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a Shofar</a>'<br />
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<div class="pf-content"><blockquote>
<div dir="rtl">אמר רבי יהודה משום רבי עקיבא …
אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא: … ואמרו לפני בראש
השנה מלכיות זכרונות ושופרות. מלכיות: כדי
שתמליכוני עליכם. זכרונות: כדי שיעלה
זכרוניכם לפני לטובה. ובמה? בשופר.</div>
<p>Rabbi Yehudah said an idea from Rabbi Aqiva …: The Holy One, blessed
be He said, “… say before Me on Rosh haShanah, <em>Malkhios</em>,
<em>Zikhoronos</em> and <em>Shoferos</em>.<br />“<em>Malkhios</em>: so
that you shall make Me King over you;<br />“<em>Zikhoronos</em>: so that
your memories shall come before Me;<br />“And with what? With a
<em>shofar</em>.”</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>– Rosh haShanah </em>16a</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">(Sidenote: There is a dispute as to what this
implies as to the nature of the obligation. Rashi holds that these
<em>berakhos</em> are mandatory from the Torah, if said with / as part of
<em>shofar</em> blowing. He says that Malkhios is the essence of the day, as
we see in practice we combine it with the usual holiday blessing for the day.
And the words “<em>yom zikhron teru’ah — </em>a day of
memory of horn-blasts” obligates us in Zikhronos and Shoferos. The Ritva
in general holds that asmachtos, usually translated as mnemonic devices, are
actually hints from G-d that an idea is a good one, but not mandatory. Thus a
law from an asmachta is one that was suggested by G-d but made obligatory by
the Chakhamim. Here, the Ritva says it’s an <em>asmachta —
</em>G-d said “say before me”, but it wasn’t made mandatory
until the Chakhamim codified it.)</p>
<blockquote>
<div dir="rtl"><strong>מתנ’:</strong> כל השופרות כשרים
חוץ משל פרה מפני שהוא קרן אמר רבי יוסי והלא
כל השופרות נקראו קרן שנאמר (יהושוע ו) במשוך
בקרן היובל:
<p> </p>
<p><strong>גמ’:</strong> … עולא אמר היינו טעמא
דרבנן כדרב חסדא דאמר רב חסדא מפני מה אין
כהן גדול נכנס בבגדי זהב לפני ולפנים לעבוד
עבודה לפי שאין קטיגור נעשה סניגור</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Mishnah:</strong> Every <em>shofar</em> is <em>kosher</em> except
for that of a cow, because it’s called “<em>qeren</em>“.
Rabbi Yosi said: but isn’t every <em>shofar</em> called
“<em>qeren</em>“, as it says “In the middle of the
<em>qeren</em> of the <em>yoveil</em>” (Yehoshua 6)?</p>
<p><strong>Gemara:</strong> Ulla said: What is the reason for the Rabbanan
[the unnamed first opinion in the <em>mishnah</em>]? [Because they rule] like
Rav Chisda. For Rav Chisda said: Why doesn’t the <em>kohein gadol</em>
wear the <em>bigei zahav — </em>[his full uniform, including] the golden
clothes when <em>lifnai velifnim</em> — before Me and within [the Holy
of Holies]? Because a prosecutor can not be turned into the defense
attourney.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>– Rosh haShanah 26a</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">Rav Dovid Lifshitz addressed these gemaras in his
pre-Rosh haShanah shiur of 1989. (<a title="Aspaqlaria: Shalom Aleikhem"
href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2008/09/shalom-aleikhem.shtml">See here for
an entry </a>that opens with another thought from that talk.)</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Notice that the <em>kohein gadol</em> did wear
the full <em>bigdei zahav</em> the rest of Yom Kippur, including when doing
the other parts of the service of the very same <em>qorban</em>! The notion
that <em>ein qeteigor naaseh saneigor</em>, that the prosecution can’t
become the defense, is not a law in atonement, it’s a law in <em>lifnai
velifnim</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">What then does it mean when this rule applies to
<em>shofar</em>? Rashi points out that the <em>gemara </em>is assuming a
comparison — listening to the <em>shofar</em> is tantamount to entering
the Holy of Holies, only performed by the kohein gadol on Yom Kippur!</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">To add something of my own to this thought, in
the Sifra’s version of the thought Rabbi Yehudah repeated from R’
Aqiva, it concludes, “ובמה? בשופר של חרות — And
with what? with a <em>shofar</em> of freedom.” As Yeshaiah writes
(27:12) “<strong>יג</strong> וְהָיָ֣ה ׀ בַּיּ֣וֹם
הַה֗וּא יִתָּקַע֮ בְּשׁוֹפָ֣ר גָּדוֹל֒
וּבָ֗אוּ הָאֹֽבְדִים֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ
אַשּׁ֔וּר וְהַנִּדָּחִ֖ים בְּאֶ֣רֶץ
מִצְרָ֑יִם וְהִשְׁתַּֽחֲו֧וּ לַֽה’
בְּהַ֥ר הַקֹּ֖דֶשׁ בִּירֽוּשָׁלִָֽם׃ —
And it will be on that day, he will blow a great <em>shofar</em>, and those
lost in Ashur and those taken captive in Egypt will come and they will bow to
Hashem on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.”</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Similarly, the <em>shofar</em>‘s blow at
