וְהָעָ֥ם לֹא־שָׁ֖ב עַד־הַמַּכֵּ֑הוּ וְאֶת־יְהוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת לֹ֥א דָרָֽשׁוּ׃ (ס)
Namun bangsa itu tidak berbalik kepada Dia yang memukulnya, dan Yang Mahakekal semesta alam tidak mereka cari.
Akeidat Yitzchak
Having established that this is the day of judgment and sounding of the shofar, three things should be explained. A) The nature of the judgment. B) The order of the blowing of the shofar during the recitals of the three central benedictions of the mussaph amidah, the central prayer, and the other shofar blowings on that day. C) The reason for this judgment. As explained in Aristotele's ethics, since man's relationship to his Creator is like that of son to father, or slave to master, in that he really has no claim on his master since he is his master's property, so man has no claim upon G'd, seeing he is merely His creature. Any benefit conferred upon man therefore is an act of kindness and not an act of justice. The rights the Torah has conferred upon a father vis a vis his daughter are indicative of the father/daughter legal position. Surely G'ds rights vis a vis us are no less! The rights of an owner vis a vis a slave are similarly comprehensive. It is only logical that a creator has complete freedom of action relative to the things he creates, and therefore any creature of his cannot possibly go to litigation with him, since the creature has no legal standing. The judgmental relationship that does exist is expressed in the liturgical poem hayom harat olam, "this is the birthday of the universe..." Either we qualify for mercy, or, if we are like slaves, we plead for chaninah, grace." At any rate, G'd has singled us out by revealing only to us that he sits in judgment. (Psalms 147,20) "He has told His words to Jacob, His laws to Israel; He has not done so for any other nation." All the quotations in the Bible referring to this judgment, confirm that the Almighty deals with us as if we were equals and had claims upon Him. In Psalms 89,15, we read "Righteousness and justice are the abode of Your throne, kindness and mercy precede Your Presence." All this is an acknowledgment that G'd has freely subjected Himself to such rules. There had been no legal reason for Him to do so. Our approach therefore, is to stress G'ds majesty rather than His overlordship, ownership etc. by means of the shofar, to remind Him of those of our meritorious deeds which He should not ignore. The psalmist saying "hail the people who understand the meaning of teruah, the sound of the shofar; they can expect to walk in the light of Your favour" is thus vindicated. (Psalms 89,16) The meaning of zichron teruah in Leviticus 23,24, is bringing ourselves to the fore by means of the teruah. Rabbi Nathan finds all these concepts in one single verse, (Numbers 10,10), since he views the shofar procedure from the point of view of the one who blows it. That person intends from the outset to remind G'd of the person who blows the shofar. In his view, the shofar takes precedence over the zichronot, since it is the shofar which "gets the ball rolling," so to speak. Of course, unless there is an awareness and appreciation of "majesty" malchut, and remembrances zichronot, the shofar blowing itself would be meaningless.