{"id":45716,"date":"2018-01-03T15:23:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T15:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?p=45716"},"modified":"2018-09-12T07:45:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T07:45:56","slug":"vayigdal-mosheh-on-elul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/vayigdal-mosheh-on-elul\/","title":{"rendered":"VaYigdal Mosheh on Elul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shofar During Elul<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Pirkei d\u2019Rabi Eliezer (perek 46), Chazal say that a shofar was blown on Rosh Chodesh Elul when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Har Sinai (for the final 40 days). This is the source for blowing shofar during the month of Elul. The text of this Chazal as brought by a number of the Rishonim (see Radal there) is with the following expression, \u201cit was established that shofar should be blown in Elul in order so that Klal Yisrael should do teshuvah and to befuddle the Satan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concept of confusing the Satan appears in Maseches Rosh Ha\u2019Shana (16b) as the reason for why we blow the shofar twice on Rosh HaShana. Tosafos explains there that the Satan gets all worried that it is the day of \u201cand on that day a great shofar will be blown\u201d, which is a reference to l\u2019asid lavo when Hashem will completely eradicate the Satan. Because of this confusion, the Satan is withheld from expressing any words of prosecution against Klal Yisrael. How are we to understand this, though? That just because l\u2019asid lavo when a great shofar will be blown and the Satan will be eradicated so every time he hears the shofar on Rosh Ha\u2019Shana he mistakenly thinks that the time of l\u2019asid lavo has arrived? Does it make sense that the Satan would fall for such a trick for so many thousands of years?<\/p>\n

Rav Yisrael Elya Weintraub zt\u201dl explained that the irbuv ha\u2019satan (confounding of the Satan) is not simply that he gets tricked into thinking that the sound of the shofar on Rosh Ha\u2019Shana is the shofar of l\u2019asid lavo. Rather, the proper understanding of it is as follows. The very first Yom Kippur \u2013 which was the culmination of Moshe Rabbeinu\u2019s final 40 days on the mountain and when we received the second luchos \u2013 was a chazarah l\u2019techiyah (lit. \u201ca return to life\u201d, resurrection). Yom Kippur is the one day of the year when there is a revelation of the 13 middos ha\u2019rachamim, which is essentially a function of the way that Ha\u2019Kadosh baruch Hu will conduct the world in acharis ha\u2019yamim (lit. \u201cthe end of days\u201d).\u00a0 However, this once a year revelation is not absolutely confined only to Yom Kippur. The Ramban makes it clear that \u201csprouting\u201d of this special Divine light begins already from Rosh Ha\u2019Shana, as Chazal tell us that the blowing of the shofar moves Ha\u2019Kadosh baruch Hu, as it were, to rise from his thrown of judgement and sit on his thrown of mercy. A facet of the quality of techiya characteristic of Yom Kippur is also carried in the power of the shofar (according to one opinion, akeidas Yitzchak was on Yom Kippur).<\/p>\n

So, what confuses the Satan is not simply the sound of a shofar blowing that he mistakenly thinks is the shofar of l\u2019asid lavo. Rather, it is the fact that when we blow the shofar on Rosh Ha\u2019Shana there is an actual revelation taking place that is akin to the Divine Direction of l\u2019asid lavo, and that is why the Satan thinks that it might actually be that acharis ha\u2019yamim has arrived! The very force that the Satan senses on Rosh Ha\u2019Shana when we blow the shofar is indeed that force that is eventually going to eradicate him, so he really has no way of knowing whether that time has actually come or not. That is what the \u201cconfounding of the Satan\u201d is all about.<\/p>\n

What emerges, then \u2013 based on the words of the Pirkei d\u2019Rabi Eliezer \u2013 is that this special revelation of the Divine Direction of l\u2019asid lavo actually begins its first sprouting and shining through in Elul, as Chazal say that even in Elul the blowing of the shofar contains this quality of confounding the Satan. And there is a direct connection between the two purposes of blowing the shofar during Elul that the Rishonim\u2019s text of the Pirkei d\u2019Rabi Eliezer delineated: a) so that Klal Yisrael should be moved to do teshuva, and b) the Satan should be confused. For it is only through the deliberate effort to go through the teshuva process that we merit that the shofar-blowing should generate this special revelation of Divine Direction of l\u2019asid lavo.<\/p>\n

(From Reb Avraham Twersky)<\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

Why We Don’t Blow Shofar on Shabbos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shofar on Rosh Hashanah. The power of it is simply unfathomable. Chazal tell us that it splits the Heavens and goes through all of the upper spheres until it reaches the Kisei HaKavod, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu gets up, as it were, from His Throne of Justice and instead sits on His Throne of Mercy. On the Day of Judgment!<\/p>\n

The mefarshim are practically open-mouthed in trying to understand why Chazal decreed that we do not blow shofar on Shabbos. How could it be that someone who wants to blow shofar \u2014 with all the awe of judgment \u2014 might desecrate Shabbos in the process by carrying it in a public domain? There\u2019s practically no chance it could happen.<\/p>\n

The Aruch L\u2019Ner made a calculation that the most catastrophic years for Klal Yisrael throughout history were those years when the first day of Rosh Hashanah fell out on Shabbos, as Chazal say that a year that does not start off with tekias shofar is a terrible portent for that year.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, just imagine that the only shofar available in the whole world is in a tree. It\u2019s only a Rabbinic prohibition to climb the tree on Shabbos. Would it not be worth it to have one Jew be the sa\u2019ir la\u2019azazel and climb the tree so that Klal Yisrael will have tekias shofar? And yet the halachah is clear that it is forbidden!<\/p>\n

So, how are we to understand this?<\/p>\n

Since the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai \u2014 when we said naaseh v\u2019nishma \u2014 we assess anything and everything from a Torah perspective. Namely, how does this relate to the fulfillment of mitzvos?<\/p>\n

We have physical eyes so we cannot see it \u2014 perhaps we can understand it, maybe, but we don\u2019t see it \u2014 but the fact is, the most destructive force in the entire universe is an aveirah. Not only a violation of a Torah prohibition but even a Rabbinic prohibition.<\/p>\n

An aveirah is far more destructive than the most powerful nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n

That is why, despite the indescribable positive power and benefit we get from tekias shofar, in the final analysis it is not worth forgoing the violation of even a d\u2019Rabbanan for it.<\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

Quotables<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every minute of Rosh Ha’Shana carries the value of many hours during the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

Provided courtesy of VayigdalMoshe.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shofar During Elul In Pirkei d\u2019Rabi Eliezer (perek 46), Chazal say that a shofar was blown on Rosh Chodesh Elul when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Har Sinai (for the final 40 days). This is the source for blowing shofar during the month of Elul. The text of this Chazal as brought by a number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133194,"featured_media":46420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elul"],"yoast_head":"\nVaYigdal Mosheh on Elul - Jewish Holidays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"They say we blow shofar in Elul to confuse the Accuser. 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