Halakhah sobre Amós 3:6

It is customary to blow the shofar during this month. Beginning the second day of Rosh Chodesh,³Some have the custom to blow shofar even on the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul. we blow the shofar each day after the Shacharis prayer, tekiah, shevarim, teruah, tekiah, except on erev Rosh Hashanah, when the blowing is discontinued,⁴It is permitted, however, to blow shofar in order to practice in preparation for the obligatory sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. (Ibid 581:24) in order to make a distinction between the voluntary blowing of the shofar and the blowing shofar in fulfillment of the mitzvah. The reason for blowing the shofar during this month is to arouse the people to repent; for the shofar sound has the quality to stir [the emotions] and to inspire fear, as Scripture says, (Amos 3:6) "If a shofar is sounded in a city will the people not tremble?" It is also the custom in our regions, beginning with the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul until Shemini Atzeres,⁵Including the day of Shemini Atzeres. (Ibid 581:2) to recite Psalm [27] LeDovid Hashem ori ve'yish'i⁶On those days when the Musaf service is said, the psalm is recited after Shacharis, before Ein Komocha [there is none like You] which is said before the Seifer Torah is taken out of the Ark. In the evening the psalm is recited after the Minchah service. [This is the custom of those who pray Nusach Sfard.] In those places where they recite the psalm after the entire service [including Musaf] is completed, such as on Rosh Chodesh, the psalm, Borchi Nafshi [Psalm 104] is recited before LeDovid Hashem Ori. They also have the custom to recite LeDovid Hashem Ori after the psalm of the day is recited. [This is the custom of those who pray Nusach Ashkenaz.] (Ibid 581:2) ["Of David, Hashem is my light and my salvation"] [each day] [after] the morning and evening prayers,⁷Kaddish should be said after the psalm is recited. (Ibid) This is based on the Midrash: "Hashem is my light" —on Rosh Hashanah; "and my salvation" —on Yom Kippur; "for He will hide me in His shelter" —alludes to Sukkos. It also is customary for the congregation to recite Psalms,⁸Mishnah Berurah says that we should omit the words: בָּהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה [until we have lived our seventy years] in the prayer recited before saying tehillim [Psalms]; and since we [usually] do not recite an entire book of the Psalms, we should say: בִּזְכוּת מִזְמוֹרֵי תְּהִלִים שֶׁקָרָאנוּ לְפָנֶיךָ [In the merit of the chapters of tehillim we have recited], when we say the prayer that is said following the saying of tehillim. After this prayer Kaddish should be recited if there is a minyan [a quorum of ten males] present. (Ibid 581:3) each locality according to its custom.⁹The custom is to recite ten chapters each day, and during the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, extra chapters are recited so that the entire Book of Psalms will have been said three times. (Ibid) Beginning with the month of Elul until Yom Kippur, when you write a letter to your friend you should mention, either at the beginning or at the end that you pray for him and bless him to be worthy during the forthcoming Days of Judgment to be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Good Life.

At the end of the prayers of forgiveness²¹⁷Prayers of forgiveness, seliḥot, סליחות; see footnote 14. we say seven times, “He is the God,” (and one time the “שמע ישראל”), and three times the, “Blessed be His glorious kingdom forever and ever,”²¹⁸See the end of the footnote on the Ne'ilah Service, number 191. This is how the Ne'ilah Service ends. (see above section 61,²¹⁹In the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, chapter 61, there are twenty-six paragraphs which contain the laws concerned with how one is to pronounce it and what is to be one's personal conviction when reciting the Shema prayer. (מנהגים).²²⁰Minhagim, מנהגים; see footnote 13.) and we blow the shofar, (תקיעה, שברים, תרועה, תקיעה).²²¹The shofar, שופר, is a ram's horn which has been prepared to use as a musical instrument. The word is mentioned sixty-nine times in the Bible as well as numerous times in talmudic and post-talmudic literature.
The shofar was used to proclaim significant events in Judaism. It proclaimed the Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25:9-11) every fiftieth year proclaiming freedom throughout the land. Its most noted use is on Rosh HaShanah which is also called yom teru'ah, "a day of blowing", (Numbers 29:1). It was also used to declare war (Judges 3:27) and to induce fear (Amos 3:6).
In Temple times the shofar was not exclusively a ram's horn. Any curved animal's horn from a sheep, goat, mountain goat, antelope, or a gazelle was possible. The use of the ram's horn became popular because of its association with the Akedah, the sacrifice of Isaac read on Rosh HaShanah when the shofar is sounded. A ram was substituted for Isaac in the biblical account (Genesis 22) which is read on the second day of Rosh HaShanah. The shofar may have carved designs on it as long as the mouthpiece is natural. It may not be painted. It may not have a hole.
