The Shofar On Shabbos
“Rosh Hashana That Occurred on Shabbos”
(Rosh Hashana 29b)
According to Torah law, shofar is blown even when Rosh Hashanah occurs on Shabbos. Fearing that a person might come to carry his shofar in a public domain, our Sages decreed that it must not be blown then. He would then transgress the Torah prohibition against carrying on Shabbos. The Gemara also suggests, that even according to Torah law, shofar is not blown on Shabbos. Although our Gemara rejects this suggestion, the Talmud Yerushalmi: Rosh Hashana 4:1 and Toras Kohanim seem to accept it. However, in the Beis HaMikdash the shofar was blown even when Rosh Hashanah occurred on Shabbos. After the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai instituted that the shofar be blown in every Beis Din. The Sages of the Beis Din would ensure that the shofar would not be carried into a public domain.
Beis Din: The Unbroken Chain
The Rambam (Hilchos Shofar 2:9) writes that the shofar is blown on Shabbos only in a Beis Din consisting of Sages that received their ordination in an unbroken chain from Moshe Rabbeinu. This is the true tradition of semicha¸ which was disrupted long ago. Today’s semicha is simply a rabbinic ordination, by which people are proven to be knowledgeable in halacha and capable of offering halachic rulings. According to the Rambam, shofar is not blown on Shabbos in a contemporary Beis Din today.
Beis Din: Supremely Prominent
The Rif, on the other hand, held that any Beis Din “which is supremely prominent in its generation” blows shofar on Rosh Hashanah that occurs on Shabbos. The Rishonim note that the Rif himself had shofar blown in his own Beis Midrash on Shabbos, since he was unquestionably the preeminent Torah authority of his time (see introduction to Milchamos Hashem, by the Ramban). However, even among the Rif’s closest students, this opinion was not accepted (Rosh 1). The Ritva writes: “We have not seen this practice followed in any community of Israel.”
Raising A Storm: A Controversial Ruling
Yet, Rabbenu Mano’ach (Shofar 2:3) writes that in Damascus, this practice was followed. Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, zt”l (1838-1922) author of Lev Ha’Ivri), who lived in Yerushalayim, raised a storm of controversy when he ruled that shofar should be blown on Shabbos in Yerushalayim (Mikra’ei Kodesh, Yomim Noraim 32).
He based this ruling on a number of points. Firstly, the Rif holds that the preeminent Beis Din should blow shofar on Shabbos. Secondly, some Rishonim hold that in Yerushalayim, shofar is blown on Shabbos, even outside of Beis Din (see Tosefos s.v. Aval. However, the Acharonim interpret Tosefos differently). Thirdly, he cites the Rambam’s opinion that although the chain of semicha from Moshe Rabbeinu was broken, it could be reinstated if all the Sages of Eretz Yisrael would gather to appoint a Beis Din. In total, he cites fifteen different points to support his conclusion that shofar today can be blown in a prestigious Beis Din in Yerushalayim.
Much Dissent
In the year 1870, when Rabbi Schlesinger arrived in Yerushalayim, he presented this conclusion before Rabbi Meir Auerbach of Kalish, zt”l (1815-1878), author of Imrei Bina, who firmly rejected it. Years later, he again presented his ruling, this time before the Maharil Diskin, zt”l (1818-1898), who also rejected it. The Maharil Diskin explained that in their times, they did not have a Beis Din with the same renown as that of the Rif. Therefore, even the Rif would forbid blowing shofar on Shabbos. In 1905 and 1906, Rosh Hashanah occurred on Shabbos for two consecutive years. Rabbi Schlesinger then published several halachic essays and treatises, attempting to advance his proposition. He engaged in halachic discussions with the author of the Aderes and the author of Yisa Beracha, but he was unsuccessful in convincing the community to accept his ruling. The Torah leaders of Yerushalayim were themselves uncertain how to act. Rabbi Shmuel Salant, zt”l (1816-1909), Rav of Yerushalayim, said that if people were to ask him, he would advise them not to blow shofar. However, he would not object if people decided of their own volition to blow. It is told that the Aderes himself said that if he knew of a minyan in which shofar was blown on Shabbos, he would hide behind the wall to hear it blown. One year, Rabbi Schlesinger did in fact blow shofar in private, so as not to generate public controversy. However, in following years when Rosh Hashanah occurred on Shabbos, he did not continue this practice.
One of the main arguments against Rabbi Schlesinger was that in any case of halachic uncertainty, we must look to the Torah leaders of previous generations and see how they acted. In Yerushalayim there lived such noted Torah giants as the Pri Chadash, the Maharit Algazai, and the holy Or HaChayim. None of them blew shofar when Rosh Hashanah occurred on Shabbos (Yeshurun 1, pp. 433 – 440).
The Geniza Discovery
In the Cairo Geniza, discovered in1896, a thousand-year-old siddur was found. In it was written a piyut for Maariv of Rosh Hashanah that occurs on Shabbos. It describes how the shofar was blown in Beis Din, under the strictest care that no prohibition be transgressed in the process.
From the piyut we learn that they attached the shofar to a pillar, in order to ensure that it would not be carried into a public domain. The person who blew the shofar would not even touch it with his hands, but would simply place his mouth against it and blow (see Yeshurun ibid, pp. 442-443).