In truth, the shiur on shofar is in continuation to last week's shiur, which was concerning teshuvah, and there is a strong connection between shofar and teshuvah, as we will see. But before we get into the רמז, the hint, or the inner meaning of the mitzvah of shofar, I would just like to explain a little bit the technical part of shofar, where the mitzvah of shofar comes from and what we do when we blow shofar. It says in Chumash that on the day of Rosh Hashanah you shall blow, and blow a shofar, and it uses the word תריעו, the word teruah. And we find the word teruah in the Torah three times. And the Chachamim said that we know, they have their sources, that anytime there is a teruah, you have to have a tekiah before and a tekiah after. And since the word teruah is written three times in the Torah, basically what it means is that when it comes to Rosh Hashanah, we have to blow a תקיעה, תרועה, and a tekiah. And then again, a תקיעה, תרועה, and a tekiah, and a תקיעה, תרועה, and a tekiah. Three times the word teruah, so three teruot. And since every teruah needs a tekiah before and a tekiah after, so we have to do that three times. So, as of the Torah, the way the Torah commands us, we have to blow what we call nine קולות. Nine sounds has to be blown on Rosh Hashanah. And the same thing is, by the way, on Yom Kippur of the year of יובל. Because the Torah does also mention in Chumash, when it talks about יובל, which is the 50th year, that you have to blow shofar. And we compare yovel to Rosh Hashanah. And therefore, just like on Rosh Hashanah we blow, we are supposed to blow from the Torah nine sounds: תקיעה, תרועה, תקיעה, תקיעה, תרועה, תקיעה, תקיעה, תרועה, תקיעה, so too on the Yom Kippur of yovel. What a tekiah is we all know. A tekiah is a straight sound, tuuu, that's a tekiah. What a teruah is, there was a safek, there was a doubt. In the time of the Gemara, there was a doubt what a teruah is, and there were three possibilities. It could be that it means what we call nowadays a shevarim. It could be it means what we call nowadays a teruah. And it could mean a combination of both, that the teruah of the Torah is a combination of shevarim and teruah. Shevarim are three sounds: tu-u, tu-u, tu-u, that's a shevarim. What we call a teruah nowadays is tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu, that's a teruah. So, there was a safek whether when the Torah says you have to blow a teruah, whether it means what we call a shevarim, tu-u, tu-u, tu-u, or it means tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu, or it means both, that the teruah of the Torah means שברים תרועה. And since this is a question of what the Torah means, so to be sure that we will be doing the right thing, we have to do them all. And since each one has to be done three times, so therefore we have to blow nowadays from the Torah, this is the tekiot of the Torah, three times תקיעה שברים תקיעה, because maybe that shevarim is what the Torah meant for teruah; we also have to blow three times תקיעה תרועה תקיעה, because maybe that's what the Torah meant; and we have to blow three times תקיעה שברים תרועה תקיעה, cuz maybe that's what the Torah meant. The shevarim and the teruah are supposed to resemble crying. And there are This is what the Gemara says, this is not yet the inner peshat of תקיעת שופר, this is the simple פשט. And there are two types, two ways a person cries. Sometimes a person cries like the three like the שברים, that's how a person cries, that would be like a שברים. And sometimes a person cries like that, so that's like a תרועה. And sometimes it goes that a person first cries what we call it שברים, then a תרועה. And therefore there was a ספק. And because there was a ספק, we have to blow all of them. When we say there was a ספק, the Rambam says that years before, different communities had different customs. Certain communities had a custom that they used to blow תקיעה שברים תקיעה three times. What we call a שברים nowadays, that's what they used to do, that's all. Because in their tradition, they knew this was what the Torah meant. There were other קהילות, other communities, that their tradition was that you blow תקיעה תרועה תקיעה, what we call a תרועה. And there were third, different communities that blew always תקיעה שברים תרועה תקיעה. And each one did only one of these because that was their מסורה, their tradition. Then the חכמים came and said, why should there be differences between different communities and it seems chas v'shalom as if we have more than one Torah? These people have one kind of מצוות, and these people have a different kind of מצוות. So they said, you know what, to be sure and let everyone do the same thing, let all communities blow all three. And that's when it started that all the Yidden blow all three. And this is where we get that when we blow shofar on Rosh Hashanah, and we're talking about the first time we blow, this is right after קריאת התורה, before we get to שמונה עשרה, to מוסף שמונה עשרה, those are the תקיעות that are מדאורייתא, the תקיעות we have to blow from the Torah. And what we blow is, as we said before, three times, as we call it, תש״ת—the word תש״ת is an abbreviation of תקיעה שברים תקיעה, so it's three times תש״ת—three times תר״ת, that's an abbreviation of תקיעה תרועה תקיעה, even though the word תרועה starts with a ת, so really the abbreviation should be תת״ת, but it just would sound strange so they made it into תר״ת because it's the second letter from the word תרועה, so it's three times תר״ת, and then we have three times תשר״ת. The order that I said was mixed up, it's first תשר״ת, then תש״ת, and תר״ת. So we blow all of these תקיעות to make sure that we do the right thing according to the Torah. Then the חכמים added that later on when we daven Musaf, we should blow more, and they made it so that we should blow, that altogether we will have a hundred קולות, a hundred sounds, because in the beginning, which is before Musaf, the first ones, altogether are 30 קולות. It's three times three is nine, and three times three is nine, and then you have three times four. I mean, the first is three times four, תשר״ת is תקיעה שברים תרועה תקיעה, and three times four is 12, so 12 and nine and nine together is 30, the חכמים added 70 more, so those are מדרבנן. The first ones are called in שולחן ערוך תקיעות מיושב, the sitting תקיעות, and the later ones are called תקיעות מעומד, the standing ones, and the reason is because according to הלכה, when we blow תקיעות right after leinen, before Musaf, you're allowed to sit. Now, the custom is that no one sits, we all know that, but על פי הלכה you're allowed to sit, while the other תקיעות, being that they're connected to Shemoneh Esrei, when you're supposed to stand, so then they're called תקיעות מעומד. Now, in the תקיעות מעומד itself, we have different opinions, different customs basically: some don't blow at all during what we would call the shtile Shemoneh Esrei. When the community daven Shemoneh Esrei, daven the עמידה of Musaf, there is no shofar blown, that's what Nusach Ashkenaz does, and everyone finishes Shemoneh Esrei, and it's only during Shemoneh Esrei that the חזן says, the חזרת הש״ץ, that's when you have the blowing of, and later on by Kaddish. Other communities, basically by חסידים, whether they daven Nusach Sefard, and Nusach HaAri, the custom is that we blow also during the shtile Shemoneh Esrei, during the Shemoneh Esrei that people daven quietly, there are certain sections when we blow, by מלכיות, זכרונות, שופרות, different sections, and then we also blow during the חזרת הש״ץ, and then we blow by Kaddish. But basically everyone agrees that you have to blow a hundred קולות: 30 is מדאורייתא, and 70 דרבנן added. And as I said before, even the 30 which is מדאורייתא from the Torah, it's not that the Torah said we have to blow 30 kolot, the Torah said we have to blow nine, and being that we don't know exactly and there were different communities did different things, so together it turns out that we blow 30 kolot which are considered the kolot of de'oraita, and then we have the 70 derabbanan. This is the technical part of shofar.

