Shabbat: The Silent Shofar
Rosh HaShana falls on Shabbat this year. As it did two and three years ago, and as it is scheduled to do next year. Four of five years Shabbat-Rosh HaShana is very rare (see stats on page 18), but Rosh HaShana falls on Shabbat about twice every seven years, on average. And every time it happens, we don’t blow Shofar on the first day. That is, we don’t blow Shofar on the day that the Torah commands us to blow Shofar.

The reason is fairly well-known. Our Sages, using the authority invested in them by the Torah, banned Shofar on Shabbat, lest someone mistakenly think that it would be permitted to carry a Shofar through a public domain in order to bring it to someone who would blow for him or teach him how to blow.

It boggles the mind to think of how rare such a hypothetical situation would occur. One would assume that if we did blow Shofar on Shabbat, that most (practically all) people would be taught that you cannot carry a Shofar where there is no Eiruv, just as we are taught that one cannot violate even a rabbinic decree such as climbing a tree to obtain a Shofar (don’t ask how the Shofar got up the tree) or to walk beyond T’chum to facilitate Shofar blowing. And if a person would not know that you cannot carry a Shofar on Shabbat in the street in order to fulfill the mitzva, then he probably wouldn’t know that the Sages banned Shofar-blowing on Shabbat.

I suspect, and humbly submit for your consideration, that what motivated our Sages to ban Shofar on Shabbat was not only the high regard and care for Shabbat that they wanted to instill in us. That someone MIGHT inadvertently, and with all good intentions, step on Shabbat’s toes, so to speak, and there- fore, Chazal told EVERYONE not to blow Shofar, speaks volumes for the sanctity of Shabbat, and its number one place among the holy days of the year.

But maybe there is this, in addition. Shofar - once a year - proclaims G-d as King and reminds us that we are His loyal subjects, Shabbat proclaims no less, and does so every single week of the year. Shofar reminds us of Revela- tion at Sinai. So does Shabbat. Yismach Moshe... and two Tablets of Stone he brought down in his hand, and on them was written Shmirat Shabbat. Shofar focuses us on the Ingathering of the Exiles and the Final Judgment Day. Shabbat is M’EIN OLAM HABA, a fore- taste of the World to Come.

Rosh HaShana that falls on Shabbat lacks for nothing, even with a rabbinic ban on Shofar. Shabbat is the silent Shofar that proclaims G-d as Creator and Master of the Universe as clearly and as sharply as the most perfect, loud and clear set of Shofar-blasts.