The Bible only refers to two trumpet sounds, teki'ah and teru'ah (Numbers 10: 5-8) the Mishna (RH. 4:9) describes teki'ah as one long blast and teru'ah as three wavering crying blasts. It prescribes three sets of shofar sounds since the word teru'ah is mentioned three times in the Bible, (Leviticus 23:24, 25:9, and Numbers 29:1). In talmudic times there was a disagreement about what exactly the sounds of the shofar should be and Rabbi Ahbahu decided the issue by compromise. The shofar was to be sounded three times which included different notes of shevarim, which are broken sounds and teru'ah, nine staccato notes. The sounding is one set of teki'ah, shevarim - teru'ah, teki'ah, and two sets of the following: teki'ah, shevarim, teki'ah, and teki'ah, teru'ah, teki'ah. The teki'ah begins as a low note swelling to a higher one. The teru'ah is a series of staccato blasts and the shevarim alternates higher and lower notes. The concluding note of each of the two series is a teki'ah gedolah, a great, long blast, which derives its origin from Exodus 19:13, "When the ram's horn soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount."
The shofar used to be sounded on the second day of the month of Elul marking the beginning of the penitential season. Today it is sounded daily except for the last day of the month of Elul at the Morning Service until Rosh Ha-Shanah is over and it is sounded at the end of the Ne'ilah Service at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.
On Rosh HaShanah, Psalm 47 is recited seven times before the shofar is sounded. This is a reminder of the walls of Jericho being circled seven times before they fell to the sound of the shofar.
The shofar may only be sounded during the day. It is not sounded when Rosh HaShanah falls on the Sabbath, lest one violate the laws of the Sabbath by carrying the shofar into the synagogue. When the Temple was in existence the shofar was blown there on the Sabbath.
Throughout Jewish history the shofar was blown to announce a death, on fasts, at excommunications (see footnote 29), and at funerals. On Friday afternoons it was sounded six times to announce various work stopping times and the times to light the candles and usher in the Sabbath. Today it is used to inaugurate a new president in Israel.
According to the Sephardi rite the shofar is sounded at the end of the Ne'ilah Service as follows: teki'ah, one rising blast; shevarim, three blasts alternating high and low; teru'ah, seven staccato blasts; and teki'ah, one rising note.
Albert L. Lewis, E. J., v. 14, pp. 1442-47.
The following comment is given by Magen Avraham, (see footnote 33.): 623:4 - "And they blow (the shofar)": Even though they still have not "separated" (said Havdalah, see footnote 226) in the prayer (and it is still not actually night), nevertheless since (the blowing of the shofar is a matter of) wisdom (art and know-how) and not work, and the rabbis were not too strict about it, (did not prohibit it at this occasion), since the day has already passed (Tur, טור, see footnote 23). And even though he wrote that one should complete it (the shofar blowing) close to sunset, this should complete it (the shofar blowing) close to sunset, this means that the stars still have not come out (indicating nightfall), nevertheless this is twilight, and see the end of chapter 299, (in the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim).
Hagah: There are those who say that we only blow the shofar once (תקיעה),²²²The Ashkenazi rite states that at the end of the Ne'ilah Service only one long shofar blast is sounded, teki'ah gedolah, תקיעה גדולה. (מרדכ והגהות מיימוני סוף הלכות ואגור י״כ),²²³Mordekhai and Hagahot Maimuniyyot, the end of the Laws of Yom Kippur, and Agur, מרדכי והגהות מיימוניי סוף הלכות י״כ ואגור.
For Mordekhai, מרדכי; see footnote 24.
For Hagahot Maimuniyyot, הגהות מיימוני; see footnote 27.
Agur, אגור, is a halakhic work that deals basically with the subject matter found in Tur Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah, (see footnote 23). It was written by Jacob b. Judah Landau, a fifteenth century German talmudist. He was educated in Germany by his famous father Judah who died in 1464. Judah was a favorite pupil of Jacob Moellin (see footnote 8) and a relative of Jacob Weil (see footnote 27) who was the head of a large yeshivah and a well respected posek, an halakhic decision maker.
Jacob emigrated at some time in his life to Italy along with the great wave of Jewish emigration from Germany and in Pavia in 1460 he met Joseph Colon from whom he drew many rulings and quotes. While in Pavia he wrote Ḥazon a work introduced by the words "How could it be?" In 1487 Jacob went to Naples. He worked there as a proofreader for the new Hebrew Press established there, which published his work, Ha-Agur along with Ḥazon.
Ha-Agur is an anthology and a summation of German-Jewish scholarship on the laws contained in Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah down to Jacob's own time. He based himself on the Tur of Jacob b. Asher (see footnote 23). Jacob wanted to assemble all the data on a particular halakhah, (but omitted the arguments), lay down the halakhah, and then include any new rulings by people such as Israel Isserlein (see footnote 96), Jacob Weil (see footnote 27), Joseph Colon, and particularly his father Judah. The work is organized similar to the Tur and is distinguished by the interweaving of varied material from many different works. Landau, who was well versed in Kabbalah interlaced those theories together with the halakhic material as an aid to arriving at decisions. The work reveals a great deal of the teachings of the German scholars in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Israel Moses Ta-Shma, E. J., v. 10, p. 1393. and thus we do it in these lands, we sound the shofar after we say the Kaddish²²⁴Kaddish, קדיש; see footnote 177. after the Closing Service, but in a few places the custom is to blow the shofar before the Kaddish.