What is the deeper meaning of the mitzvah of shofar? In other words, what is the reason, why did Hashem tell us to blow the shofar? So first and foremost, we don't need a reason. Like any other mitzvah, Hashem said so, we have to do it, whether it makes sense or not, whether we have a reason or not. Nevertheless, it's always better if we could find a reason, it makes it geshmaker, it makes it easier for do the mitzvah, and we have a feeling in the mitzvah, and if we have a reason we know what it's all about. So the reason for blowing shofar, the Rasag, Rav Saadia Gaon, gives 10 reasons. The famous 10 reasons for blowing shofar. We will get to the 10 a little later, I just want to mention first the first two, and those are the two most important ones, and we'll elaborate on these two, and then we'll go on later, try to go through all 10 reasons that the Rasag says. The first reason he says is that by blowing shofar, this reminds us this is not only reminder, this is a form of expressing our accepting Hashem as king. We know that during Rosh Hashanah the main thing that we have to do is accept Hashem as king. If we look through the tefilot, the prayers of Rosh Hashanah, the שמונה עשרה, the main prayers, all we talk about is asking Hashem to become our king. Please be our king, be the king of the world, וישמחו בך השם לבדך, please reign over the world and מלוך השם על העולם כולו בכבודך, be the king of the world, everything, and the berachah we say is even by קידוש, ברוך אתה השם מלך and מלך על כל הארץ, you're the king. The whole thing is about accepting Hashem as king, because Rosh Hashanah is the time when we're supposed to be מקבל עול מלכות, accept the yoke of Hashem as our king. There's a pasuk that says, בחצוצרות וקול שופר הריעו לפני המלך השם. With trumpets and with shofar you blow in front of Hashem, the king. As the custom used to be, and I believe it's still now, that at a coronation of a king, and I believe the same is at the inauguration of the President, if I'm not mistaken, that they blow trumpets, they blow a shofar, I don't know if they actually blow a shofar now, but similar to shofar is being blown, and that's a symbol of crowning the king, and being that Rosh Hashanah is the day that we crown Hashem as king, therefore on Rosh Hashanah we have to blow shofar. This is the first reason Rasag gives. Then he gives a second reason, and that is the reason of teshuvah, that blowing shofar reminds a Yid to do teshuvah, which is similar to what the Rambam says. It almost came out of my tongue saying that it's based on the Rambam, but it can't be, the Rasag lived before the Rambam, but it's like what the Rambam says when he speaks about the mitzvah of shofar. He says in Hilchot Teshuvah, he says that, and I'll quote, אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב הוא, even though the מצוה of blowing שופר on ראש השנה is a גזירת הכתוב, it's a decree of the תורה, it's a מצוה, רמז יש בדבר, there is a hint in the מצוה, and that is עורו ישנים משנתכם, those that are sleeping wake up, ונרדמים מתרדמתכם, those that are in a deep sleep wake up from your deep sleep, and those that are involved in הבלי העולם, he says, in the stupidity of the world, wake up, get out of these narishkayten, וחזרו בתשובה, he says, return to do תשובה, וחפשו מעשיכם, look into your maasim, into your behavior. So really what a shofar is, according to this reason, it's an alarm clock, it wakes a person up. Just like when you want to wake up from a physical sleep, you have an alarm clock that wakes you up, here the shofar wakes you up, makes a person do teshuvah, and tells a person remember you have to change. Actually it says in a Midrash that the word shofar comes from the word שפרו מעשיכם. שפרו comes from the word שפירא. שפירא means nice. שפרו מעשיכם means let your behaving actions become nicer. So the shofar is to remind a person to do teshuvah, to become better. That's the second reason the Rasag gives. So so far we have already three things concerning the inyan of shofar. Number one, it's a mitzvah, like I said, it's a mitzvah, and that's beyond any reason, so we blow shofar because we fulfill the mitzvah of shofar. Then there's another thing, that shofar is the way we crown Hashem as king. And the third thing is, which is a second reason, because the first one is not a reason, but the second reason, the third inyan, but the second reason is that the shofar reminds a person to do teshuva. Out of these three things, we see the Ram the Rasag mentions the malchus, the kabbalas malchus, as the first. That's his first reason. Obviously, the first and foremost thing in the inyan of shofar is that through shofar we accept Hashem as our Melech. Actually, this is taken from the Gemara. The Gemara says that when a when Gemara says that we have to say Rosh Hashanah in Mussaf, we have to say malchuyos, zichronos, and shofaros, which means we have to mention pesukim of the Torah that tell us about Hashem becoming king, and pesukim in the Torah that are zichronos that remind Hashem to remember us, and then pesukim that talk about a shofar. So the Gemara says like this, why these three things? The Gemara says like this, say the pesukim of מלכות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם, in order for you to make Me king upon you. Say the pesukim of zichronos of remembrance, so I shall remember you. ובמה and how will this happen? בשופר, through shofar. So the shofar, that's why we say pesukim of shofaros. So the shofar is a form of how we say, how we make תמליכוני עליכם, we make Hashem as king. And that is the first reason that Rav Saadia Gaon gives, that we make Hashem as king. But then we have teshuva, and then we have shofar being a mitzvah. Why is the concept of malchut of the shofar being the way we accept Hashem as king the first? So let me explain these three inyanim the way it's explained in Chassidut. We know teshuvah, let's start with teshuvah. Of the three things, we have teshuvah. Teshuvah means that we repent on any wrongdoing that we did concerning a mitzvah. If we didn't do a mitzvah, or we transgressed a negative command, a