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Blowing Shofar on Shabbos Is Forbidden Started Looking Around the Shul Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Ari Greenspan Talmudic History Two enigmatic mishnayos (Rosh HaShanah 4:1–2) discuss his year it is unlikely that any of us the issue. The Mishnah says: “When Rosh will fulfill the mitzvah of shofar the HaShanah fell on Shabbos, they would Tway the Torah commands it. The blow in the Mikdash but not in the medinah mitzvah in the Torah is to blow the shofar [outside the Mikdash]. When the Temple on the first day of Rosh HaShanah, and this was destroyed, Rav Yochanan ben Zakai year the first day of Rosh HaShanah falls on established that they should blow anywhere Shabbos. This timing may not seem so rare, that has a beis din. Rabbi Elazar said that having occurred in five of the last ten years, Rav Yochanan ben Zakai made his decree but it will not happen again for another only in Yavneh; the other Sages responded eleven years, until 2020. Though the Torah that it applied equally to Yavneh and to any apparently obligates us to blow the shofar other place with a beis din. Furthermore, SHOFAR when the first day of Rosh HaShanah falls Jerusalem had one up on Yavneh in that any on Shabbos, Chazal decreed that in general, city that could see Jerusalem, could hear it, when Rosh HaShanah is on Shabbos was near it, and from which people could the shofar is not blown. Hence there is come to it on Yom Tov also blew, while in no d’Oraysa fulfillment of the mitzvah, Yavneh they blew only in the beis din.” which is only on the first day. Why would This mishnah evokes rabbinic debate Chazal prevent us from blowing the on almost every word. Even the definition shofar on Shabbos when it seems that the of “Mikdash” and “medinah” in the first Torah requires it? This mitzvah should be half is debated. Rambam understands ON SHABBOS no different from bris milah. Milah is a that “Mikdash” includes all of Jerusalem, positive commandment, as is shofar, and while medinah means everywhere AND THE BURNING OF THE TZITZIS IN JERUSALEM just as a bris is done on Shabbos when it is outside the capital, while Rashi interprets the eighth day after birth, the shofar should Mikdash literally as the Temple complex, be sounded when Rosh HaShanah falls on while medinah includes even the rest of Shabbos. This topic opens a door to some Jerusalem. of the most unique thoughts and actions of It is not just the micro but even more the last hundred years. so the macro picture of this mishnah When the first day of Rosh HaShanah that is truly perplexing. The latter part is on Shabbos, the custom of all Jews these of the mishnah states that Jerusalem had days is to not blow the shofar. The reason some advantages over Yavneh, including for not blowing is not as clear as we usually that nearby locations also blew shofar assume. This practice has not always on Shabbos. What time period is that been the tradition in all times and places. statement referring to? The early part of the As recently as 100 years ago, there was a Mishnah seems clear that when there was a serious, maybe even successful attempt to Mikdash, only there was the shofar blown, blow shofar on Shabbos Rosh HaShanah in not in nearby towns. It is therefore possible Jerusalem. that this advantage applied during the time of the Mikdash and was simply not stated explicitly in the first part. Alternatively, there are two pre-Churban periods — one when the Sanhedrin met in artist's rendering of the Sanhedrin 22 27 Tammuz 5769 7.30.09 23 the Mikdash, and one when it was exiled to of a rabbinic enactment. Surprisingly, we the market just outside the Temple — and seem to have a remnant of the Yerushalmi FROM RAV YOCHANAN BEN ZAKAI TO BULGARIA the Jerusalem advantage obtained during in our davening. This Rosh HaShanah, in Jews have been in Bulgaria for well over a thousand years. The mechaber of that period. Others suggest that it was post- the Shmoneh Esrei, in Kiddush, and in the the Shulchan Aruch, Rav Yosef Karo, married the daughter of the chief rabbi of Churban that Jerusalem was given a leg up brachah of the haftarah on the first day, we Bulgaria before moving to Tzfas in the sixteenth century. Under communism, the on all other places with a beis din. As we will replace the biblical phrase “yom truah,” once thriving Bulgarian Jewish community shrank, and many of the smaller shuls shall see, this last position played a role in a day of blowing, with “zichron truah,” a closed. However, in Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria, a large, beautiful shul built in a fierce controversy in the early twentieth remembrance of blowing, apparently in 1909 still stands. century. line with the Yerushalmi’s position that In 2008, when Ari Greenspan traveled to Bulgaria to perform some brissim, he blowing shofar on Shabbos is forbidden started looking around the shul. Despite being told that there