How to Get Meaning from the Shofar

(24) Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.

(1) In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day when the horn is sounded.

(4) Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if [the shofar's call] is saying: Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator.

(1) Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test, saying to him, “Abraham.” He answered, “Here I am.” (2) “Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.” (3) So early next morning, Abraham saddled his ass and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and he set out for the place of which God had told him. (4) On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place from afar. (5) Then Abraham said to his servants, “You stay here with the ass. The boy and I will go up there; we will worship and we will return to you.” (6) Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. He himself took the firestone and the knife; and the two walked off together. (7) Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he answered, “Yes, my son.” And he said, “Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” (8) And Abraham said, “It is God who will see to the sheep for this burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together. (9) They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. (10) And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son. (11) Then a messenger of יהוה called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” (12) “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.” (13) When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. (14) And Abraham named that site Adonai-yireh, whence the present saying, “On the mount of יהוה there is vision.”

(8) When Abraham returned from Mount Moriah in peace, the anger of Sammael was kindled, for he saw that the desire of his heart to frustrate the offering of our father Abraham had not been realized. What did he do? He went and said to Sarah: Hast thou not heard what has happened in the world? She said to him: No. He said to her: Thy husband, Abraham, has taken thy son Isaac and slain him and offered him up as a burnt offering upon the altar. She began to weep and to cry aloud three times, corresponding to the three sustained notes (of the Shofar), and (she gave forth) three howlings corresponding to the three disconnected short notes (of the Shofar), and her soul fled, and she died.

(28)Through the window peered Sisera’s mother, Behind the lattice she whined [literally "wailed"]: “Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why so late the clatter of his wheels?” (29)The wisest of her ladies give answer; She, too, replies to herself: (30)“They must be dividing the spoil they have found: A woman or two for each man, Spoil of dyed cloths for Sisera, Spoil of embroidered cloths, A couple of embroidered cloths Round every neck as spoil.”

Abaye said: In this matter about how long the shofar blasts are, the tanna’im certainly disagree. Although the first baraita can be reconciled with the mishna, this second baraita clearly reflects a dispute. As it is written: “It is a day of sounding [terua] the shofar to you” (Numbers 29:1), and we translate this verse in Aramaic as: It is a day of yevava to you. And to define a yevava, the Gemara quotes a verse that is written about the mother of Sisera: “Through the window she looked forth and wailed [vateyabev], the mother of Sisera” (Judges 5:28). One Sage, the tanna of the baraita, holds that this means moanings, broken sighs, as in the blasts called shevarim. And one Sage, the tanna of the mishna, holds that it means whimpers, as in the short blasts called teruot.

(4) Blow the horn on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day. (5) For it is a law for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob;

Therefore, the verse states: “Sound the shofar at the New Moon, at the full moon [keseh] for our feast day” (Psalms 81:4). Which is the Festival on which the month, i.e., the moon, is covered [mitkaseh]? You must say that this is Rosh HaShana, the only Festival that coincides with the new moon, which cannot be seen. And the Merciful One states: “Sound the shofar at the New Moon,” which indicates that on Rosh HaShana one sounds a shofar and nothing else.

(16) On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. (17) Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. (18) Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for יהוה had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (19) The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.

(3) Let all your troops march around the city and complete one circuit of the city. Do this six days, (4) with seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns preceding the Ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. (5) And when a long blast is sounded on the horn—as soon as you hear that sound of the horn—all the troops shall give a mighty shout. Thereupon the city wall will collapse

(8) You shall count off seven weeks of years—seven times seven years—so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years. (9) Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month—the Day of Atonement—you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land (10) and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to your holding and each of you shall return to your family.

(39) The priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the Tent and anointed Solomon. They sounded the horn and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!”

(1) Hallelujah. Give praise in the divine sanctuary;give praise in the sky, the divine stronghold. (2) Give praise for mighty acts;give praise for exceeding greatness. (3) Give praise with blasts of the horn; give praise with harp and lyre. (4) Give praise with hand-drum and dance; give praise with lute and pipe. (5) Give praise with resounding cymbals; give praise with loud-clashing cymbals. (6) Let all that breathes praise Yah. Hallelujah.

(13) And in that day, a great ram’s horn shall be sounded; and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt shall come and worship GOD on the holy mount, in Jerusalem.

(1) Sound the great shofar for our liberty, and raise a banner to gather our exiles, and gather us together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are You, Adonai, Gatherer of the dispersed of God's people Israel.

(16) Gideon divided the three hundred men into three columns and equipped them all with a ram’s horn and an empty jar, with a torch in each jar. (17) “Watch me,” he said, “and do the same. When I get to the outposts of the camp, do exactly as I do. (18) When I and all those with me blow our horns, you too, all around the camp, will blow your horns and shout, ‘For GOD and for Gideon!’” (19) Gideon and the hundred men with him arrived at the outposts of the camp, at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the sentries were posted. They sounded the horns and smashed the jars that they had with them, (20) and the three columns blew their horns and broke their jars. Holding the torches in their left hands and the horns for blowing in their right hands, they shouted, “A sword for GOD and for Gideon!” (21) They remained standing where they were, surrounding the camp; but the entire camp ran about yelling, and took to flight.

(1) Cry with full throat, without restraint; Raise your voice like a ram’s horn! Declare to My people their transgression, To the House of Jacob their sin.

(15) Blow a horn in Zion, Solemnize a fast, Proclaim an assembly!(16) Gather the people, Bid the congregation purify themselves. Bring together the old, Gather the babes And the sucklings at the breast; Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber, The bride from her canopied couch.

(4) One thing I ask of the LORD, only that do I seek: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD, to frequent God's temple.

(19) Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and let the boy drink.

(13) When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. (14) And Abraham named that site Adonai-yireh, whence the present saying, “On the mount of יהוה there is vision.”