negative mitzvah, we have to do teshuvah. Obviously, teshuvah reaches a higher level than a mitzvah, as I explained last time, because it means if through teshuvah we're able to erase the blemish that became through the aveirah, through not keeping the mitzvah, obviously we reached into Hashem, into a higher level. Because if we'd reach into Hashem into the same level where the aveirah affected, then we won't be able to change it, because that's the level where the effect took place. So obviously teshuvah means that we reach a level deeper than the level of mitzvah. So we have a level of connection between a Yid and Hashem which is expressed through the mitzvah, through Hashem commanding us to do a mitzvah and us doing the mitzvot. That is the ratzon of Hashem, the will of Hashem. So that's a connection we have to Hashem because of His will. But then there is a deeper connection that we could reach by doing teshuvah, which will erase any blemish that is there in the lower level of the mitzvah. Because if it wouldn't be a higher level, it wouldn't happen, you couldn't erase it. And as I gave the example last time when we spoke about teshuvah, like a child. A child, the father tells a child what to do, the child, chas v'shalom, doesn't listen, the father is upset, so the child returns to the father, does teshuvah, reaches deep into the father, touches that sensitive soft spot where the father says, okay, I'll forget everything he did, because he reaches into a level beyond the level where he was touched and affected by the behavior of the child. And that's why teshuvah wipes out the aveirah. And that level is a level beyond the level of the mitzvah. And as I explained last time, the mitzvot are called ratzon of Hashem, the will of Hashem. Then you have Hashem as being the בעל הרצון, the one that has the will. Just like you have a person. You have the person, and he wants something. So the will starts at a certain point. But then if you go deeper into the person, to the nefesh of the person, which is beyond the level of his will, then that will doesn't count. So by doing teshuvah we reach into the בעל הרצון, into the level of Hashem as He is the author, the one that had the will, the person who is the one that has the will, so we're reaching the person beyond it, and that's how teshuvah helps. So we have here that teshuvah is higher than a mitzvah. But nevertheless, as great as teshuvah is, and we say it's higher than the mitzvot, it's still connected to mitzvot. What's the whole idea of teshuvah? To do teshuvah for not keeping the mitzvah or going against a mitzvah. So as much as we say that we must say teshuvah is higher than mitzvah, but nevertheless, it is still within the category of mitzvot, but a higher level. As the expression that Chassidut uses, the mitzvot are ratzon, the will, and the teshuvah is to the בעל הרצון, to the one that had the will. But still we're talking about, in the mashal of the person, the person who has the will. So obviously, it's a level where he will have a will. In Hashem, it's the level of Hashem which is higher than the mitzvot, but nevertheless, it's connected to the mitzvot. That's why that will do something to erase the blemish of the mitzvot. But then we have even a third level, a deeper level in Hashem, which is even higher than any connection to mitzvot. This is the essence of Hashem, which is not even referred to in Chassidut as the בעל הרצון, as the one that has the will. This is even higher than that, at a level where the will is not even considered. The בעל הרצון is he is the one that has the will, so he is higher than the will, but it's going to be there. And then you have the essence of Hashem which is higher. When we say that we have to accept Hashem as king, that acceptance of malchut shamayim, malchut of Hashem, is our connection to Hashem beyond the mitzvot, and even beyond the level of teshuvah, which is the level that is connected to mitzvot. As we find in the Gemara concerning שמע ישראל, we mentioned that many times. The Gemara says, למה קדמה פרשת שמע לפרשת והיה אם שמוע? In שמע ישראל, in Kriat Shema, we have first the first portion of קריאת שמע, שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, ואהבת את השם אלוקיך, which means, \"Hear, O Israel, God our God, God is one. You shall love Hashem, your God,\" etc., etc. That's the first portion. Then we have the second portion where it says, והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, \"If you will listen to my mitzvot,\" etc., etc. Hashem promises he'll give us everything, grass, and food, and everything we need, rain, etc., etc. Why is the portion of שמע, ואהבת, first, and then we have the portion of והיה אם שמוע? So the Gemara answers, because first you have to accept malchut, and then you can עול מלכות, then you can accept עול מצוות. The first portion speaks not about mitzvot, doesn't speak in that portion about doing mitzvot. It speaks about accepting השם, השם אלוקינו השם אחד, השם is one. It speaks about ואהבת את השם, loving Hashem, generally, it doesn't say, \"Do what Hashem wants.\" The second one says, והיה אם שמוע תשמעו אל מצוותי, if you will listen to my mitzvot. So the Gemara says, first you have to accept עול מלכות, the yoke of the kingdom of Hashem, and then you accept עול מצוות. Accepting the kingdom of Hashem is greater, deeper than accepting the yoke of the mitzvot. We find the same thing in the Midrash concerning מתן תורה, that when Hashem came by מתן תורה and he said the עשרת הדיברות, the Ten Commandments, he said, אנכי השם אלוקיך. The first statement was, \"I am God your God.\" Why did he say that? So the Midrash gives a mashal, the famous mashal of a king who conquered a country, and he came in, and people said to him, \"Now that you are our new leader, our new king, גזור עלינו גזירות, give us some commandments, tell us what you want us to do.\" So the king answered, \"Wait a moment. תחילה קבלו מלכותי, ואחר כך אגזור עליכם גזירות. First accept my malchut, accept me as your king.