What Does the Sound of the Shofar Mean?
Originally published on Gimme Some Torah by Rabbi Eli Garfinkel on August 28, 2026.
Photo by Megs Harrison on Unsplash
Bamidbar/Numbers 29:1
וּבַחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜י בְּאֶחָ֣ד לַחֹ֗דֶשׁ מִֽקְרָא־קֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם כָּל־מְלֶ֥אכֶת עֲבֹדָ֖ה לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֑וּ י֥וֹם תְּרוּעָ֖ה יִהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶֽם׃
In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day when the horn is sounded.
In his commentary.) on the Koren Maḥzor for Rosh Hashanah, Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (זצ׳׳ל) makes a salient point about the shofar, namely that the Torah does not clearly define the purpose of sounding a horn on Rosh Hashanah.
Other than details of the sacrifices to be offered, that is all. There is no explanation of what the day represents, or what the sound – terua – signifies. Nor does the Torah specify what instrument is to be used. It might be a horn. But equally it might refer to the silver trumpets the Israelites were commanded to make to summon the people (Num. 10:1–10). The central motifs of the other festivals, the unleavened bread and bitter herbs of Pesaḥ, the booth of Sukkot, the affliction (fasting) of Yom Kippur, all have symbolic value. We know what they mean and how they connect with the mood of the day. But the Torah does not tell us what the sound of terua symbolizes. Is it the sound of celebration, of warning, of fear or tears? We do not know (Rabbeinu Baḥye,Kad HaKemaḥ,Rosh HaShana[2]).
Surely Rabbi Sacks knew, as does most anyone who went to Hebrew school, that the sound of the shofar is meant to stir within us the desire to repent for our sins against God and our fellow human beings. But that association came long after the time of the Bible. Rabbi Sacks is pointing out that the Torah itself does not identify a reason for sounding the shofar but does provide a rationale for other festival mitzvot.
In my opinion, the Torah does not define the shofar’s purpose because its sound is what coders call a variable. A variable can hold whatever value a program calls for. If the variable is an array, it can contain many different values simultaneously.
The shofar’s sound is an array that can hold a different value for every Jew who hears it. Some will indeed hear it and feel the call to repent. Some will hear it and think of the people or relationships they lost over the past year. But others will feel the challenges and obstacles that face them in the year to come. Yet others will hear it and celebrate the year’s joyous occasions. None of these reactions is wrong; whatever a Jew feels when the shofar sounds is correct.
I learned from Rabbi David Ingber that the most important thing about the shofar is that we blow air into this dead bone and produce the sound that awakens our souls to life.
Shabbat Shalom! Gimme Some Torah will return on Monday morning!
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