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The Shofar on Shabbat
Rabbi Joshua Kulp
The Halakhah in the Parashah
Rosh Hashanah of 5784 begins on Shabbat, which as is well known, means that the shofar will not be blown until Sunday, the second day of Rosh Hashanah. But why not? What is wrong with blowing a shofar on Shabbat?
This is actually a complicated issue with a long history of halakhic disputes that have continued almost to our day. But right off the bat I want to note that when Rosh Hashanah is two days, as it has always been since the end of the Talmudic period (and perhaps earlier), the question is slightly less critical than it might have been originally, for the shofar will be blown on the second day. But if originally Rosh Hashanah was observed for only one day, then refraining from blowing the shofar on Shabbat would have completely eliminated a positive commandment from the Torah.
The issue is addressed originally in Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 4:1:
If Yom Tov of Rosh Hashanah fell on Shabbat, they would blow the shofar in the Temple but not in the country.
After the destruction of the Temple, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakai decreed that it should be blown [on Shabbat] in every place where there was a court.
According to the Mishnah, the shofar was originally blown on Shabbat in the Temple (there are two interpretations of “the Temple–I am following that of the Rambam) but not outside thereof. After the destruction, R. Yochanan ben Zakai enacted that it should be blown anywhere that had a court. The reason for this is in my opinion calendrical. Musical instruments and loud sounds are generally not supposed to be made on Shabbat (an issue I am not delving into here, for more see here). But there is a mitzvah to make such a noise on Rosh Hashanah. In a place where one knows that it is Rosh Hashanah because that is where the calendar is set, the mitzvah to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah overrides the prohibition on blowing shofar on Shabbat, and thus the shofar can be sounded. But in other areas, it might not be known if the current day is the first day of Tishrei and not the last day of Elul. In such places, the mitzvah is uncertain and therefore the shofar would not be sounded.
Both Talmudim search for a more substantial reason why there would be a place that does not blow the shofar on Shabbat. After all, this is a mitzvah from the Torah. How could one simply not observe this mitzvah? To answer this puzzle, they note a small difference in the wording between the two places in the Torah that refer to blasts being sounded on Shabbat. Leviticus 23:24 refers to Rosh Hashanah as a day of “memorial of blasts.” In contrast, Numbers 29:1 refers to a “day of blasts.” This contradiction leads to the conclusion that at times we remember the blasts–when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat. And at times we actually sound the blasts–when Rosh Hashanah falls on any other day. However, both Talmudim also notice that this solution “over-solves” the problem. If there is a verse which states that the shofar is not sounded when the holiday falls on Shabbat, then why is it sounded in the Temple or in places that have courts?
While the Yerushalmi does not come to a definitive answer, in the Bavli, Rava answers that the problem is that mandating the blowing of the shofar on Shabbat could lead to carrying in the public domain, a prohibition that would not be waived in order to enable hearing the shofar. This is actually quite a radical statement–out of fear that one will transgress, a positive commandment is ignored.
In the post-Talmudic period, the question arose–can the shofar be blown on Shabbat in a place in which there is a major court? After all, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakai made a decree that this is exactly what should be done, and there is nothing in either Talmud to suggest that his decree no longer applies. R. Yitzchak Alfasi (known as the Rif), the 11th century N. African rabbi who was probably the most influential posek in halakhic history, indeed ruled that in his court, the shofar would be blown on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah. But alas, his was a lone voice and no other recorded medieval or early modern posek, even the Rambam, ruled that the shofar may be blown on Shabbat in our times. There is no doubt that this is evidence of both resistance to change and a lessening in the perception of rabbinic authority, two phenomena that often go hand in hand. In theory, the shofar should be blown in courts that enjoy high authority. But once entrenched, the custom to not do so was almost impossible to uproot.
This issue was revisited with the return of large numbers of Jews to the Land of Israel in the early 20th century. R. Akiva Yosef Schlessinger, a student of two great rabbis in Hungary, emigrated to Palestine, where he tried to instill the blowing of the shofar in Jerusalem on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah. In his opinion, the original ruling of the Mishnah had not changed. While there are many reasons that he advocated for this change, from a meta-halakhic perspective it is clear that such a change would signal the halakhic, religious and perhaps even cosmic significance of Zionism. Israel is not just any country and Jerusalem is not just any city. Jerusalem is the city of the Temple, the place from which Torah goes out to the world. The shofar’s call to God cannot be stifled on Rosh Hashanah in this place, even if the day is also Shabbat. But again, this was a lone voice and today, in traditional circles no one blows the shofar on Shabbat.
Examining the history of this fascinating halakhah highlights moments of great halakhic innovation and audacity as well as moments of timidity. R. Yohanan ben Zakkai was perhaps the greatest halakhic innovator in Jewish history, and through a series of takkanot (rabbinic enactments), he ensured that Judaism survived the cataclysmic destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. By enacting that the shofar should be sounded in every place that there is a court, R. Yohanan ben Zakkai clearly sent the message that the authority of the leaders in these courts was no less than that enjoyed by the leaders in the Temple. In the eleventh century the Rif sent such a message in North Africa–his authority was no less than that enjoyed by the Geonim in Babylonia, who had led the Jews for the five hundred years following the end of the Talmudic period.
While it might be easy to criticize the other voices for their timidity, there is a value to this halakhic approach as well. By the time of the Rif in the eleventh century, the custom to not blow the shofar on Shabbat had been firmly entrenched. To tell people all of a sudden that this year we can blow the shofar on Shabbat would have been jarring. And the message that Jewish practice remains stable even after the return to the land of Israel is perhaps equally important to the message that it must change. Just as there are two days of Rosh Hashanah, there are two sides to this debate as well.
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