\" That before we even talk about accepting my command, my decrees, accept me as king. In other words, what do we see from here? That accepting Hashem as king is deeper it it's higher, and automatically deeper, than accepting the mitzvot. It's even deeper than teshuvah, because teshuvah is still in the level of mitzvot, as much as we say that teshuvah is higher than mitzvot, because you see that teshuvah has the power of fixing the mistake of a mitzvah, so obviously it's greater, but still, it's lower than the level of קבלת מלכות of Hashem. So we have generally when we talk about Hashem, we have three things, and these are the levels. First, you have the connection a Yid has to Hashem, the essential connection he has to Hashem, which is Hashem is our king, Hashem is our father, Hashem is one with us, like it says, Yidden are always ישראל ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד, the Yidden and Hashem are one essentially, regardless of mitzvot. And therefore, takeh a Yid who chas ve-shalom, God forbid, doesn't keep mitzvot, if he's a Yid, he has an essential connection to Hashem, even if he doesn't do teshuvah, because that's there beyond mitzvot and beyond teshuvah. So the first level of our connection is is expressed in the accepting Hashem as a melech, malchut. The second thing, which is deeper than mitzvot, but lower than malchut, is the fact that we are able to do teshuvah. So when a Yid does teshuvah, he connects into himself to Hashem higher than the level of mitzvot. And then there is another level of connection, the regular one, the revealed way, and that is through doing mitzvot. So if we're going So if a Yid does mitzvot, he's connected to Hashem. Then if he doesn't, then he has to dig deeper into the deeper connection, through teshuvah. And then you have the other, the deepest connection, which is קבלת מלכות. And these are the three things that we have in the shofar. We have in the shofar, number one, it's a mitzvah. It's a mitzvah like all other mitzvot. So that represents our connection to Hashem through mitzvot. Then we said the second, the other reason for shofar, which is teshuvah. Shofar is the way to wake us up to do teshuvah. So that is to reveal within us the deeper connection that we have to Hashem, which is not a mitzvah, more than a mitzvah, it's teshuvah, which is higher than a mitzvah. And then we have the highest level, which to Rav Saadia Gaon is the by there is the first, is that through shofar we accept Hashem as our מלך, as our king, and this is the highest level. That means that through shofar, we get this connection to Hashem, to the essence of Hashem, which is beyond any limitations and beyond connect- beyond any ratzon, will of Hashem, it's an essential connection to Hashem at the highest level. That is one of the reasons why in the pesukim that we say before we blow shofar, we say that Kapitel Tehillim, למנצח, we say it seven times, In that Kapitel Tehillim it says, יבחר לנו את נחלתנו, He shall choose us as His inheritance. And we learned many times that the expression choice means that it's something that is not dependent at all on the behavior of the one that chose him. Because if you choose somebody because of something that this person did, then you didn't choose him. Free choice means that you have a choice to do it or not to do it. But if the person did something to deserve it, you have no choice. If he deserves it, you have to give it to him. If we use the term choice, that means that it's not in anything that is from his side. Choice comes purely from the side of the chooser, not based on anything that the one that is chosen does. And that's what we say before the shofar, to show that the mitzvah of shofar is to bring out the level of our connection to Hashem which is not dependent on what we- what we do. It's not dependent on the mitzvah. The connection that we have to Hashem through the mitzvot depends on what we do. We do the mitzvot, we have the connection. We don't, we don't. The connection we have through teshuvah is if we do teshuvah, we'll have the connection. But the higher connection is there anyway, just not always revealed, that's why we have to blow shofar. But that connection is not limited to what we do, and that connection is expressed in the expression of יבחר, which is bechirah chofshit, which is free choice. So, these are the three things that we have in the mitzvah of shofar according to Chassidus, according to Kabbalah, based on halachah also, because these things are written in halachah. And this is why it's interesting, we find that the Rambam, as I mentioned before, when he says that even though shofar is a mitzvah, nevertheless there is a remez, and the remez is, wake up from your sleep, etc., etc. This is the reason behind shofar, the Rambam says. Where would we expect the Rambam to write this reason? In which laws? In the laws of shofar, because he's explaining what shofar is. But he doesn't. In the laws of teshuvah, he writes about shofar being a remez, a hint for teshuvah. And then there's another question: why doesn't the Rambam bring that the reason for shofar is malchus, is kabbalas malchus, is accepting Hashem as King? So, the answer the Rebbe explains in it is that in הלכות שופר, in the laws of shofar, the Rambam talks about shofar as being a mitzvah. That's one level. But the second level, which is teshuvah, which is beyond the mitzvah of shofar, that's part of teshuvah, that's why the Rambam writes it in הלכות תשובה. And the third level, which is malchus, the Rambam doesn't even write at all, because the Rambam is a sefer of halachos, of telling us the mitzvos. Since this is something which is beyond mitzvos, it's not even written in the Rambam, even though this is the first and foremost reason why we have to- we have to blow shofar. So, it comes out from all this that when we come to Rosh Hashanah and we blow shofar, we have these main three things that take effect through our blowing shofar: the fact that Hashem becomes our מלך, the fact that this brings us to do teshuvah, and the fact that this is a mitzvah of Hashem. But, as I said before, there are ten reasons that the Rambam gives- that the Rav Saadia Gaon gives for shofar.

