Not Just Calendar-Coincidental
For various reasons, our fixed calendar has a rule for Rosh HaShana - LO AD"U. Rosh HaShana (first day) cannot fall on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday. This means that it does fall on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbat. Rosh HaShana falls on Shabbat 28½% of the time, that's an average of two out of seven years. Not uncommon. But every time we have Shabbat Rosh HaShana we are acutely aware of the absence of the Shofar on the first day. The Torah gave us a built-in alternative to Rosh HaShana's title of YOM T'RU'A - namely, YOM ZICHRON T'RU'A. Without going into the reasons why our Sages banned Shofar-blowing on Shabbat, it is a well-known fact of Jewish Life. (That is, to all except the fellow who came into shul a few years ago on Rosh HaShana morning and stood in the back waiting. When approached with the offer of a machzor and a place to sit, he politely declined and explained that he came just to hear Shofar. It was very difficult to convince him that we wouldn't be blowing Shofar that day; he definitely thought we weren't religious enough.)

The above notwithstanding, it is useful to look at the Shabbat Rosh HaShana situation as more than a coincidence of the Calendar and a rabbinic decree to handle a hypothetical possible occurrence. Our Sages could have said that when RH falls on Shabbat, one must be careful not to carry the Shofar in an un-eiruved area. Make sure the Shofar is ready in shul from before Shabbat. These precautions would have been expected, in order to facilitate the fulfillment of the Torah's mitzva of Shofar. To ban Shofar from the Torah- ordained first of Tishrei is unusual, to say the least. The reaction of the fellow referred to in the paranthetical remark above was understandable. How can you NOT blow Shofar on Rosh HaShana? What's Rosh HaShana with- out Shofar?

That's the key question. And Shabbat is the answer. The Shofar proclaims HAYOM HARAT OLAM, today the World was created. Shofar and Rosh Ha- Shana say that HaShem is the Creator and King, once a year. Shabbat says it every week (and really, every day) of the year. The Shofar reminds us of Akeidat Yitzchak, Matan Torah, and several other things.

ZACHOR is Shabbat's middle name. We remember the Shabbat, but it, in turn, reminds us of our commitment to G-d. The essence of Shabbat is that we acknowledge that everything is a gift from G-d and that He can therefore command us to abstain from exercising those creative gifts on that special day of the week. This idea applies to the Akeida too, in an extreme way. Avraham was given the son he so longed for, and them G-d commanded him to take Yitzchak and offer him up as a korban on the Mizbei'ach.

We leave it to the TTreader to find additional elements of the Shofar that are "covered" by Shabbat.

Our conclusion: Rosh HaShana on Shabbat without Shofar works out okay because Shabbat is the Silent Shofar that forms the day of Rosh HaShana into a ZICHRON T'RU'A.

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