These passages concerning the blowing of the ram’s horn, or shofar, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, are selected from Days of Awe, by S. Y. Agnon, a collection of sayings and legends concerning the High Holidays. That volume is an abridged version of Mr. Agnon’s massive Hebrew work Yamin Noraim; it was translated from the Hebrew by Rabbi Maurice T. Galpert and Jacob Sloan, and edited by Nahum N. Glatzer.

Mr. Agnon, one of the foremost Hebrew writers of our time, says in his preface: “For the benefit . . . of those who wish to be informed of the matters of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the Days Between, I have assembled some sayings from the Torah and from the Prophets and from the Writings, from the Talmud Babylonian and Palestinian, from the halachic Midrash and the aggadic Midrash, and from the Zohar and from other books written by our Early Rabbis and Latter Rabbis, of blessed memory. . . .

“To make this book palatable to all, I have abridged lengthy passages and at times altered the style of the Rabbis; for those holy authors, their generation being fit and all men eager to hear words of Torah, had not the time to improve their style. Yet, although I have not kept to the style, I have kept their meaning very well indeed. . . .”

The selections given below are published by permission of Schocken Books.—Ed.

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“Blow the horn at the new moon, at the full moon for our feast-day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.” (Ps. 81:4-5.) Said Rabbi Abbahu: Why do we sound the horn of a ram? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Blow me a ram’s horn that I may remember unto you the Binding of Isaac the Son of Abraham, and I shall account it unto you for a binding of yourselves before me.

“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns” (Gen. 22:13)—teaching us that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed our father Abraham the ram tearing himself free from one thicket and becoming entangled in another. Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to Abraham: Thus are your children destined to be caught in iniquities and entangled in misfortune, but in the end they will be redeemed by the horns of a ram. Therefore it is said (Zech. 9:14): “And the Lord God will blow the horn.” . . .

Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa says: No part of that ram went to waste. The ashes of that ram became the base of the inner altar. The sinews of the ram were torn, corresponding to the ten strings of the harp which David played. The skin of the ram became the girdle of Elijah’s loins. As for the two horns of the ram—the voice of the left horn was heard on Mount Sinai. And the right horn is larger than the left and is destined to be blown in time to come at the assembling of the dispersed, as it is said (Isa. 27:13): “And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great horn shall be blown.” . . .

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With Trumpets and Sound of the Horn

“With trumpets and sound of the horn shout ye before the King, the Lord” (Ps. 98:6). This is like the story of a king who went hunting in the forest. He got deep into the forest, and could not find the king’s highway that would lead him back to his palace. Seeing some countrymen, he asked them the way, but they could not answer him, for they did not know it either. Finally, he found a wise man, and asked him the way. Realizing who the king was, the wise man trembled and showed him to the highway, for he knew the way. So he led the king back to his kingdom. Now the wise man found great favor in the eyes of the king, who lifted him up above all the lords of the realm, and clothed him in costly garments, and ordered his old clothes to be laid in the king’s treasure house. Sometime afterward the wise man sinned against the king, who grew wroth and commanded the lords who stood highest in his kingdom to judge the man as a transgressor against the king’s commandment. Then the wise man was in sad straits, for he knew that they would decide against him. So he fell on his face before the king and pleaded for his life and asked to be allowed before the verdict to put on the same clothes he had been wearing when he had led the king out of the forest. The king accepted his request. And it came to pass when the wise man had put on those clothes, that the king recalled the great kindness that the wise man had done him by returning him to his palace and to his royal throne. The king’s compassion was kindled, and the wise man found grace and kindness in his eyes, and the king allowed his sin to pass unpunished, and returned him to his position.

So it is with us, O people of Israel! When the Torah was about to be given, the Holy One, blessed be He, went from nation to nation, asking them to accept the Torah, but they would not. We accepted it with such joy and delight that we said, “We will do,” before “We will hear” (cf Exod. 24:7). We took the yoke of the kingdom of heaven upon ourselves, and made Him king over us, and accepted His commandments and His sacred Torah. But now, we have transgressed and rebelled against Him, and on Rosh Hashanah we are fearful of the Day of Judgment, when He sits in judgment on all the hidden things, and pronounces the verdict of every man according to his deeds. Therefore we sound the ram’s horn and put on the same dress we were wearing at the time of the giving of the Torah, when we accepted the Torah and crowned Him king with the ram’s horn, as it is written: “And when the sound of the horn waxed louder and louder” (Exod. 19:19)—in order that He may remember that aiding merit of ours, forgive us our iniquities and wilful transgressions, vindicate us in judgment, and inscribe us at once for a long and happy life. Amen. So be His will!

