Halakhah for Numbers 10:9

However, according to Ramban (Glosses to Rambam’s Sefer Ha-mitzvot), there is no biblical obligation to pray every day, because, in his opinion, the extrapolation from the verses that Rambam mentions is not a bona fide exegesis, but merely an asmakhta (reference). Rather, the Men of the Great Assembly instituted daily prayers but based their enactment on biblical verses. Ramban maintains that only in times of trouble is there a biblical commandment to pray to God, as we learn from the mitzva of the trumpets (ḥatzotzrot), where it says (Bamidbar 10:9), “When you go to war against an enemy that attacks you in your land, you shall sound a teru’a (short blasts) on the trumpets. You will then be recalled before the Lord your God and will be delivered from your enemies.”

It is of singular interest that after a lapse of millennia the opportunity now present itself for the performance of a virtually forgotten mizvah. All are familiar with the shofar and the mizvot attendent upon it. There is yet a second wind instrument associated with mizvot with which we are less well acquainted. Scripture commands the fashioning of two trumpets of hammered silver to be blown by the kohanim for purposes of assembling the congregation and as a signal to continue on the journey through the wilderness. These trumpets were also to be blown on festivals in conjunction with the sacrificial offerings. Furthermore, in the event of warfare, the trumpets were to be sounded in order that "… you shall be remembered before the Lord your God and you shall be saved from your enemies" (Num. 10:9). The possibility that this latter exhortation be applicable in our own day in face of the dangers besetting the State of Israel is discussed in two articles which appeared recently. Rabbi Judah Gershuni, in the Tevet 5730 issue of Or ha-Mizraḥ, and Rabbi Chaim Shrage Frank, in the Tammuz 5730 issue of Ha-Ma'ayan, cover much the same ground and reach similar conclusions.

There is considerable discussion and controversy among early authorities with regard to the details of the performance of this mizvah and as to when the trumpets are to be blown alone and when together with the shofar as indicated in Psalms 98:6, "With trumpets and the voice of the shofar shall you sound the teru'ah before the King, God." Some authorities maintain that the trumpets together with the shofar are to be sounded only on the Temple Mount; in other locales the shofar alone is to be blown. Rabbi Frank explains that this opinion is based upon Numbers 10:9, "… and you shall be remembered before the Lord your God." According to this line of reasoning, only the Temple site is considered to be "before God." Nowadays, considerations of ritual purity preclude entry onto the Temple Mount. Rabbi Frank, however, brings evidence that all of Jerusalem is considered to be an extension of the Temple with regard to the sounding of trumpets. He adds that the shofar need not be sounded together with the trumpets other than at the actual site of the Temple, since the relevant passage in Psalms indicates that both instruments are employed simultaneously only "before the King, God." Rabbi Frank maintains that while the entire city of Jerusalem is "before God," nevertheless the site of divine kingship is limited to the Temple Mount proper. Hence the rest of Jerusalem is not "before the King, God." Therefore, argues Rabbi Frank, trumpets unaccompanied by the shofar must be sounded in Jerusalem in the event of impending misfortune.