Feature Tidbit What?! No Shofar?! The Torah says that the first day of Tishrei shall be a T'RU'A DAY, meaning that we are required to hear the Shofar on that day. The rabbis came along and said, "don't touch your Shofar". The Torah says to take the Four Species on the first day of Sukkot. The rabbis said, "don't touch your Lulav and Etrog. D'ORAITA. Torah law. Positive commandment from the Torah. Hear the Shofar. Take the Lulav & Etrog. Even on Shabbat? As far as the Torah is concerned - YES. Can we fulfill these two mitzvot this year on Shabbat Rosh HaShana and Shabbat Sukkot? No. Not allowed. Because the rabbis banned the blowing of Shofar and the takingof the Four Species on Shabbat, we will not be able to do as the Torah commands us. Let us leave the question of the authority of the Sages to do such a thing. They cannot permit us to actively violate a Torah prohibition, but they can bar us from fulfilling a positive command, as they have done in our two examples. Let us take a look at two things - why they banned Shofar and Lulav on Shabbat, and what it says to us. Hypothetical: Shofar is blown on Shabbat Rosh haShana. A man is housebound. Cannot go the shul. Wants to hear Shofar. He has one, but he does not know how to blow. He has a friend down the street who does know how to blow Shofar, but has none. Our hypothetical man lives in a city that has no Eruv. (Or the Eruv is in disrepair.)He makes the following logical argument and draws a conclusion. Shofar is a very special mitzva. Its blowing is permitted on Shabbat, so too must carrying a Shofar to facilitate fulfilling the mitzva of Shofar. Error in logic. It is not permitted to carry a Shofar where carrying is prohibited, for the purpose of doing a mitzva. Mr. Hypothetical does not know that. He relies on his logic and inadvertently violates the Shabbat. Our Sages, in an attempt to save the Shabbat from this violation, have banned the blowing of Shofar and the taking of the 4 Species on Shabbat. Lest the mitzva of Shofar (or Lulav) be responsible for slighting the Shabbat, it would be better not to perform these Torah mitzvot - on the day that Torah commands that they be observed. This alone is fairly mind-boggling. But let's speculate on how common it would be for someone to violate the Shabbat while attempting to hear Shofar. If one lives in an ERUVed area - as many, many Jews do - then the mistake that the Sages were trying to prevent, could not happen. And most religious Jews who live withoutan Eruv, would be well versed in the laws applicable to them, including the prohibition of carrying a Shofar (or the 4 Species) on Shabbat, even if it means not being able to do the mitzva. You'd need to find an ignorant Jew who lives without an Eruv, owns a Shofar, cares about hearing it so much that he would carry itto someone's house (who doesn't have a Shofar of his own, but knows how to blow) and there hear the Shofar, or learn how to blow. Sounds far-fetched indeed. Yet Chazal did ban Shofar on Shabbat for thousands and thousands of Jews, generation after generation. The overwhelming majority - let's say, practically all of whom,would not violate the Shabbat in any way, and would be able to fulfill the mitzva as the Torah commands. Let's make things even sharper. There are sources that indicate that a year that starts out without hearing the Shofar will not proceed and end well. And this includes someone who does not hear Shofar with a valid reason not to. The Shofar is a spiritual medication. And even if one has a legitimate excuse for not hearingShofar, he will still not benefit from its powers. So why did our Sages "deprive" us of this special mitzva, just because of the unlikely possibility that someone might err in Shabbat & mitzva logic? Let's focus on one possible answer in the limited space remaining to complete this piece. There is more. Two major functions of Shofar are [1] the hearalding of G-d as King of the Universe, and [2] putting us on the pathway to T'shuva by instilling in us a fear of G-d, fear of sin, fear of judgment. There is a lot more, but let's leave it at these two: G-d's kingship and Yir'at Shamayim. When Chazal went to such lengths to protect the Shabbat from inadvertent violation, they were teaching us, in a very dramatic way, the same two lessons. Shabbat is our weekly (actually, daily) lesson in G-d's Creation of the World and His constant Mastery over all. The Shofar instills this lesson in us once a year. Shabbatteaches it throughout the year. And when Chazal ban the positive mitzvot of Shofar, Lulav, and Megilat Esther from Shabbat, all because of a "far-fetched" unlikely possible violation of Shabbat, they are teaching us of the sanctity of Shabbat, of the value of protecting oneself from sin, even minor sin. If our Sages caredabout Shabbat that much, if they wanted to protect a Jew from violated the Shabbat while he thinks he's doing a mitzva... then we have the Shofar's lesson, without the Shofar. By banning the Shofar on Shabbat, our Sages teach us that Shofar is not the end-all of Rosh HaShana, but the major means to achieve RH's goals. And Shabbat does its share too. [The Rosh Hashana Homepage]
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