Shofar on New Year Sabbath

Whenever the first day of Rosh Hashonoh falls on the Sabbath, Orthodox congregations do not sound the shofar on the first day, but sound it on the second day, which is Sunday. This year the first day of Rosh Hashonoh falls on Saturday, but since Reform congre gations follow the Biblical rule and observe only one day of the New Year, should they sound the shofar on the first day, or omit it altogether? (From Rabbi Judah

B. Miller, Wichita, Kansas)

This question has been discussed in previous years in our Conference sessions. (Cf. Central Conference of American Rabbis Yearbook, Vol. XXIII, pp. 182-83; Vol. XXXIII, pp. 60-61). It is useful to discuss the question once more, and perhaps more fully. On the face of it, it is forbidden to blow the shofar on the first day of Rosh Hashonoh when it falls on the Sabbath (the second day of Rosh Hashonoh can never fall on the Sabbath). Thus the Shulchan Aruch (Orah Hayyim 588 : 5) simply says that if Rosh Hashonoh falls on the Sabbath, we do not blow the shofar. However, it is necessary to go below the surface and to consider the actual legal status of the practice of omitting the sounding of the shofar if the New Year falls on the Sabbath. Is this omission based upon law or on custom?

The duty of blowing the shofar is a Biblical mandate. “It is a day of sounding the shofar for you” (Numbers 29 : 1). The Mishnah (m. Rosh Hashonoh IV: 1) says that they sounded the shofar in the Temple on New Year if it came on Sabbath. After the Temple was destroyed, Johanan ben Zaccai ordained that the shofar be sounded on New Year if on Sabbath, wherever there is a Beth Din.

The Talmud raises the question that if the shofar should not be sounded on New Year Sabbath, why then did they always sound it on New Year Sabbath in the Temple? To this question the answer is given that actually the blowing of the shofar is not really work, which is prohibited on the Sabbath, but is simply a chochmah, a skill, the practice of which is permitted on the Sabbath. If so, then why should it be prohibited anywhere (i.e., even outside of the Temple) on the Sabbath? The answer given is that since it is a skill, a man might be tempted to carry the shofar on Sabbath in the public domain (Birshuss Ho-Rabbim) to an expert, in order to be taught on the Sabbath.

So it is not the sounding of the shofar which is prohibited per se, but merely the carrying of the shofar on the Sabbath. To prevent the carrying of the shofar on Sabbath, the rabbis prohibited the sounding of it on the Sabbath, but merely as a cautionary decree. This is further evident from the fact that it is permitted to teach young people on the Sabbath to sound the shofar (b. Rosh Hashonoh 33a). If, then, it is not really prohibited to sound the shofar on the Sabbath, but there is only the rabbinical caution based on the danger of carrying it in public on that day, how could Johanan ben Zaccai permit it in the presence of a Beth Din? The answer given is that the Beth Din is alert (Z’rizin) and will watch against the violation (i.e., by people carrying it) on the Sabbath.

However, there is a disagreement as to just what is meant by the Beth Din in whose presence Johanan ben Zaccai gave permission for the shofar to be blown on the Sabbath. What sort of court was it? Did he mean the Great Sanhedrin of Seventy-one, or any other special type of court? On this there is disagreement. Some of the latest scholars believe that he meant the Sanhedrin itself. Others (Maimonides, for example) believe that he meant any court of regularly ordained men (i.e., with the original Semicha). Isaac Alfasi believed it meant any court, even of three competent scholars who would be alert enough to guard against the Sabbath violation of carrying the shofar. (Cf. Rabbenu Nissim, ad loc.)

Isaac Alfasi, the great scholar and authority, believing that “the court” meant any three worthy scholars, therefore actually had the shofar blown in the presence of his court on the Sabbath. There is no doubt of this fact; it is widely attested to. Asher ben Yehiel mentions it in his compendium to the Talmud (ad loc); his son, Jacob ben Asher, mentions the fact in the Tur (Orah Hayyim 588); and Abudraham, the Spanish liturgist, mentions it (in new edition of Abudraham, Jerusalem, 1959, p. 268). Of course, those who speak of Alfasi having the shofar blown on Shabbas add that his disciples did not follow him in this custom. There is further evidence of the shofar blown on the New Year Sabbath, not of a great individual authority like Alfasi, but of an historic congregation. Zunz, in his work Die Ritus (p. 57), quotes an authority who says that in the thirteenth century they blew the shofar on Shabbas in Damascus. The source which Zunz quotes has been reprinted in modern times in the large edition of the Yad. It is “Sefer Ha-Manoach,” by Manoach ben Jacob of Nar-bonne (see the end of chapter 2 of his commentary). Incidentally, a great modern authority, Akiba Eger, of Posen (1761-1837), was rather concessive on this matter. He stated that if one did blow the shofar on New Year Sabbath, while indeed he did violate thereby the rabbinical cautionary decree as to Sabbath rest (Shevus), nevertheless he would have fulfilled the Biblical command of blowing the shofar on the New Year. This admission is quoted with great surprise by Joab Joshua in his work “Chelkas Joab” 99 (p. 123). Joab Joshua then tries to refute Akiba Eger’s opinion.

It is clear that while there was a general custom not to blow the shofar on the New Year Sabbath, this custom was merely cautionary. The blowing is not prohibited as work on the Sabbath; the prohibition was decreed by the rabbis as a caution against carrying the shofar on Sabbath to an expert for instruction. Johanan ben Zaccai permitted it to be blown on the Sabbath in the presence of the court, which would guard against violations; and on the basis of his permission, there are at least two significant instances of the blowing of the shofar on the New Year Sabbath: Isaac Alfasi and the pious community in Damascus.

What, then, shall be our own procedure in this regard in those years when the New Year comes on the Sabbath? In such matters we should use our judgment, weighing the status of the law, our spiritual needs, and the mood of our congregation. It is to be noted that Alfasi and the Damascus community had the shofar sounded on the New Year Sabbath even though they observed two days of Rosh Hashonoh, and, following the general Orthodox custom, would have sounded the shofar also on the second day. Nevertheless, they sounded it on the first day too. Therefore, we who, following the Biblical calendar rule, do not observe the second day on which we might sound the shofar, should certainly sound it on the New Year Sabbath which is our only New Year day. Alfasi and the Damascus community would not have been depriving their people of hearing the shofar if they did not sound it on the New Year Sabbath, since the people would be hearing it the next day, but if we did not sound it, it would be depriving them completely.

We should also consider the mood of our people, since these matters count a great deal with us. It is, of course, illogical that some of our people should object to the sounding of the shofar on New Year Sabbath. They certainly do not object to the playing of the organ, which is at least as violative of Sabbath, laws. Still, some people might think that since it is both Sabbath and New Year they would rather not have the shofar blown. If the rabbi senses there is that much feeling against it, he should not permit the blowing of the shofar on the New Year Sabbath. But if there is no strong objection, as there is not likely to be, then, since the sounding of the shofar on the Sabbath is not really prohibited in itself, since the sounding of the shofar on the New Year is a Biblical mandate, and since some authorities at least permitted the shofar to be sounded on the New Year Sabbath even though the people would have heard it on the second day anyway, we, who observe only one day, should not, in my judgment, deprive our people of the spiritual benefit of hearing the sound of the shofar when the New Year comes on the Sabbath.