BS”D
SILENCING THE
SATAN
Rosh Hashanah
5779/2018
Adapted by Channie
Koplowitz Stein
We all know that Hashem commanded us to hear the sound of the shofar on Rosh
Hashanah. The basic number of sounds that need need to be blown is thirty, yet
we blow the shofar at a minimum of two cycles of thirty, one cycle immediately
before the Mussaf Amidah and another cycle, the shofar of record, during
the repetition of the Mussaf Amidah included in each section, in Malchuyot/Kingship,
Zichronot/Remembrance and Shofrot. (Customs vary as to additional
times the shofar is blown.) If we fulfill the mitzvah with one cycle of thirty
sounds, why do we all sound the shofar an additional cycle, asks the Gemarra,
and the Gemarra responds, “In order to confound the Satan.”
How is it possible to confound and confuse the Satan year after year with the
same ploy? Rashi explains that by blowing the shofar an additional thirty
times, we are showing our love for mitzvoth, thus nullifying the Satan’s
accusations. But, Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein notes that we have also performed averos/sins.
The difference, continues Rabbi Bernstein, is that by repeating and thereby
displaying our love for the mitzvoth, we are showing that we value mitzvah
performance and we identify it as our true essence. This evidence is what confounds
the Satan and nullifies his accusations.
The Ohel Moshe, quotes Rabbi Levenstein z”l who explains this idea. When Hashem
sees Bnei Yisroel doing all the mitzvoth with love, He feels like a father
toward his son, and is more inclined to act favorably, thereby silencing the
Satan. However, one must be careful, for doing mitzvoth grudgingly, without
love, has the opposite effect. We should feel grateful for very mitzvah, for
each offers us an opportunity to show our love for Hakodosh Boruch Hu and
silencing the Satan. As Rabbi Moshe Schwab z”l points out, the curses and
calamities prophesied in Devorim will occur because we did not serve
Hashem with gladness during times of abundance. It is not that we failed to
observe mitzvoth, but that we found no joy in their observance, and displayed
no love of Hashem and His Torah. The avodah/service/work of Rosh
Hashanah is to generate connection to and love of Hashem.
Of the two days of Rosh Hashanah, the first is more significant, writes Rabbi
Schorr in Halekach Vehalebuv, citing the Ariz”l, for on the first day we
daven for our ruchniyut/spiritual life while on the second day we daven
for the gashmiyut/material things. However, on both days, we need to
grow in our love for Hashem, for one of the constant mitzvoth is to love Hashem
with all levovcha nafshecha umeodecha/your heart, all your soul
and all your resources. Taking the final letters of each of these, lev,
nefesh, meod, we form an acronym for devash/honey.
As we dip our challah or apple into the honey, we should internalize the
knowledge that everything we have can be elevated to sweetness in love of
Hashem. [Chatam Sofer z”l]
But before we think of the Satan as something “out there”, we should pay
attention to what the Ra”N says, that Satan is actually the yetzer hora
within ourselves. Listening to the sounds of the shofar before the Amidah
is meant to put us in the proper frame of mind and eliminate our distractions
that empower the Satan.
So what should we be thinking about as we listen to the shofar blasts? Rav Dov
Yaffe z”l suggests that we focus on listening for the sake of observing the
mitzvah with joy and by so doing to coronate Hashem as the King over ourselves
and the world.
Rosh Hashanah is a day of truth. The liturgy is full of proclaiming the eternal
truth of Hashem and of His word, writes Rabbi Roth z”l in Sichot Eliyahu.
It is a day that we should be facing the truth of our own inner world as well.
The shofar pierces the innermost part of ourselves to reach our inner truth.
But who is blowing that shofar? While we may see a human baal tekiyah in
our shul, continues Rabbi Roth z”l, the ultimate Baal Tekiyah is
Hakodosh Boruch Hu Himself. As the Prophet Zechariah says: “Hashem will appear to
them… VaHashem Elokhim b’shofar yitka/and the Lord Hashem/Elokhim will
blow with a shofar...” (9: 14) We hear the sound of Godliness within ourselves
that is awakened and wants to connect to its Creator. Therefore, fortunate is
the nation that understand the sound of the shofar. These first shofar blast
serve to silence all that comes between us and our connection to Hakodosh
Boruch Hu, so that we can focus on that connection during the shofar blasts of
the Amidah.
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah we read about Hagar, Avraham’s second wife,
as she wandered in the desert with Ishmael, both thirsty after having finished
the water they took with them. Hashem opened Hagar’s eyes so she could see a
well, a well that had been there all the time but to which she had been blind.
Rabbi Yoffe z”l in Shema Bni explains that we too are blinded, as Hagar
was, and we ask Hashem to open our eyes so we can see the spiritual well within
ourselves and draw upon its waters to come closer to Him.
Rosh Hashanah is a day destined for release from enslavement, writes Rabbi
Wachtfogel z”l in Leket Sichot. It was the day we were released from our
enslavement in Egypt (not the day we left), and it was the day Yosef Hatzadik
was released from the dungeon. It is the day we ourselves have the power to
release ourselves from the chains that shackle us to servitude to the fleeting
and mundane so that we can enter the realm of kedushah/sanctity. The
shofar, then, writes Rabbi Bernstein, is a reminder for the future shofar that
will sound on that day when the great shofar will herald the coming of
Moshiach, “And then will come those lost in the land of Ashur (Assyria) and
those cast away in the Land of Miztrayim (Egypt),and they will bow down before
Hashem on the holy mountain in Yerushalayim.” Homiletically, the shofar is to
help us return from a life that is caught up in the pursuit of ashur/pleasure
or free us from the constriction of meitzorim/dire circumstances so that
we can strive for a higher calling. Sound the shofar, and create confusion in
the enemy camp. Don’t underestimate the power of one small moment of tekiyat
shofar, writes Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz z”l in Sichot Mussar. Free
yourself from both of these chains, the good and the challenging, and
anticipate the coming of Moshiach.