So, like I said, we will go through the list of ten and I will try to elaborate on these different reasons. Number one, we said, is מלכות, בחצוצרות וקול שופר הריעו לפני המלך ה׳, you blow trumpets at the time when you crown a king. And this is what Rosh Hashanah is, the time of the coronation of Hashem. You crown Hashem as King. And this is more important on Rosh Hashanah than to think about Rosh Hashanah being the יום הדין, the day of judgment, even though it is, and we will see one of the reasons for shofar is the judgment too. But the first thing is קבלת מלכות, and therefore, when we daven on Rosh Hashanah, that's what we have to think about, the crowning of Hashem as King. And you probably expect me to repeat what I always say, what I heard from- many times from Rabbi Soloveitchik. I once spoke to him, I also once heard him in a speech, and he said that he, when he was a child, Rav Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik, when he was a child and he learned by a מלמד, his מלמד was a חסידישער מלמד, even though his father was the מתנגדישער רב of the city, his teacher, his מלמד, was a חסידישער מלמד. He said that he used to teach him Tanya, and Tanya would be under the table, and if his father ever walked into the room, they would close it, because they didn't want his father to know it, because this was a מתנגדישע city. Anyways, he was a חסידישער מלמד, and he said that he remembers that once before Rosh Hashanah his מלמד walked around very serious, you know. So he asked him, \"What's so serious?\" and, \"You know, I assume the reason is because Rosh Hashanah is coming, and it's the יום הדין, and you're afraid. Who's not afraid of the יום הדין, the day of judgment? But you have nothing to be afraid of,\" he said. \"After all, you know, you're such a good person.\" So he says, I remember the way he expressed it, so he answered him, \"You think I'm afraid and I'm serious about יום הדין? That's not what I'm worried, serious about. You know what's coming? I remember the way he started screaming, \"It's the קאראנאציע פון דעם אויבערשטן!\" You know, \"It's the קאראנאציע פון דעם אויבערשטן, it's the coronation of Hashem.\" Imagine what that is, the coronation of Hashem. And that's why, that's what's getting to me, not the יום הדין. And this is really what Rosh Hashanah is all about. And when you blow shofar, that's what we're supposed to think, that this is the way we tell Hashem, \"Yes, we accept You as our King.\" And when we say we accept Hashem as our King, it means that we are His servants, His עבדים. And the הלכה by an עבד, by a servant or by a slave is that a slave has no מציאות of his own, has no being of his own. מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו. Whatever a slave acquires, it's his master's. A slave is not a being of his own. A slave is considered קנין כספו. In הלכה, in Chumash, קנין כספו means he is monetary value of his master. So if we tell Hashem, \"We accept You as our King,\" meaning that we're telling You we are accepting us to making ourselves become Your עבדים, we have to know what that means. That we tell Hashem that we give up our own being, our whole being is only You! And that's all. We are like עבדים. And that's the first reason that we have to, that we have in shofar, the first thing you have to think about a shofar. Then we have the second one, like I said, which is teshuvah. And here comes in the mashal of the Baal Shem Tov, yes, again Rav Saadia Gaon doesn't bring the mashal of the Baal Shem Tov, but the Baal Shem Tov writes a mashal concerning shofar being teshuvah, a mashal of a king who had a son who was very, very talented, and very smart, and he decided eventually that in order to him to learn more because he learned everything he could learn there, let him, he sent him away to a far-away country, let him get some experience, let him meet people, let him learn from other chachamim, and that would make him smarter. He gave him a lot of money, and the child left. But on the way he spent most of his money, and he got further away, and he didn't have any more money, so he started begging, and he couldn't get his clothes, and eventually he got so far away he forgot that he was a son of a king bichlal, and he forgot all the נימוסים, he calls it, all the the the behavior, or the whole of of the manners of being a son of a king, of being a prince, and he went so far and so long away that he even forgot the language of his country. And one day he just woke up and decided, \"It's enough, it's enough, I have to go back.\" So he decided to travel back to his father's home, and he started coming closer and closer, but he forgot the language, and he tried to tell the people, \"I'm the son of the king,\" and no one knew who he's talking about, no one could understand. But he pushed himself through, till finally he came close to the palace, and he motioned to them that he try to get through, push himself through so to get to his father. And he tried to tell them, \"I'm the son,\" but no one understood. So what did he what did he do? So he כאפט זיך, he realized, a המצאה, something that he did, so he stood outside of the palace, and he just started screaming. Without words, because words wouldn't mean anything, because it was a different language. He started screaming. And the king, sitting in his palace, heard the noise. He recognized the voice of his son. And he walked down from the throne, and he walked downstairs, and he took the king, this boy who looked completely torn and everything, and took him and picked him up and brought him back. And he brought him back to the palace. And the Baal Shem Tov says the same thing is with every Yid. We are, our neshamos are in Shamayim, and there we learn and we daven, we do everything. Hashem decided for each one of us it's time to grow. How does a Yid grow? By coming down to this world, and fulfilling Torah u'mitzvot, the neshamah it grows, the neshamah gets higher. So Hashem sent us down here, expecting and hoping that we will do mitzvot, and then we will grow, get closer to Hashem. But what happens many times, we turned far away, and we are so far away that we even forget the language of the way it's in Shamayim. But when we realize our problem, what we do is, like that son of the king, if we just scream out to Hashem, like the Baal Shem Tov said in a different place, that the shofar is supposed to be a cry of אבא אבא הצילני, אבא אבא רחמני, טאטע טאטע save me, טאטע טאטע have pity on me. And once Rebbe Maharash sent out a message to his chasidim that the main stress in this statement of the Baal Shem Tov is not the הצילני and רחמני, the words save me and have pity on me, the main stress is on the word אבא אבא, טאטע טאטע, that's all! And that's the shofar. The shofar is the screaming, like the son didn't say anything because his words didn't mean anything, the screaming from