Rosh Hashanah (tractate) - The Shofar

The Shofar

The Mishnah treats also the laws of the shofar (iii.2); the horn of the cow may not be used (iii.2); the form of the trumpet for Rosh ha-Shanah, the fast-day, and Yobel is determined (iii.3-5); injuries to the shofar and the remedies are indicated (iii.6); in times of danger the people that pray assemble in pits and caves (iii.7); they pass the house of worship only on the outside while the trumpets sound (iii.7); they are exhorted to be firm by being reminded of Moses' uplifted hands in the war with the Amalekites (iii.8). In such times the deaf-mutes, insane, and children are legally unfit for blowing the trumpets. Johanan ben Zakkai established that the shofar trumpets be blown at Jamnia and the surrounding places even if the festival fell on the Sabbath, while at one time this was done only in the Temple (iv.1); he also fixed the lulav outside of the Temple for seven days, and forbade the eating of new grain on the second day of Passover (iv.2); he extended the time for examining witnesses until the evening, and had them come to Jamnia even in the absence of the av bet din (iv.3). The Mishnah then treats of the order of the prayers (iv.4), of the succession of the Malkuyot, Zikronot, and Shoferot, of the Bible sentences concerning the kingdom of God, Providence, and the trumpet-call of the future (iv.5), and of the leader in prayer and his relation to the teki'ah (iv.6); descriptions of the festival are given in reference to the shofar (iv.7); then follows the order of the traditional trumpet-sounds (iv.8); and remarks on the duties of the leader in prayer and of the congregation close the treatise (iv.9).