[Avodah] Shofar Pitch

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 1:04pm EDT, R Michael Kopinsky wrote to
Areivim:
: On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 11:25am, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
:> A question for Avodah -- is the sound supposed to be level, or are
:> teqi'os and shevarim supposed to go up in pitch at the end?

: Or, in the case of shevarim, should they go up in pitch in the middle and
: back down at the end, as the baal tekiah in KBY (R' Zechariah Frankel) does?

This is a Brisker thing. The problem is a machloqes Rashi and Tosafos
over the definition of a shevarim.

Rashi holds that each sound of the shevarim must be less than 3 beats,
as then it would qualify as a teqi'ah.

Tosafos hold, as most of us practice, that the full three sounds should
be as long as a teru'ah, and thus there must be 3 beats per sound.

It was suggested to R Chaim (one version of the story puts the suggestion
in RYBS's mouth, but RARR remembers RYBS telling the story in third
person) that if one blew 5 sounds, 2 beats - 1 beat - 2 - 1 - 2, one could
be yotzei both. If you blow a single 2 beat sound that has time to go up
at the end, and let it run into the one beat, such that 2+1 - 2+1 - 2+1,
one manages to address R' Chaim's concern AND be somewhat closer to
universal norm.

I'm not thrilled with this innovation. The whole point of blowing
shevarim, teru'ah, and shevarim-teru'ah is so that BY all blow the shofar
identically. By creating new minhagim, this unity of G-d's fanfare is
again broken, for the first time since at least bayis sheini.

Any thoughts on this or my original question (see quote, above) would be
appreciated.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Take time,
micha at aishdas.org        be exact,
http://www.aishdas.org   unclutter the mind.
Fax: (270) 514-1507            - Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, Alter of Kelm