the <em>shemittah </em>year declared the freedom of slaves. A slave who
refuses his freedom, preferring to live under his master’s patronage,
has his ear pierced. The ear that heard “<em>ki avadai heim</em>
— for they are My servants” (Vayiqra 25:42) should know “My
servants — and not servants to my servants” (Bava Metzi’ah
10a).</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>Cheirus </em>appears associated with the
tablets, which rested in the ark in the center of the Holy of
Holies.”חָר֖וּת עַל־הַלֻּחֹֽת׃’ “אל
תקרי חָרוּת אלא חֵרוּת — ‘engraved
(<em>charus</em>) on the tablets’ (Shemos 32:16) — don’t
read <em>‘charus</em>‘ (engraved), rather
<em>‘cheirus</em>‘ (freedom).” Note also how Yeshaiah
associates the shofar’s call with coming to the Temple Mount. The
<em>shofar</em>‘s call to freedom would seem to be an echo of the
freedom engraved on the <em>luchos</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Back to rebbe’s shiur…</p>
<p>Remember the feeling when you first came to the Kotel. That moment when you
turned the corner, emerging from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of
Jerusalem, reached the steps, and saw the Kotel and the Temple Mount for the
first time. The scene had a majesty the post cards simply can’t prepare you
for.</p>
<p>Perhaps you pause to tear your shirt as a mourner. Or maybe you came on
Shabbos.</p>
<p>You descend down the steps from the Quarter to the Kotel area. Your eyes
never leaving The Wall. You feel yourself choking up. Every footstep with its
solemnity.</p>
<p>And after a brief trip through security, you emerge among the many others
there. Perhaps you hear ululation from the women’s section, as a Sepharadi
women gives voice to her excitement at hearing her grandson called up to the
Torah as a Bar Mitzvah.</p>
<p>You make your way to the ramp over on the men’s side. Wash your hands.
Check your <em>kippah</em>. Pause to answer a Kaddish shouted at one of the
<em>minyanim </em>you pass.</p>
<p>Finally, you reach the Kotel. You touch the stones. The wall that Hashem
promised us would stand until the end of time, whose persistence is testimony
to our relationship with Him. You cry out to G-d and you feel connection to
Him forged by millennia of prayer there.</p>
<p>Remember that moment. That feeling of connection. That feeling of majesty.
The <em>Yir’ah</em> and the Love.</p>
<p>That’s “just” at the retaining wall of the platform upon
which the Temple and its courtyard stood. Picture the emotions one would have
being able to actually enter the courtyard. In the days of the Temple, you
would have approached from the south, and climb up steps that lead under the
floor of the Temple Courtyard so that you emerge within the courtyard, not
going through a doorway in the wall. There are Jews and non-Jews worshipping
here. All turning to G-d in need, in love, as children or as lovers, as
servants or as subjects of the King. We go closer, though the courtyards. We
pass childless couples turning to Hashem for His aid, and a couple sanctifying
the joy of their wedding, births and deaths, someone thanking G-d for success
in business. A new widower, asking G-d for consolation.</p>
<p>If we were <em>kohanim</em>, we would approach closer, to the sink and the
altar, to enter the building itself – perhaps to light the menorah, change
the showbread, or burn the incense.</p>
<p>And once a year, the Kohein Gadol would spend a week preparing Himself to
bring the prayers of his family, the clan of <em>kohanim</em>, the Jewish
People and the world before the Shechinah.</p>
<p>For a moment like that… nothing tainted with sin should be present.</p>
<p>And that is what Ulla compares the blowing of the <em>shofar</em> to. </p>
<p>When the <em>shofar</em> blows, it shouldn’t only be the blower’s lip
that is trembling.</p>
<p>The moments we spend hearing the blowing of the <em>shofar </em>we stand in
the presence of the Shechinah the way the Kohein Gadol stood at the ultimate
moment of the Yom Kippur service.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;" data-tadv-p="keep"><em>Ivdu es Hashem
beYir’ah</em> – Serve Hashem with <em>Yir’ah</em><br /><em>vegilu
bir’adah</em> – and rejoice in trembling!</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">How does one accept Hashem as <em>Melekh</em>,
and remember our faults so that He remembers our potential? At that moment
— “with the <em>shofar</em>.”</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">(Rebbe actually
presented this thought before giving a source. After the students were
entranced with the rebbe’s great chiddush, his passionate novellum, he
asked one of them to read the Rashi and Tosafos. Had they known it was
“just a Rashi”, they wouldn’t have listened the
same.)</span></p>
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