Does the Satan really think the extra shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah herald the
coming of Moshiach? How can he be confused the same way every year? Perhaps it
is not Satan but ourselves who are mistaken about the power of the shofar,
writes Rabbi Friedlander z”l, in Rinas Chaim. Rabbi Friedlander z”l,
expounding on the ideas of the Ramchal z”l, questions why the verses cited in
the section of Shofrot focus on the shofar blasts at Sinai rather than
on the verses citing sounding the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. To answer this
question, we need to go back to the era of creation itself.
At creation, Adam was all good. Evil existed, but it was external to him,
within the serpent. When Adam sinned, The evil and impurity represented by the
serpent entered into his being and became intermixed with the good. The shofar
blasts at Sinai were meant to reawaken the pure soul within Bnei Yisroel and
signal a return to the purity of man as Adam was before the sin. Bnei Yisroel
trembled as they heard the shofar and accepted the Torah. However, because Bnei
Yisroel had accepted the Torah, even though they sinned with the golden calf
and impurity again entered within them, evil did not have the same power over
them as before they received the Torah. Each Rosh Hashanah, when we hear the
shofar, our souls are again awakened with the teruah, from the same root
as “awakening” and we are roused to remove ourselves from evil, and to
strengthen our straight path of good with the straight, strong sound of the tekiyah.
Each year, as the shofar sounds, our resolutions bring us closer to hearing the
sound of the great shofar. If we are not yet there, it is because we have not
yet hearkened closely enough to the sound of the shofar and have failed to totally
internalize its message. But the Satan got the message, knows what it means for
us, and thinks that perhaps this is the sound of the great shofar, and he is
confused,
The shofar blasts bring us back to that pure place at Har Sinai, to the
clarity when Hashem revealed to us that there is none but Him. At that moment,
writes Rabbi Roth z”l, we were on the same level as Adam at the beginning of
creation, for the Ten Utterances/Dibrot/Commandments parallel the ten
saying through which Hashem brought the world into existence. The ten verses
that are part of each section of the Mussaf are meant to awaken within
ourselves the vision of clarity that we had at Sinai and that Adam himself had
before the sin. It is a vision that coronates Hashem not only as a King over
the universe, but, more importantly, as the King and Sovereign of my life. With
that clarity, I can subdue the yetzer hora and indeed bring the great
shofar to herald the Moshiach today.
Rabbi Rothberg delves even more profoundly into the meaning of the shofar
blasts at Sinai. In Moda Labinah, he reminds us that at creation, Hashem
breathed into Adam a living soul, and Adam became a living being. At Sinai,
Hashem again blew the breath of life into Bnei Yisroel through the medium of
the shofar. Who blew the shofar at Sinai? It was Hashem Himself. It became
stronger and stronger with the power of Torah. The shofar of Rosh Hashanah
parallels the shofar of Sinai, and breathes life into me as well.
The Targum interprets that Hashem breathed into Adam ruach memalelah/the
power of speech. It is no coincidence then, that either introducing each verse
or within each of the thirty verses cited there is a variation of amor/say,
either as leimor/saying, or as vene’emar/and it is said. (These
are translated in vernacular English as “it is written”, but the Hebrew root is
“said”.) Through the breath of the shofar, Hashem blew into us both the
commands with which He created the world and the Ten Utterances at Sinai,
infusing us with the purity of those times. When we recite these verses as part
of our prayers, we are symbolically recreating the world on both the macro and
micro levels. That’s why Hashem appeared to us as the voice of the shofar, for
He was breathing life into us in that way. Therefore, on Rosh Hashanah I must
see myself as a conduit of that voice of God.
On this day, we have the ability to recreate ourselves, writes Rabbi Pincus
z”l, and we have the ability to impact the entire world through our prayers and
our actions. We need to believe that we have the ability to change. A small
decision can have tremendous impact.
The Tolna Rebbe brings a completely different perspective to the purpose of the
shofar. While the sounds confound and confuse the Satan, they are meant to
bring calm to Bnei Yisroel. The Haftorah of the Second Day is among the
comforting prophesies of Yirmiyahu to Bnei Yisroel. Bnei Yisroel has survived
the sword, haloch lehargiyah Yisroel/and Hashem will lead us to
tranquility. In Ohri Veyishi, the Tolna Rebbe posits that the Satan
constantly tries to create confusion and distress within us so that we will not
have the time or peace of mind to observe mitzvoth, and certainly not with joy.
But the sound of the shofar will bring confusion to the Satan so that he cannot
disturb us, and we will have the tranquility to observe God’s mitzvoth.
What are we distressing about? Usually it is about the future, or perhaps about
the past. In order to achieve menuchat hanefesh/tranquility/calm, writes
Rabbi Ostrow, we must live in the moment. The distractions and worries sabotage
all that is good in our lives. Therefore, we do not blow the shofar when Rosh
Hashanah falls on Shabbat, so that we can retain the tranquility of Shabbat
itself. If I can focus on the knowledge that Hashem gave me everything and sent
every situation into my life expressly for me, whether joyous or challenging,
for my benefit, I will not lose my tranquility and equilibrium, writes Rabbi
Zvi Meir Silberberg in Sichot Hitchazkut. This in itself will confound
the Satan. This is what I should strive for as I listen to the shofar blasts. I
should strive to reconnect my breath with the breath of that shofar blast at
Sinai that brought my soul and the souls of all Klal Yisroel in pure unity with
Hakodosh Boruch Hu. May this year be the year we merit to hear the sound of the
great shofar that heralds the coming of Moshiach.