What is the commandment of shofar on Rosh Hashanah?

Numbers 29:1 designates the first of Tishri as "yom teruah" — a day of blowing. Maimonides (Laws of Shofar 1:1) rules that the commandment is to HEAR the shofar, not specifically to blow it. The one who blows fulfills the commandment for the congregation who hears. The total number of blasts required is 100, combining three blast-patterns: tekiah (long), shevarim (broken), and teruah (staccato).

What are the three types of shofar blasts and what do they represent?

Tekiah is one long sustained blast; shevarim are three medium broken blasts (like sobbing); teruah is nine short rapid blasts (like an alarm). Rosh Hashanah 33b–34a derives these from the verse's "teruah," which sounds like the sobbing of one shaken by grief. Together they represent a complete emotional arc: the call, the shattering, the alarm — and the return to wholeness in the final tekiah.

Why is the shofar made from a ram's horn specifically?

The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16a) connects the ram's horn to the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:13): Abraham offered the ram in Isaac's place. On Rosh Hashanah, the shofar carries the memory of that moment of radical surrender. God is asked to hear the shofar's sound and "account it as if you had bound yourselves before Me" — the ram's horn is Israel's annual reminder of its ancestor's faithfulness in the supreme test.

What does Maimonides mean by "awake, you sleepers, from your sleep"?

Maimonides (Laws of Teshuvah 3:4) says the shofar's blast hints at a spiritual awakening: people drift through the year in habitual patterns, "sleeping" in a moral sense — not deliberately sinning, but not examining their lives either. Rosh Hashanah's shofar is the alarm that breaks the routine. It says: this is the Day of Judgment, not an ordinary day; look at what you have done with your year; return.

How did Gideon use the shofar at Midian (Judges 7), and what does this reveal about the shofar's symbolic power?

Gideon armed 300 men with shofars and torches — no swords — and surrounded the 135,000-man Midianite army at night. The simultaneous blast of 300 shofars, the smashing torches, and the battle-cry "a sword for the LORD and for Gideon" sent the Midianites into a panic. They turned on each other and fled. The shofar in Judges 7 is the sound that triggers divine intervention against overwhelming odds — a pattern consistent with Rosh Hashanah's liturgy of God ascending as King and Judge.

Commandment #206 · Positive · Sabbath & Holy Days

A Day of Blowing the Trumpets: Hearing the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah

שׁוֹפָר בְּרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה

Source: Numbers 29:1 · Maimonides, Laws of Shofar 1:1

Numbers 29:1 designates the first of Tishri as "yom teruah" — a day of blowing. Leviticus 23:24 calls it "zikron teruah" — a memorial of blowing, a sacred assembly. Together these two verses (Leviticus 23:24 and Numbers 29:1) establish Rosh Hashanah as the Day of Blowing: the shofar is the defining act of the day. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16a) explains why the shofar is blown: on this day, all creatures pass before God like soldiers before a king, and the shofar announces the coronation. It is the sound of God ascending the throne of judgment.

Yom Teruah: The Day of Blowing

וּבַחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ מִקְרָא-קֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם כָּל-מְלֶאכֶת עֲבֹדָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ יוֹם תְּרוּעָה יִהְיֶה לָכֶם

"On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day of blowing the trumpets for you."

Numbers 29:1 — Open in Torah Reader

The word "teruah" (blast/alarm) appears in three forms in the shofar liturgy: tekiah (one long sustained blast), shevarim (three broken medium blasts), teruah (nine short staccato blasts). The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 33b–34a) derives these from the verse's "teruah": it sounds like the sobbing or moaning of one who has been shaken. The three patterns together express a complete emotional journey: the long call (tekiah), the broken sobbing (shevarim), the rapid alarm (teruah), ending with a final sustained call (tekiah). The sequence is tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah repeated three times and then in simpler combinations — 100 blasts total.

Maimonides (Laws of Teshuvah 3:4) gives the shofar's spiritual meaning: "Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a divine decree, there is a hint in it: 'Awake, awake, you sleepers, from your sleep! Arise, you slumberers, from your slumber! Examine your deeds, repent, and remember your Creator.'" The shofar is not a celebration — it is an awakening. It calls the sleeping soul to account before the Day of Judgment.

Why the Ram's Horn: The Binding of Isaac and the Shofar

The shofar is made from a ram's horn — specifically associated with the ram that replaced Isaac on the altar (Genesis 22:13): "Abraham lifted his eyes and saw, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16a) explains: "Sound before Me with a ram's horn, so that I will remember on your behalf the Binding of Isaac son of Abraham, and account it to you as if you had bound yourselves before Me." The shofar's sound carries the memory of the Akeida — the moment when Abraham's willingness to surrender everything was accepted. On the Day of Judgment, the shofar asks God to remember Israel's ancestors who passed the test.

The sound cannot be replicated in writing; it must be HEARD. The commandment is specifically to HEAR (lishmoa) the shofar, not to blow it (Maimonides, Laws of Shofar 1:1): the one who blows fulfills the commandment for the one who hears. This is why the congregation stands in silence as the shofar is blown — they are receiving the sound, not performing an action.

Psalm 47:5: "God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet." The Psalm presents the shofar as the sound of God's royal ascent — consistent with the Rosh Hashanah liturgy's theme of God ascending the throne of judgment.

Key Figures

The Walls of Jericho

Joshua 6:4–5: the priests blow seven ram's horns (shofarot) before the Ark as Israel circles Jericho for seven days. On the seventh day, Joshua commands a long blast; the people shout; the walls fall. The shofar here is not a signal but a weapon: the sustained blast combined with Israel's shout brings down a fortified city. The Jericho narrative establishes the shofar as a sound of divine power that transcends military force — the blast that moves God to act.

Gideon's Three Hundred

Judges 7:16–22: Gideon arms his 300 men not with swords but with shofars and torches. They surround the Midianite camp, blow all their shofars simultaneously, smash their torches, and shout: "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" The Midianites turn on each other in the darkness and flee. The shofar-battle strategy inverts military logic: 300 men armed with sound defeated 135,000 soldiers. The shofar represents the sound that God uses to confound human power.

Study Questions

For reflection and group study

What is the difference between "yom teruah" (Numbers 29:1) and "zikron teruah" (Leviticus 23:24) — and what does calling Rosh Hashanah a "memorial of blowing" add to the commandment?

How does Maimonides' explanation — "awake, you sleepers, from your sleep!" — understand the shofar's spiritual function on the Day of Judgment?

Why does the Talmud connect the shofar specifically to the ram's horn and the Binding of Isaac — and what does the request to "remember Isaac's binding" mean in the context of divine judgment?

Why is the commandment defined as HEARING the shofar rather than blowing it — and what does this distinction reveal about the commandment's nature?

How do the Jericho narrative (Joshua 6) and Gideon's battle (Judges 7) both use the shofar as an instrument of divine power — and what do they say about what the shofar sound represents?

Read the full passage in the Torah reader.

Read Numbers 29 in the Torah Reader

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