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Cautions for the Ram’s-Horn Blower

A great and renowned king sent his sons out hunting, and they lost their way. They began to shout, thinking their father might hear them. But there was no reply. So they said among themselves: “Perhaps we have forgotten our father’s tongue, and that is why he does not answer our words; so let us raise our voices without words.” And they decided to choose one of them to go forth to shout for them, and they cautioned him, “Remember, we are all depending on you.”

This is the reference: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent us to raise sparks of sanctity [emanations from the Godhead], but we have lost our father. Perhaps we receive no reply because we have forgotten our father’s speech. So we choose one person and say to him: “Now, we are sending you forth, O ram’s-horn blower, to awaken His compassion for us with your wordless voice. Be cautious, for we are all depending on you.”

Nevertheless, let the ram’s-horn blower think himself of no importance, for he merely resembles an instrument made of hide, in which there are vents through which the instrument makes music. Ought the instrument to boast because the music issues from it?

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Lift Up Thy Voice

Rabbi Joshua ben Korhah said: The ram’s horn was created for the particular good of Israel. By the ram’s horn the Torah was given to Israel, as it is said (Exod. 19:19): “And when the voice of the horn waxed louder and louder.” Because of the ram’s horn the wall of Jericho fell, as it is said (Josh. 6:20): “And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the horn, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat.” And it is the ram’s horn that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to blow when the son of David, our righteous one, will reveal himself, as it is said (Zech. 9:14): “And the Lord God will blow the horn.” It is also the ram’s horn that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to blow when He leads the exiles of Israel into their land, as it is said (Isa. 27:13): “And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great horn shall be blown; and they shall come that were lost in the land of Assyria, and they that were dispersed in the land of Egypt; and they shall worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.” For that reason, it is also said (Isa. 58:1): “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a horn.”

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Which Horn May Be Used

All horns may be used, except those of cows and oxen, because their horn is called keren and not shofar. And also the horn of the cow and the ox is not acceptable because the Accuser must not be made to serve as a defender, that it may not be said: Yesterday they made the golden calf, and today they come to appease their Maker with the horn made from it.

The ram’s horn should be bent, that the children of Israel may bend their hearts toward their Father who is in heaven. It is also best to blow the horn of a ram so that he may remember unto us the Binding of Isaac.

If the mouthpiece of the ram’s horn has been overlaid with gold as a decoration, it is unfit, for the gold separates the mouthpiece of the ram’s horn from the mouth of the blower.

It is permitted to pour water or wine or vinegar into the ram’s horn on the holiday in order to make a clear sound. This is not considered to be repairing vessels on a holiday, which is forbidden.

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In Remembrance of Revelation

Another reason why the ram’s horn is blown at the close of Yom Kippur is because we find in Pirke Rabbi Eliezer that when our master Moses, peace be upon him, went up to Mount Sinai to receive the second set of tablets, he went up at the New Moon of Elul and came down on the tenth of Tishri, and ordered the ram’s horn to be blown both when he went up and when he went down. Therefore, later generations established the custom of blowing the ram’s horn on the nights of the New Moon of Elul and the close of Yom Kippur, as a memorial of those blasts with which Israel joyfully accepted the second set of tablets.

Another reason is that the ram’s horn is blown in the hope that God may remember to our benefit the sounds of the blasts at the Revelation, and will remember that Israel received the Torah with a whole heart and willing soul.

Another reason for blowing the ram’s horn is because it is an allusion to the departure of the Divine Presence, as it is said: “God is gone up amidst . . . the sound of the horn” (Ps. 47:6).

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Next Year in Jerusalem

After the blowing of the ram’s horn, we say: “Next year in Jerusalem!” There are some whose custom it is to say it three times; once for our exile in Egypt, the second time for our exile in Babylonia, and the third time for our exile in Edom (Rome); may the Holy One, blessed be He, speedily redeem us in His compassion and return us to Jerusalem (Kol Dodi). But in the Land of Israel it is the custom to say: “Next year in Jerusalem rebuilt!”

Twice during the year we say, “Next year in Jerusalem!”—once during the Seder on Passover eve and once at the Closing Prayer of Yom Kippur. For there is a difference of opinion in the Talmud between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua. The first says that Israel were first redeemed in Nisan and are destined to be redeemed in Nisan, and the second says they were redeemed in Nisan and are destined to be redeemed in Tishri. Therefore, both in Nisan and in Tishri we say, “Next year in Jerusalem!”

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