The Unshofar (2)
Shabbos is not only a day of the week, it is also a mindset. There can be two distinct—legitimate—views of life: A weekday perspective and a Shabbos perspective. The “weekday person” views himself or herself as a product of the world and the environment in which he or she lives, where Shabbos is an escape from this reality. A Shabbos personality breathes the air of Shabbos throughout the week. His or her reality is Shabbos.
No Shofar on Shabbos
When Rosh Hashanah occurs on Shabbos we do not sound the Shofar. So states the Talmud. The rationale for this law is that there is a fear that in the course of trying to learn how to sound the Shofar one might inadvertently, or out of ignorance of the Sabbath laws, violate the sanctity of the Sabbath.
Commentators expressed puzzlement at the rabbis banning the sounding of the Shofar. Why would they deny all of Jewry the opportunity to fulfill a Mitzvah as meaningful and holy as the sounding of the Shofar, just because there is a remote possibility that a small number of individuals might inadvertently break the Sabbath?
Chassidic literature is replete with profound mystical explanations as to why, in truth, there is no need for the sounding of the Shofar when Rosh Hashanah occurs on a Shabbos. The spiritual energy of Shabbos takes the place of the Mitzvah of sounding Shofar. Sounding the Shofar then would actually be redundant.
The Shabbos Mindset
There is yet another explanation for this anomaly that views Rosh Hashanah occurring on a Shabbos metaphorically.
Shabbos is not only a day of the week, it is also a mindset. There can be two distinct—legitimate—views of life: A weekday perspective and a Shabbos perspective. To be sure, both the weekday individual and the Shabbos oriented individual labor six days a week and rest on the Shabbos. Yet there is a difference as to the way they look at the time and experience of labor and the time and experience of Shabbos.
The “weekday person” views himself or herself as a product of the world and the environment in which he or she lives. The Biblical statement, from the Book of Job, “A person was born to toil,” describes their weltanschauung. The Shabbos experience, to this “weekday” oriented individual is an escape from their reality, enabling them to return once more to their world of labor and worldly involvement refreshed and rejuvenated.
A “weekday” individual defines himself or herself, essentially, as a weekday person. Shabbos is what a weekday person does, not what he or she is.
Conversely, a Shabbos personality is one who defines himself or herself as a Shabbos person. During Shabbos they are in their natural element. During the weekdays, though they are involved in the very same activities as the “weekday” individual, they feel how each day and each experience as foreign to their true and essential identity and they endeavor to make every weekday experience serve as a preparation for the Shabbos.
If we have to classify people, one could say that most of us fit the former mold—weekday people. However, occasionally, there are times that some of us cross over into Shabbos territory. And there are appropriate occasions for all of us to try to experience a Shabbos existence even during weekdays and weekday experiences.
Rosh Hashanah on Shabbos Transforms Every Day into Shabbos
Since Rosh Hashanah is more than just the beginning of a new year, it is the “head” of the year, it stands to reason that a year whose “head” is a Shabbos head, will imbue the spirit of Shabbos in all of the other days (“organs”) of the year that follow.
And this, perhaps, is what our Sages had in mind when they cancelled Shofar blowing on Rosh Hashanah when it coincides with a Sabbath:
The need for a Shofar is primarily for one who is engaged in weekday experiences, for whom everything is defined by those experiences. The Shofar serves to awaken, alert, cajole, jolt and inspire us to awaken from our reverie— insofar as Shabbos dimensions of life are concerned.
When Rosh Hashanah is informed and defined by the Shabbos, however, the message to us differs from other years. It says to us: when our orientation is a Sabbatical one, when the Shabbos defines us, we no longer need the Shofar to awaken us. Shabbos represents the height of awareness and sensitivity to all that is spiritual and G-dly.
A Caveat
There is a caveat to this, however. The Talmud tells us that in the days when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, they did sound the Shofar in the Temple itself on Shabbos!
One would have thought that in such a holy environment the status of Shabbos would have been magnified and there would certainly not be a need to sound the Shofar there.
Why then would they sound the Shofar on Shabbos in the Holy Temple itself?
The answer is that when we reach that high of a spiritual level, the Shofar assumes a much higher objective. No longer is the Shofar needed to awaken us, but it becomes the instrument that can elevate us to even higher levels of holiness that even transcend the Shabbos.
The Two Features of the SHofar
One of the symbols associated with the future Redemption, is that it will be ushered in with the sounding of the Shofar. This Shofar has been said to possess the two distinct features referred to above:
On the one hand, the Shofar will awaken all of us— weekday oriented souls—who are so ensconced in the exile constraining state of mind that inhibits our spiritual lives. On the other hand, this Shofar will also speak to the Shabbos personalities in our midst—and to the Shabbos personality that we all possess at least in a latent state.
This Messianic Shofar will touch us in ways that are unprecedented, because they will reveal untapped energy and enable us to rise to much higher and more exciting levels, even higher and more delightful than the Shabbos experience.
May we all be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year, when we will all experience true peace and ultimate Redemption through our righteous Moshiach.
From the book Light from the Future: Rosh Hashanah by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