his nefesh that the voice that Hashem, that the father heard. Our screaming from our nefesh, that's the return of teshuvah. So it comes out that shofar not only is like the Rambam says, that it's a alarm clock to wake up a person to do teshuvah, there's another aspect of teshuvah in the shofar, the fact that the shofar is the expression of our teshuvah, not only to wake us. This is the way we scream out to Hashem, and it's a קול פשוט, that a voice that has no words, because no words could express this feeling, but the קול פשוט, the shofar, this is what Hashem hears. And like we said before in halachah, it's the crying part, teru'ah and the shevarim, because it's the crying out to Hashem, which makes Hashem listen to us, and this is where we the second reason for this מצות שופר. Then we have the third reason Rav Saadia Gaon gives, and that's to remind us of Matan Torah. We know by Matan Torah it says that Hashem came down and there was a קול שופר, a strong noise, voice of a shofar that was sounded by Matan Torah. So when we blow shofar now, it reminds us of Matan Torah. And together with reminding ourselves of Matan Torah, it reminds us of everything that comes along with Matan Torah. At the time of Matan Torah, so many things happened. At the time of Matan Torah we said נעשה ונשמע, we said we will do and we will hear. At the time of Matan Torah, we promised Hashem, we will take we will educate our children, בנינו ערבים בעדינו, when Hashem asked for for guarantors for the Torah. So we tried to say our fathers will guarantee and our prophets will guarantee, and the end was Hashem didn't accept it till we said our children will guarantee. And that was Matan Torah. A lot of things on Matan Torah we see the importance of the women, that Hashem said first speak to the women, then to the men. If you want to go through a list, it goes on and on and on, we all know what Matan Torah is. So the shofar reminds us of Matan Torah, that whatever took place at Matan Torah we have to rethink and say we are doing this all over again. And here again we have another mashal, and this is a mashal from Reb' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, which is concerning the connection of shofar to Matan Torah. And it's an interesting mashal. The mashal is like this: He says there was once a king who took a trip and got lost on the way, and he got lost in a forest, and he didn't know where to go. Finally saw some people, peasants, who were so simple they never even heard of the king, they didn't know anything, and the king started asking him where to go, how do you get onto the דרך המלך, to the highway that leads you back to the to the palace. They didn't know what he was talking about. But there was one chacham there, he says, one smart person that understood and he was smart, and he, from the words of the king and from his behavior, realized this is the king. So as soon as he realized this is the king, he took him by his hand and took him home and gave him food and then took him, showed him the way and took him back to the palace and brought him back and put him on his throne, etc. etc. Now the king obviously had a certain liking to this person, and I think that the mashal is he even made him a prime minister, etc. Then one time this person did something wrong against the king, and the king ordered that the court should judge him, like judge, and he knew that they judge him, and what he did was so terrible that he will be guilty. So he says to the king, \"I want to ask you for one thing before the judgment, before the case. What I would like is to allow me to put on the same clothes that I wore at the time you were lost in the forest, and you put on the clothes that you wore when you were lost in the forest. That's all I ask.\" So he put on the clothes, and the king put on the clothes, and when they were brought to that situation, this reminded the king, it brought out all the feelings he had at that time and how thankful he was, how he appreciated what this guy did, that he said to him, \"I forgive you,\" and he wiped out everything that he did. And the same thing the Berditchever, the Berditchever Rav says, is here. Since by Matan Torah the shofar was blown, and we accepted to do certain things, and unfortunately we don't always do it, so what we tell Hashem is what we would like to to repeat, make a repeat, a replay, replay of what took place at Matan Torah. Like the mashal, get dressed in the clothes that took place at that time when you appreciate it. Hashem went, it says, to all the nations to ask them to accept the Torah, no one wanted. We were the only ones that accepted it. Hashem should appreciate that! So what we want is Hashem to remind Himself what happened then. So by us blowing shofar now, remind Hashem the same situation that it was during Matan Torah, and then Hashem obviously takes us back, and forgives us, and does everything He's supposed to. That's the next thing.

Then we have another reason for shofar, which is the fourth reason, that shofar reminds us of the words of the prophets, because the prophets, the words of the Neviim, are compared to a shofar. Just like a shofar sounds the sound, the Neviim were the shofar of Hashem. When Hashem wanted a sound off of what He wanted people to do, He would speak to the Neviim, so the Neviim were the shofar of Hashem. So when we blow shofar, it's supposed to remind us to listen to the words of the Neviim, which means not only that we have to listen to the words of the Tanach, the Neviim which are printed and written in the Tanach, but when we talk about Neviim being the shofar of Hashem, it doesn't only mean the Neviim of old, it means also the chachamim of the Gemara, it means the chachamim of every generation, because we know that in every generation There are tzadikim that have the ability of bringing out and revealing what Hashem wants of us. Well, obviously He wants us to do תורה מצוות, that's for sure. But there are always certain things that ways of doing things, and certain important inyanim. So these are the nevi'im. And even in halacha we find that there is a possibility of having prophets even nowadays after the the the period when the prophets stopped, there was still a concept of a prophet, as I explained once when we had this shiur on nevuah. So really what the shofar reminds us, according to this reason, that we have to listen to what the chachamim say, and the chachamim in every generation, which to us would mean very simple: when we blow shofar we have to remember that we have to listen to what the Rebbe says, because the Rebbe was the shofar of Hashem, because he gave over with his ruach hakodesh, with his tzidkut, with his kedusha, gave over what is the will of Hashem. Just like it says by Mordechai, it says מרדכי ידע את כל אשר נעשה, when the decree of Haman came out, it says Mordechai knew