How Shofar Draws The Blessings For A Sweet Year

Dedicated By Dr. Ezra and Lauren Kest 

In honor of our children who teach us how to love, listen and be heard.  They should be blessed to find, see and recognize their zivuggim at the right time and always listen well, be heard and feel listened to. 

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How Shofar Draws The Blessings For A Sweet Year 

On Rosh Hashanah, in the musaf prayer, we hear the shofar blowing three times. Once with the verses and the blessing of kingship, a second time with the verses and the blessing of remembrance, and a third time with the verses and the blessing of shofar. 

The Talmud cites a Braisa that says, "The shofar blasts and the blessings of Rosh Hashanah... Are dependant on one another. What is the reason? Raba says that Hashem says, 'Say before Me on Rosh Hashanah verses of kingship, remembrance, and shofar. Verses of kingship, so that you will make Me King over you, verses of remembrance, so that good memories of you will come to Me, and with what (will you raise the verses before Me)? With the (verses and the blasts of the) shofar.'" 

On Rosh Hashanah there are two main themes that are intertwined. First we ask Hashem to be King over us, we coronate Him as our King, second is that we are accepted as His subjects, meaning that we will do His will and He will bestow upon us His goodness, that our needs are met and more. And this all happens in the musaf prayer. 

How does this work? And why is it that shofar is what makes it happen? 

To explain this, there are two parables. 

The first parable is from the Baal Shem Tov:

There was a king who had an only son. The prince was well educated and was the apple of his father’s eye. The King decided that it was a good idea for the prince to travel to foreign countries to learn and absorb new knowledge and cultures. 

The king gave his son officers, servants and a lot of money, so that he would be able to travel to distant countries and islands, to become more than he could have ever been had he stayed in his father’s house.

Much time passed, all his wealth and supplies were used up because of the pampered lifestyle he was used to; he was accustomed to always indulging his every whim. He eventually sold everything that he had and found himself in a distant land where no one even knew who his father was at all. 

This caused him great anguish. He yearned to return to his father’s country. Because so much time had elapsed, he even forgot his native tongue; what could he do in his own country without knowing his own language?!

When he came back to his country, he began to gesture and signal that he was their king’s son. He came to the courtyard of the king and continued gesturing that he was the prince, but they didn’t recognize him at all, they ridiculed him. 

He began to cry in a loud voice, hoping that the king would recognize it. When the king heard his voice, he exclaimed “Isn’t that the voice of my son crying out in desperation?” The love for his son was evoked, and he embraced and kissed his son.

The analogy is easily understood. The Jewish people are called the sons of Hashem. Just as the prince left the palace to learn and grow, so too, the neshama accomplishes and grows by doing mitzvos down here and reaches higher heights than it did before it descended to earth. 

Alas, because of the body’s self-love and indulgences, the neshama can end up in a distant place where even his own father isn’t recognized, neither his own language. 

Until he returns and cries out in a primal, simple voice. And this is what the cry of the shofar is—a cry from the depths of the heart, deeply regretting everything that he did and resolving to listen to the voice of his father. This cry elicits from the King of Kings a deep love for his “only son” and he forgives him for all he’s done in the past.

This is what the verses and the blessing of kingship accomplishes, but it is the sound of the shofar, a primal cry from the depths of our hearts that drives it home to the essence of Hashem, He accepts and He is our King for the new year. 

The second parable is from Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev:

A King once traveled through a big forest, to the depths of the forest, where he could no longer find the route home. 

He noticed some villagers and asked them for directions. They, of course, didn’t recognize the King, and didn’t know what to answer because they never knew the route to the palace. 

He eventually found a wise man and asked him for directions. The wise man recognized that this was the king, and was shaken. He immediately fulfilled the king’s wish by pointing him in the right direction. Because of his great wisdom, he knew the correct path to the palace and was able to guide the king back to his throne. 

The man found favor in the king’s eyes.

Time passed and this same man sinned against the king and angered him. The king commanded his highest officers to judge this man as those who commit treason are judged. 

The man was extremely pained knowing that he was doomed to harsh judgment for sinning against the king. He fell before the king and pleaded for one final request. He wanted to be dressed in the original clothes that he was wearing when he guided the king from the forest and back to his palace; and the king shall, as well, wear the same clothes he wore on that day. 

The king obliged. When both the king and the man were dressed in the garments from the day they met in the forest, the king remembered the great kindness he displayed for the king by guiding him back to his palace and throne. This aroused compassion and benevolence within the king to forgive the sins of the man and return him to his post.

This is an analogy for Hashem and the Jewish people. At the time of the Giving of the Torah, Hashem approached all the nations of the world, but they didn’t accept the Torah. We, the Jewish people, accepted the Torah with happiness and deep joy to the extent that we immediately said “Naaseh V’Nishma” (we will do and then we will understand). We accepted Hashem as our King and committed to fulfilling the mitzvos and laws of the Torah. 

Now, however, we sinned and rebelled against the king. Therefore we blow the shofar, the same “clothing we wore” at the Giving of the Torah. (The sound of the shofar was heard at the Giving of the Torah, so it serves) as a reminder that we accepted the Torah and we coronate Hashem as king with this same shofar. Through this, Hashem forgives us for all our wrongdoings and immediately inscribes us for a good life. 

This is what the verses and the blessing of remembrance accomplishes, but again, it is the sound of the shofar, the reminder of how when no one would accept the Torah, we accepted the Torah and the mission. His compassion and benevolence is aroused, He accepts us as His subjects for the new year and He grants us our needs and more for the new year. 

There is a question: What is it that actually drives it home to the essence of Hashem, is it the verses or the blasts of the shofar? Therefore we do both. 

On a deeper level, there are two aspects of the shofar, one is accomplished by the verses and the other by blasts. 

The blasts of the shofar are a mitzvah and have the power of a mitzvah, which is Hashem's will, His essence, therefore they reach His essence. 

Reciting the verses is Torah study, Torah is light, which reveals and has the power to draw down the accomplishments of the shofar into reality. And there is an advantage that Torah study has over mitzvos, it reaches the highest levels. Therefore there is an advantage that the reciting of the verses of shofar has over the actual blasts of the shofar. As the Rebbe Rashab says, "The true revelation that will be in the time of Moshiach at the highest level... Is drawn down now, on Rosh Hashanah, by saying the verses of shofar." 

Therefore, on Rosh Hashanah that falls on Shabbos, when we don't blow the shofar, we suffice with reciting the verses of shofar, because it accomplishes the same thing, if not more. 

Through shofar we accomplish the essence of Rosh Hashanah, we choose Hashem, and He chooses us, and He grants us a sweet and happy year.

May we all be written and sealed in the book of life for a happy and sweet new year, with good health and happiness, nachas and shalom bayis, abundance and success. And may we merit to see the coming of Moshiach and an end to this dark and bitter exile. May he come soon. The time has come.


I would like to thank Chana Gurevitch for her help translating the two parables.