When the Shofar Is Silent, Shabbos Speaks

There is something striking about entering shul on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and not hearing the shofar.

The shofar is the heartbeat of Rosh Hashanah. It is the cry of the Jewish soul, the call to teshuvah, and the trumpet with which we proclaim Hashem as King. Yet when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, we do not blow the shofar.

At first it seems that something precious is missing.

Chassidus, and particularly the teachings emphasized by the Rebbe, tell us exactly the opposite. Nothing is missing. Shabbos itself accomplishes what the shofar ordinarily accomplishes.

The Talmud explains that our Sages suspended the blowing of the shofar on Shabbos out of concern that someone might carry it in a public domain. But Chassidus asks a deeper question. How could the Sages allow the Jewish people to lose the extraordinary spiritual power of shofar?

The answer is that we do not lose it.

The shofar awakens a deep Divine pleasure and desire for creation. Through it we crown Hashem as King and awaken a renewed relationship between Hashem and His world. But Shabbos itself is called oneg, delight. When Rosh Hashanah is Shabbos, the spiritual elevation normally achieved through our blowing of the shofar is accomplished through the holiness of Shabbos itself.

In a regular year, we awaken Heaven through the shofar. On a Rosh Hashanah that is Shabbos, Heaven awakens us.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)