everything that happened. How did Mordechai know? No one knew, it was still secret. So it says ברוח הקודש שלו, he knew with ruach hakodesh, so he knew. And it says Mordechai knew what was going on there, or in Gemara, all kinds of midrashim we find that Mordechai knew what was going on in heaven, and that's why down here he did things to take away the decree in heaven. So in every generation you have a Moshe Rabbeinu, you have a Mordechai, who knows what's going on and gives it over. And that's what the shofar is to remind us, to listen to the shofar of Hashem, which are the nevi'im. The fifth reason he gives is that this is to remind us the חורבן בית המקדש, the destruction of Beit Hamikdash, because at the time of war, the nature is that trumpets are blown, the shofar is blown. So at the time of the חורבן בית המקדש, when the Romans came and later the Bavel came and destroyed the Beit Hamikdash and took the Yidden to galut, they did it through a shofar. That was common, normal. So now we are supposed to remember the חורבן בית המקדש, which is obvious, this doesn't need any any further discussion, that to remind us of the חורבן בית המקדש is very important. That as long as we remember the חורבן בית המקדש, it brings us to have the desire to bring back the Beit Hamikdash, to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash, to have Mashiach, and therefore we will do everything possible in our hand to bring Mashiach. When we keep this reason in mind, so when we blow shofar we have to remember the חורבן בית המקדש, and what this will bring, it will bring Mashiach. The next thing, next reason is יום הדין, which by some people would have been probably the first, but in Rav Saadia Gaon this is the sixth reason, that it's a יום הדין, it's a day of judgment. And when you have a court case, I don't know how it is nowadays, but they used to have trumpets blown, shofar blown. He even says in halacha that when you come to Beit Din, in certain cases when Beit Din would want the person to swear, they would get dressed in black, they would blow shofar, and then the person would swear. So part of a din, a judgment, is shofar. And it's interesting, we find the Baal Shem Tov described to his grandson, the Degel Machaneh Efraim, what the יום הדין looks like in shamayim on Rosh Hashanah. He described it like this: that the that Hashem sits on the כסא דין, on the throne of judgment, and Avraham Avinu comes from one side, and Avraham Avinu is מעורר השם, השם should have chesed to the Yidden, and then Yitzchak comes from that other side, and Yitzchak says that he wants Hashem should have pity on the Yidden, then comes Yaakov Avinu, and he says he comes he describes it in detail, then comes Moshe Rabbeinu, then come all the שבעה רועים, all the other tzaddikim, and they all beg from Hashem, and this tzaddik and that tzaddik, and finally Hashem listens to them and gets up from the כסא דין, from the chair from the throne of din, and sits down on the throne of rachamim, and He gives the Yidden a a judgment with rachamim. And it says that the Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are there to be מלמד זכות on the Yidden, because every single Jew is judged and every single Jew's case is brought up to Hashem, but we have good lawyers! So he says we have Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov standing there, and Moshe Rabbeinu, they're our lawyers and melamed zechut, they find merit in what we did. And this brings Hashem to judge us with pity, with rachamim. But to remind us that it's a יום הדין, and we have to be very careful to what we do, because when we're standing in front of court, then certainly we have to behave properly. Imagine a person does something wrong and he's tried for it, and in court in front he'll do it again, then certainly he'll never come out innocent! So this will remind us when we blow shofar, we have to remind remember that it's a יום הדין in order for us to behave accordingly. Then the next thing he says: it reminds us of עקידת יצחק, because when Yitzchak was taken to the עקידה, instead of Yitzchak, a שה, a sheep was take was brought as a korban. For this, an איל, an איל, a ram, a ram was brought as a korban. And And the horns of these two of this, the two horns of this ram, one horn was the shofar that was used by מתן תורה. The second one will be the shofar that will be used when Mashiach will come. So the עקידת יצחק has a connection to shofar. So when we blow shofar, it's supposed to remind us of the עקידה, and remind Hashem of the עקידה. Now reminding ourselves of the עקידה means not just to remember how great Avraham Avinu was and he was ready to sacrifice his son, and how great Yitzchak was and he was ready to be sacrificed. That's fine, and that shows that if we have a זכות אבות, but it's supposed to remind us that we are supposed to do the same, that just like Avraham was ready to go on mesirut nefesh to give up not his own life, his son's life, which is even harder for a parent, and Yitzchak was ready to give up his life for Hashem, we are supposed to be ready to go on mesirut nefesh for Hashem. We are ready supposed to be ready to give up our life for Hashem, which is basically what we have to have in mind every time we say שמע ישראל. It says in halachah when we say Keriat Shema we're supposed to feel, think that we are ready to be מוסר נפש באחד, to give up our life באחד. That means that what we're supposed to think technically by Keriat Shema, except the the meaning of the words and אחד, אלף, חת, דלת, it says we're supposed to think that if I would be confronted now with a choice of or giving up our religion or being killed, I'm ready to be killed. In other words, we're supposed to imagine that if somebody walking over to me with a gun to my head saying, \"Or you worship idols, or I'll shoot you,\" I have to have the feeling I'm ready to say you'll shoot me. That means mesirut nefesh. So even though Baruch Hashem we don't have to do it b'foal, in actuality, but the feeling we have to Hashem is considered as if we actually give up our life. Imagine how great it is for a person mesirut nefesh is the greatest madreigah a person could reach. So that we have to do by every Kriat Shema, but by shofar especially, it's supposed to remind us of the akeidah to remind us that we are supposed to be ready to go on mesirut nefesh for Hashem, which which also includes another type of mesirut nefesh. The word nefesh we all know means will, not only soul, giving up life. We're supposed to be ready to give up our will. And that we have we are confronted with that daily. There's something that we want which we shouldn't do, and we have to be moser nefesh, give up our will for Hashem, like it says in Pirkei Avot: בטל רצונך מפני רצונו. We have to be mevatel our will for His will. But this is another hint, another reason for the mitzvah of shofar.