was nothing in the It should be Churvah Synagogue Yerushalayim by the Torah, not just rabbinically. Indeed, Shofar in the Mikdash basement, he asked the old shammes to unlock it and entered a dark, damp stone noted that the shofar blowing in the Temple possibly for this reason, Rav Hai Gaon did room with no electricity. Bags of garbage and junk sat alongside big, wooden differed in other ways from the blowing not modify these texts as we do when Rosh boxes. By candlelight, he opened box after box to discover a treasure-trove of outside it. In the Mikdash, trumpeters HaShanah falls on Shabbos. The Rosh flanked the shofar blower. The chatzotzrot (Rosh HaShanah, end of chapter 4) quotes Judaica that had been collected from shuls all over the country, deposited in the [trumpets] were blown in tandem with the Rabbeinu Shmuel bar Chofni as changing humid basement, and forgotten. Among the finds were hundreds of Ark curtains shofar, which was sounded a bit longer than as we do. Interestingly, Meseches Sofrim (some dating back to the early 1800s), some 120 silver Torah finials, pointers, they were. The shofar used in the Mikdash (19:8), cited in the Beis Yosef, says to make crowns, Torah covers, and — shofars. was also different — it was straight and the change because we do not blow These shofars were unique in two respects. One, they were decorated had gold plating near the mouthpiece. The on Shabbos, owing to the rabbinic with crude carvings. Two, each one had a fine string wrapped around Gemara [Rosh HaShanah 27a] learns these enactment. This source clearly it in a manner that was clearly part of its design. differences from the verse [Tehillim 98:6] accords with the Bavli yet Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the country's that “before the Lord,” i.e., in the Mikdash, sees no contradiction in Jews are all Sephardim. Their minhag is that of Eretz Yisrael. the shofar blowing was unique. reciting the verses as per the Could this string be a remnant of the Eretz Yisrael tradition of Often the status of Jerusalem in this Yerushalmi. Nonetheless, blowing the shofar on Shabbos if it was tied to a pole? We will regard is presented as a debate among the most poskim (see Kaf probably never know, but sitting in that basement, Greenspan Rishonim. Ramban’s famous drashah HaChaim 582:7) rule that could not help but for Rosh HaShanah offers an interesting picture inside the bet Kenesset Tiferet Yisrael if on Shabbos one recited feel connected to the l perspective. Ramban understands that yom truah, he has fulfilled his s e distant past. Who held t ra whether the shofar was blown throughout In the Mikdash, trumpeters flanked the second verse is referring to when Rosh obligation. a is m Y these crudely formed p o et pre-Churban Jerusalem is really a machlokes the shofar blower. The chatzotzrot HaShanah falls on a weekday, and the first Following the Destruction, in f ifer bet Kenesset T shofars, where were they between the Talmud Bavli (shofar not (trumpets) were blown in tandem with verse refers to Rosh HaShanah on Shabbos. 70 CE, Judaism changed radically. We blown, and for how many Rosh blown) and the Talmud Yerushalmi (shofar the shofar, which was sounded a bit This interpretation would seem to indicate no longer had the Mikdash and korbanos, HaShanahs? Might these very shofars blown). longer than they were. The shofar used that not blowing is a matter of biblical law, and the leader and savior of the remnant be a link back to the original enactment The two Talmuds also disagree about in the Mikdash was also different — it and the permission to blow in the Mikdash of Israel, Rav Yochanan ben Zakai, had to Greenspan Ari Dr. photo: of Rav Yochanan ben Zakai? the basis for not blowing the shofar when was straight and had gold plating near is also biblical, because Vayikra 23:24 determine various halachos, such as whether Rosh HaShanah is on Shabbos: the mouthpiece implies that where sacrifices are brought, shofar blowing on Shabbos Rosh HaShanah The Bavli concludes its discussion the shofar may be blown on Shabbos. would be forgotten until the Mikdash was (Rosh HaShanah 29b) of the reason for A fine distinction needs to be pointed rebuilt, or whether it would continue under ordinary beis din suffices. Not surprisingly, not blowing with the famous enactment of out: It is not obvious whether the certain circumstances as a remembrance the Rosh reports that the Rif himself Rabbah that the prohibition is rabbinic and Yerushalmi is saying that Shabbos of the Temple practice, similar to other convened his beis din in Fez, Morocco, intended to prevent one from mistakenly shofar blowing is prohibited by the remembrances he instituted? and actually blew the shofar on Shabbos carrying the shofar four amos in a public Torah but permitted in the Mikdash, Rosh HaShanah so as to fulfill the positive thoroughfare, thereby desecrating Shabbos.
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