The Shofar's Symbolism in the Torah
Rosh Hashanah 16a
Rabbi Abihu said: Why do we blow on a ram's horn? The Holy One, Blessed be G-d, said: Sound before Me a ram's horn so that I may remember on your behalf the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and account it to you as if you had been bound yourselves before Me.
Joshua 6:1-20
1) Now Jericho was shut up tight because of the Israelites; no one could leave or enter. (2) The LORD said to Joshua, “See, I will deliver Jericho and her king [and her] warriors into your hands. (3) Let all your troops march around the city and complete one circuit of the city. Do this six days, (4) with seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns preceding the Ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. (5) And when a long blast is sounded on the horn—as soon as you hear that sound of the horn—all the people shall give a mighty shout. Thereupon the city wall will collapse, and the people shall advance, every man straight ahead"....When Joshua had instructed the people, the seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns advanced before the LORD, blowing their horns; and the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant followed them. (9) The vanguard marched in front of the priests who were blowing the horns, and the rear guard marched behind the Ark, with the horns sounding all the time. (10) But Joshua’s orders to the rest of the people were, “Do not shout, do not let your voices be heard, and do not let a sound issue from your lips until the moment that I command you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout.”... (16) On the seventh round, as the priests blew the horns, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city.... (20) So the people shouted when the horns were sounded. When the people heard the sound of the horns, the people raised a mighty shout and the wall collapsed. The people rushed into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they captured the city.
The Shofar's Sound
The 17th century Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz taught that each group of sounds begins with a tekiah, a whole note and is followed by a shevarim, a broken note, divided into three parts or a even to a teru’ah an entirely fragmented sound. But each broken note is not left in its brokenness, it is followed by another tekiah, a whole sound. Rabbi Horowitz taught that when we hear shofar we hear this message - I started off whole, I became broken, even splintered into fragments, but I shall become whole again! I shall become whole again!”
(7) One who blows into a cistern, a barrel, or a jar: If he heard the sound of the shofar – he has fulfilled [his obligation]; if he heard the sound of an echo – he has not fulfilled [his obligation].Similarly: one who was passing behind a synagogue, or whose house was adjacent to a synagogue, and heard the sound of the shofar or the sound of the scroll [of Esther, on Purim]: If he directed his heart – he has fulfilled [his obligation], but if not – he has not fulfilled [his obligation]. Even though this one and that one both heard, this one directed his heart, and that one did not direct his heart.
(4) Even though the blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is a Biblical decree, it hints at something, i.e., “Wake up, sleepers, from your sleep! And slumberers, arise from your slumber! Search your ways and return in teshuvah and remember your Creator! Those who forget the Truth amidst the futility of the moment and are infatuated all their years with vanity and nothingness that will not help and will not save, examine your souls and improve your ways and your motivations! Let each of you abandon his wicked ways, and his thoughts which are no good."
Rabbi Alan Lew
“When the shofar sounds one hundred times (which it does in the traditional service), it blows open the gates of heaven. When the shofar sounds one hundred times, it forms a bridge between heaven and earth, and we enter heaven on that bridge. When the shofar sounds one hundred times, it cracks the shell of our awareness wide open, and suddenly we find ourselves in heaven. When the shofar sounds one hundred times, we hear the voice of heaven in it. We experience Revelation.”
Rabbi Sharon Brous
The jarring blasts of the shofar are a spiritual alarm clock, stirring the soul from its slumber, testifying to the spiritual promise of the holidays: everything is possible. Things don't have to be as they are. We don’t have to be as we are. This moral awakening is the essential first step in the process of transformation — personal and societal. If we take this moment seriously, we can reframe, repair and redirect the contours of our relationships and our lives.
The Three Parts of the Shofar Service
Talmud Rosh Hashanah 34b
According to Rabbah, the Holy One said: "On Rosh Hashanah, recite before Me words of Malchuyot (soverignty), Zichronot (remembrance) and Shofarot. "Sovereignty"-- so that you may aknowledge Me as ruler over you; 'remembrance'-- so that remebrances of you may rise up favorably before Me. And how shall all of this be accomplished? Through the sounds of the Shofar.
There are three sections to the Shofar service—Malchuyot (sovereignty), Zichronot (remembrance) and Shofarot (Calling). They share the structure of having a beginning introductory text followed by 10 biblical verses (3 from the Torah, 3 from writings, 3 rom the prophets, and then 1 more from the Torah), and concluding with Shofar blasts. All of these verses incorporte the same Hebrew roots connected to the meaning of the section in which it appears.
Rabbi Edwin Goldberg “Why is the Shofar Service in Three Sections in Mishkan HaNefesh?”
When the editors created our newest Machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, they decided to split up the shofar service throughout the Rosh Hashanah morning, rather than keeping it at one particular time. They recognized the shofar’s sounding as “a particular symbolic act that permeates the whole morning….it is more than the sound; it is the liturgy surrounding the shofar sounding. And more in particular, it is the tripartite themes of malchyuot(Sovereignty), zichronot (Remembrance) and shofarot. Reform Judaism did away with the musaf service on Rosh HaShanah (and everywhere else) long ago but kept the practice of the three shofar sections. The editors of Mishkan HaNefesh realized that these themes and the sounding of the shofar could be developed and dramatized in a pervasive way by splitting the three sections into three different places in the worship service, each positioned in some logical place. After experimentation during the piloting phase, we settled on the following: malchuyot would come in the Amidah, following theM’loch declaration. Zichronot would follow the scriptural readings, including God remembering Sarah and Hannah. And Shofarot would precede the closing prayers and the redemptive message of the second part ofthe Aleinu – l’taken olam b’malkhut Shadai.”
Malchuyot - Soveignty
This first section of the Torah portion includes the Aleinu, in which be bow before God. It includes verses such as:
"When the people gather together, let them show God rules over them!" (Deut. 33:5) and Majesty is Yours, You rule the nations!" (Psalm 22:29).
It calls us to humble ourselves before God.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk - the Kotzker Rebbe:
“Bend! Dare to bend. The curvature of the Shofar is kafuf - bent; it is bent to teach us to bend our stubbornness and our pride. The sound of the Shofar includes shevarimthe sobbing staccato of broken notes to remind you that teshuvah, repentance, the road to reconciliation, is a process, a series of steps. The sound of the Shofar is broken, for in God’s eyes nothing is more whole than a broken heart.”
Rabbi Marcia Prager on the word מלך, melech, or king.
The letter מ stands for mayim (water), which flows like blesing; the shape of the ל evokes the coursing path which blessing takes to reach us; and the כ represents hands cupped to receive blessing.
Zichronot - Rememberance
It includes verses of God remembering Noah, Sarah and Hagar, and pleads for God to remember us for good. It also includes a verse reminding God-- and us of the covenent that we share.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblatt
God, remember us-- not only our mistakes
but also our good intentions and our tender hearts.
Remember our ancestors who for thousands of years
have asked forgiveness with the wail of the ram's horn.
Today again we open ourselves to the calls of the shofar,
reminding us sleepers, awake! We remember what matters most in our lives.
Help us shed old memories which no longer serve us.
Help us instead to always remember You.
Shoforot
This section is in many ways a call to action, and a voice of hope that propels us towards a more promising future.
It contains powerful verses about the Shofar's call on Mt. Sinai, and how the shofar will be sounded at the end of days.
In this section, our machzor thoughtfully includes prayers of righteous anger and protest - fuel which we can use for positive ends. As Nachman of Bratzlav once said "I conquered my hostility by putting it away until the day I might need it." Shoforot is about harnessing that anger-- harnessing our dreams -- and working villigently to create the world in which we wish to live.