Rather, the cancellation of Shofar blowing on Shabbat is a function of a Rabbinic – not Biblical – injunction, enacted out of fear that one might come to carry a Shofar in a reshut ha Rabim (public domain, where an eruv has not been established).In coming to this conclusion, however, the Sages make no mention of what the disparity of language , "Yom Teruah" versus "Zichron Teruah,'' teaches us. Note also, that Talmud Yerushalmi concludes that the abstention from Shofar on Shabbat is indeed a Biblical commandment, derived from the aforementioned verses.]
[ Talmud Bavli Tractate Rosh Ha Shana 26b, instructs us that a Shofar should be bent. But it is Rashi, based on the Gemarra, who explains that a bent Shofar resembles a person bent in humility and submission during tephila . Apparently, the Shofar fulfills a role strikingly similar to that of tephila and hence the Mitzvah of hearing it, is not enough, but must be done, as with tephila, with spiritual internal "kiyum She'Ba'Lev" (fulfillment of this mitzvah through our heart), and requires kavenah.If we are not moved to an emotional state during hearing the Shofar, we have not completed the mitzvah. This leads to another question: which takes precedence, the Torah mitzvoth of hearing the shofar, or the rabbinic mitzvoth of tephila? The Talmud, ibid, 34b, answers ''the shofar,'' but then Rashi in Lev. 23. says that many Tephila are not just rabbinic, but commanded in the Torah as well.]Spiritually in regard to 'work' that is forbidden on Shabbat, we know that it is to remember that God is the Creator and Master of the world and just as He did not need to 'work' on Shabbat so too we need not work. This what our sages meant with the above quote of : "On Shabbat all of our work is done for us, already accomplished by God."[Mekhilta Masekhta Ba Chosesh].
So if we spiritually extrapolate, using simple Kal Vachomer , [literally translated as light and heavy, or lenient and stringent,Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 29a], this premise that 'all of our work is done' to the prohibition of blowing the shofar (or other such activities prohibited on the various holidays) and we now understand that there are times when the Divine takes care of these items for us.A point in fact would be that when Rosh Ha Shana falls on Shabbat it causes a spiritual elevation to that particular Rosh Ha Shana. It is taught that the first Mishkan in B'Midbar was constructed during a year when Rosh Ha Shana was on a Shabbat. And some sages postulate that it elevates the entire year spiritually! Why?? Because it is God Himself that accomplishes these Mitzvoth for us that we cannot do ourselves because a holiday falls on Shabbat.God is blowing the Shofar for us!! God is shaking the Luluv with the Etrog for us!!!Now, the spiritual rhetorical question: who can do these Mitzvoth better... us or Him? So really there is no NEED for us to do these actions when the holiday falls on Shabbat. Our NOT doing them, has more spiritual significance if we understand and have transformed via Jewish Spiritual Renewal.The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern JewShalom uvracha v'ahavah,With special thanks to my chaver and talmid Benjamin Pincus, and to one of the many Rebbe's who takes time, even on July 4th, to teach, Rab Muskal.www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
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