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Mitzvah:
Hearing the Sounds
The Sages indicated that the mitzvah was to hear the sounds of
the shofar. They go so far as to establish whether a person
hears the actual sound or just the echo at the outside of the
pit or cave; the bottom; and midway. The Shulchan Aruch sums up
that if the hearer hears the reverberation, the mitzvah is not
valid. However, if the hearer perceives the direct sounds, he
fulfils the mitzvah. See Mishnah Berurah 587:1-3. You can
extrapolate this ruling to hearing the shofar on the radio, the
Internet, etc. as being invalid.
In addition, if one hears the blast but with no intention of
fulfilling the mitzvah, then there is no mitzvah. However, there
is a minority decision on this point.
If one blows with the intention that all who hear will perform
the mitzvah, the mitzvah is valid. If someone passes by and does
intend to hear the Shofar, he can perform he mitzvah because the
community blower blows for everybody. If he stands still, it is
presumed he intends to hear. MB 590:9
In
post-Biblical times, the
shofar was enhanced in its religious use because of
the ban on playing musical instruments as a sign of mourning
for the destruction of the temple. (It is noted that a
full orchestra played in the temple, including, perhaps,
a primitive organ.) The shofar continues to announce the
New Year and the new moon, to introduce Shabbat, to carry
out the commandment to sound it on Rosh Hashanah, and
to mark the end of the day of fasting on Yom Kippur once
the services have completed in the evening. The secular
uses have been discarded (although the shofar was sounded
to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967)
(Judith Kaplan Eisendrath, Heritage of Music, New York:
UAHC, 1972, pp. 44-45).
The shofar is primarily associated with Rosh ha-Shanah. Indeed,
Rosh Hashanah is called "Yom T’ruah" (the day of the shofar
blast). In the Mishnah (book of early rabbinic laws derived from
the Torah), a discussion centers on the centrality of the shofar
in the time before the destruction of the second temple (70 AD).
Indeed, the shofar was the center of the ceremony, with two
silver trumpets playing a lesser role. On other solemn holidays,
fasts, and new moon celebrations, two silver trumpets were
featured, with one shofar playing a lesser role. The shofar is
also associated with the jubilee year in which, every fifty
years, Jewish law provided for the release of all slaves, land,
and debts. The sound of the shofar on Rosh ha-Shanah announced
the jubilee year, and the sound of the shofar on Yom Kippur
proclaimed the actual release of financial encumbrances.
The halakha (Jewish law) rules that the shofar may not be
sounded on Shabbat due to the potential that the ba’al tekiyah (shofar
sounder) may inadvertently carry it which is in a class of
forbidden Shabbat work (RH 29b) the historical explanation is
that in ancient Israel, the shofar was sounded on Shabbat in the
temple located in Jerusalem. After the temple’s destruction, the
sounding of the shofar on Shabbat was restricted to the place
where the great Sanhedrin (Jewish legislature and court from 400
BCE to 100 C.E.) was located. However, when the Sanhedrin ceased
to exist, the sounding of the shofar on Shabbat was discontinued
(Kieval, The High Holy Days, p. 114).
The shofar says, "Wake up from your (moral) sleep. You are
asleep. Get up from your slumber. You are in a deep sleep.
Search for your behavior. Become the best person you can.
Remember God, the One Who created you." Mishneh Torah, Laws
of Repentance 3:4.
See Arthur l. Finkle, Shofar Sounders Reference Manual, LA:
Torah Aura, 1993