Askmoses-A Jews Resource
How does the Divine Name Y-H-V-H represent the ten sefirot?
Browse our archives

The Scholar is ready to answer your question. Click the button below to chat now.

Scholar Online:

Type in your question here:

How could the sages forbid blowing the Shofar when Rosh Hashanah is on Shabbat?

by Rabbi Yossi Marcus

  

Library » Holidays » Rosh Hashanah » Shofar | Subscribe | What is RSS?

PRINT EMAIL COMMENT

Good question. But the same Torah that says to blow Shofar also says that you should listen to the sages (Deuteronomy 17:8-11, especially 11) and they say not to blow the shofar when Rosh Hashanah comes out on Shabbat.

Now there are obviously some restrictions to the sages’ power. According to some opinions, the sages can only overrule a commandment when they’re not entirely uprooting the precept. So, in our case for example, the sages would not be able to say don’t blow shofar ever, since that would entirely uproot the precept of shofar. Whereas when they say don’t blow the shofar if Rosh Hashanah comes out on Shabbat, they’re allowing for its fulfillment on other years.1

To put it in other words, according to some opinions,2 the sages cannot uproot something that is stated EXPLICITLY in the Torah. Nowhere in the Torah does it say “Blow the shofar even when Rosh Hashanah comes out on Shabbat.” You might consider it to be obvious that that’s what the Torah means when it says blow the shofar. But that does not qualify as explicit in regard to the sages’ power to overrule it.3

In this case, where they are not doing away with something that is stated clearly in the Torah, they’re simply doing their job. So the bottom line is that in order to safeguard the Torah, the Torah tells us sometimes to overrule it. Of course this can only be done when it is for the sake of safeguarding the Torah, by qualified sages, who have received ordination in a direct line to Moses himself (such ordination, by the way, no longer exists), and who understand the inner dynamics of the Torah.

The above explains the How. See Why don't we blow the Shofar when Roshanah comes out on Shabbat? for the Why and the mystical interpretation.

Footnotes

  • 1. Furthermore, by the time this rabbinic injunction was imposd Rosh Hashanah was already being celebrated for two days. Thus even when one day of Rosh Hashanah is Shabbat, the shofar is still sounded on the other day.
  • 2. Taz Orach Chaim end of 588
  • 3. As a matter of fact, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 4:1.), the Sabbath suspension is biblical in origin. When the Torah says (Lev. 23:24) that there should be “a ‘remembrance’ of the sounding of the shofar” it refers to years when Rosh Hashanah occurs on a Sabbath. On those occasions, there is only to be a remembrance of the shofar, but not a sounding. This article is to explain the position of the Babylonian Talmud which considers the Sabbath suspension to be of Rabbinic origin.
TAGS: shofar

ADD A COMMENT

Please email me when new comments are posted (you must be  logged in).
Shabbat
(pl: Shabbatot). Hebrew word meaning "rest." It is a Biblical commandment to sanctify and rest on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. This commemorates the fact that after creating the world in six days, G-d rested on the seventh.
Torah
Torah is G–d’s teaching to man. In general terms, we refer to the Five Books of Moses as “The Torah.” But in truth, all Jewish beliefs and laws are part of the Torah.
Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year. An early autumn two day holiday marking the creation of Adam and Eve. On this day we hear the blasts of the ram's horn and accept G-d's sovereignty upon ourselves and the world. On Rosh Hashanah we pray that G-d should grant us all a sweet New Year.
Shofar
The horn of a Kosher animal. The Shofar is sounded on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and is intended to awaken us to repentance. Also blown to signify the conclusion of the Yom Kippur holiday.
Moses
[Hebrew pronunciation: Moshe] Greatest prophet to ever live. Led the Jews out of Egyptian bondage amidst awesome miracles; brought down the Tablets from Mount Sinai; and transmitted to us word-for-word the Torah he heard from G-d's mouth. Died in the year 1272 BCE.
Deuteronomy
The fifth of the Five Books of Moses. This book is a record of the monologue which Moses spoke to the Israelites in the five weeks prior to his passing.