And then the other one is there's a pasuk that says: היתקע שופר בעיר ועם לא יחרדו? Is it possible for a shofar to be blown in a city and people will not get scared, be afraid? Shofar brings a person to charadah, to fear. And that's what we want on Rosh Hashanah, to have the fear of Hashem. So this is another reason we blow shofar, to have the fear, which is the reason why it says in Shulchan Aruch why we blow shofar throughout the whole month of Elul, because of this pasuk. So the whole month of Elul we're supposed to get this fear, this this this this trembling for Hashem, which comes through blowing shofar. The ninth reason is it reminds us of kibbutz galuyot, when all the Yidden will be gathered from all corners of the world back to Eretz Yisrael, because the pasuk says: והיה ביום ההוא, it will be that day, יתקע בשופר גדול, this great shofar will blow, ובאו האובדים בארץ אשור והנדחים בארץ מצרים, and all those that are all kicked away, pushed away to מצרים and to אשור, they will all come והשתחוו לה׳ בהר הקדש בירושלים, they'll all bow down to Hashem. So we're talking here about the Yidden who are all over. What will bring them back, kibbutz galuyot, that will be through the shofar. So the shofar is supposed to remind us of קיבוץ גלויות. And it's קיבוץ גלויות through the second shofar, and it says this will be even a greater shofar than the shofar of מתן תורה. That's why it says והיה ביום ההוא יתקע בשופר גדול, a big shofar. And it's interesting, just another few minutes, it's interesting that when it says that all the Yidden will be gathered, it says the people from Mitzrayim and the people from Ashur. Now peshat, simple peshat is they're two separate countries, but it says in חסידות they represent two types of galut. Mitzrayim was a place of oppression. The word Mitzrayim means מצר, narrow, oppressed. Ashur, the word Ashur comes from the same word as אשרי, which means luck, good. You have two types of galut. You have some people who are in galut in Iran or Soviet Russia like it used to be. That's galut of oppression, that's גלות מצרים. Then you have people that are in galut in riches, galut America. But it's also galut. Because of the galut, because of the the the the the אושר that we have, we there's a pasuk that if you have too much, שמנת עבית כשית, we can turn away from Hashem. So the שופר גדול is going to bring everyone back. And that's what is supposed to be is supposed to remind us during shofar on Rosh Hashanah. And the last thing he says, that the shofar reminds us of תחיית המתים, because when the because imagine when all the dead will be get up, it'll be such a celebration, there will be a shofar blown So the shofar that we blow now on Rosh Hashanah is a reminder of תחיית המתים. And just to mention, and to finish off, we know that תחיית המתים there are two levels. Most people will get up תחיית המתים after Mashiach will come. It'll be 40 years after Mashiach, that's the maximum, could be less, but definitely after Mashiach will come. It says that great tzadikim like Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen and all very, very great tzadikim will get up תחיית המתים even before. So we hope, and we are sure, that the Rebbe will get up even before the regular תחיית המתים, and it says והקיצו ורננו שוכני עפר. So when we blow shofar on Rosh Hashanah, and we're supposed to think about this last reason, תחיית המתים, this is what we think about, that it will be תחיית המתים soon, and we will see all our friends and relatives, and the main thing, we will see the Rebbe down here בגשמיות למטה מעשרה טפחים. Yes. According to the זכות אבות, הקדוש ברוך הוא judges us for us, for what we are, or HaKadosh Baruch Hu judges us also for the זכות אבות? He takes זכות אבות in consideration, that's for sure. The question is, do we He judges us, and then the verdict will be based on זכות אבות. That's why when we say where it says so when a person's זכות אבות is then so it was Then you have Tosafot says ברית אבות, which is a lower level, obviously. Good, but so you have to have your own zechuyot more. Yes. First, you could correct me, in the Rambam connection of the Rambam that's connection of shofar as part of teshuvah teshuvah, but he doesn't go to the higher level Of מלכות. מלכות. The way it's It's more than that, it's beyond to be written in the Rambam. Rambam is a sefer of mitzvot, which is a level of mitzvot. עשרת ימי תשובה. I don't know if the word you could use the word mitzvah the Rambam talks about these other overriding mitzvot, to know that there's Hashem and to love Hashem That's, but what mitzvot, there is no mitzvah of קבלת מלכות, maybe? This is something beyond, it's something that comes בעצם. We're supposed to do it, but I don't know if you could use the word mitzvah on it. Like the mashal of the לשם says that two people are down two people are down in a 12-foot 12-foot deep deep well. He says, and we have only being of two ropes, each one is only 10 feet deep. How do you come onto saving each one? Tie them together. ביחד, אוהב את הבריות Together, work together, we could work. If it's a very high tree, how do you get up? By going one on top of the other. No, he's saying through definitely yes, through being together, we always could reach the highest heights, that's true. That's like for the moment basically makes a kesher, that's that's the moment you realize that like it was said before, when you say Abba, that that's the ikar, because when you realize That's that essential kesher of a father, rather than through what we what he wants us to do. Okay, I guess Oh, one more question. I'm sorry. Because it's part of an animal, you know, the shofar, and as we we take we do mitzvot, we take things and we elevate them Yes, yes. Yes, that's that's true. Shofar is from an animal, and like every mitzvah is we take worldly worldly matters to elevate. Here we take something of an animal to show that we bend our yetzer hara, our animalistic soul to Hashem. And that's why the shofar has to be bent, not straight. Why? To show that we're bending ourselves to Hashem, which is basically kabalat ol or if you want to say teshuvah, or mitzvot. Now what is the reason why we don't wear, on Yom Kippur, we don't wear, you know, leather shoes? Because the animal Yeah, it's one of the reasons that it shouldn't But that's that's a different inyan here. Thank you everybody. Welcome to the parsha Podcast. In this week's episode, episode 141, we're studying Parashat Tetzaveh. Now Parashat Tetzaveh is essentially a continuation of last week's parsha, Terumah. In Parashat Terumah we learned about the vessels