Rosh Hashanah 27a — the Talmud in English

We learned in the Mishna:

and its mouth

of the shofar of Rosh Hashanah was

overlaid with gold.

And we object:

And it was taught in a beraita: “If one overlaid it with gold at the place where the mouth of the blower is placed”

of the blower—the shofar is

invalid.

Because the sounding is produced in the gold, and not in the shofar itself.

And if he overlaid it with gold

not at the place where the mouth is placed—

valid!

If so, how did we learn in the Mishna that its mouth was overlaid with gold?

He said

he explained

Abaye: When we also learned in our Mishna

that its mouth was overlaid with gold—

we learned this as referring to not at the place where the mouth is placed.

We learned in the Mishna:

And two trumpets were on the sides.

And we wondered:

And two voices—

are they heard!?

Is it possible to hear the voice of the shofar and the voice of the trumpets, which are two voices heard together?!

And was it not taught

and after all, we learned in a beraita:

“Remember

the day of Shabbat, to sanctify it,” which is stated in the giving of the Torah in the Book of Exodus [20:8].

And “Observe

the day of Shabbat, to sanctify it,” which is stated in the giving of the Torah in the Book of Deuteronomy [5:12]—both of them

in one utterance

of the Lord

were said, something that the mouth

of a human being

cannot utter. And the ear cannot hear

[except through a miracle they heard the words as one].

And from here it follows that two voices are not heard together!

And we answer:

For this reason he prolongs the shofar

after the trumpets have finished sounding, as explained in the Mishna, so that he fulfills his obligation at the time when he hears the voice of the shofar by itself.

And we object:

Does this mean,

from the words of the respondent, it is evident that you say [hold]

that when

[when]

he heard the end of a sounding without the beginning of a sounding, he fulfilled his obligation.

And consequently

it can be learned from your words that one who hears

the beginning of a sounding without the end of a sounding also fulfills his obligation,

for there is no difference at all between the end of a sounding without its beginning and the beginning of a sounding without its end!

Come and hear,

come and hear a proof not in accordance with your words:

On Rosh Hashanah they sound three series of terat [that is: teki'a, teru'a, teki'a]. One time corresponding to kingships, one corresponding to remembrances, and one corresponding to shofarot.

[As explained below, 33b. But nowadays we are accustomed to sound three series of tashrat, tashat, terat.]

And we learned below [there]: One who

sounded

a long sounding

at the first,

in the first series of terat, the sounding after the teru'a,

and prolonged

that same sounding

in the second,

prolonging that same sounding after the teru'a

as two,

as the measure of two soundings, because he wished to fulfill through it the sounding at the end of the first terat and the one at the beginning of the second terat—

he has only

one

sounding.

And he fulfilled only the obligation of one series of terat.

But according to your words, that you say that one can fulfill the obligation through half a sounding,

why?

Why does he have only one?

Let it count for him as two!

Let the long sounding count for him as two soundings! Half of it for the first terat, and half of it for the second terat! And we answer: Indeed, one can fulfill the obligation through half a sounding, but one cannot fulfill through a single sounding the obligation of two soundings. For

the soundings

we do not divide

from one another. One may not cut and divide one sounding and make it two soundings.

Come and hear,

come and hear another proof that it is entirely impossible to fulfill the obligation through half a sounding:

We learned in the Mishna [below, 28a]:

One who sounds into a pit or into a cistern,

like a pit that is built above ground [by building a wall upon the ground],

or

one who sounds

into a pitas,

a large barrel,

if he heard the voice of a shofar—

he fulfills his obligation.

But if he heard the voice of an echo

[an echo]

he heard—

he does not fulfill his obligation.

And if indeed one who hears half a sounding fulfills his obligation,

why

does one who hears the voice of an echo not fulfill his obligation?

Let him go out,

fulfill his obligation

at the beginning

of the

sounding, before the voice becomes confused,

before the voice of the shofar becomes mixed with the echo!

And from here it follows that one does not fulfill the obligation by hearing half a sounding.

Therefore, the Gemara retracts this answer.

Necessarily, although they sounded two trumpets on the sides, nevertheless they fulfilled their obligation through the entire sounding of the shofar, from its beginning to its end, and not only through the end of the sounding, when the shofar prolonged its sound beyond the trumpets.

And regarding what we objected above, that “two voices are not heard,” and as the Gemara proved above from the beraita stating that “Remember” and “Observe” were said in one utterance, which is something that the ear cannot hear—we must say:

Rather, two voices,

two voices, only when they emerge

from one person,

then they are

not heard.

Like “Remember” and “Observe,” both of which emerged from the mouth of the Lord.

But two voices

from two people

[from two people]

are heard.

Therefore, it was possible to hear the voice of the shofar, even though the trumpets were heard together with it, because they did not emerge from the mouth of one person.

And we wondered:

And from two people, are they heard!?

Are two voices from two people heard?!

But it was taught:

In the time of the Sages, they would read from the Torah and the Prophets in the synagogue and would also translate them into Aramaic so that the public would understand. And we learned in a beraita:

For the Torah—

one reads and one translates.

Provided that one does not read

from the Torah

while two translate,

since two voices are not heard together [and all the more so, two should not read from the Torah together].

And from here it follows that two voices from two human beings are also not heard!

And we answer:

This—

the sounding of the shofar and the trumpets—

is comparable only to the latter clause,

it resembles only what is stated at the end of the beraita:

For Hallel and the Megilla—

even ten read

at once.

And the listeners fulfill their obligation even though it is impossible for them to be precise so that all of them say the very same word; rather, one reads one word, and another reads the word after it.

Apparently,

from here we have learned that

since it is beloved—

he directs his attention. A new matter, which does not occur every day, is beloved by a person, and he directs his attention to it and hears it, even though he hears two voices together.

Here too,

also with regard to the sounding of the shofar and trumpets,

with regard to the sounding of the shofar and the trumpets,

since it is beloved,

because the mitzva of sounding the shofar is new and beloved to a person, therefore

he directs his attention, and hears.

He directs his heart to hear the sounding of the shofar emerging from among the trumpets.

And we object:

Rather,

since according to the conclusion they would fulfill their obligation through the entire sounding of the shofar, one must ask:

Why does he prolong the shofar

more than the trumpets?

And we answer: In order

to know that the mitzva of the day

is

with the shofar,

and not with the trumpets.

We learned in the Mishna:

And on fasts

they sounded

with

rams,

male ones, bent, and its mouth was overlaid with silver.

And we considered it:

What is different there,

what is different and special about the shofar of Rosh Hashanah in the Temple, that they made the overlay of its mouth

of gold.

And what is different here,

on fasts, that they made the overlay of the shofar

of silver?

And we answer with two answers:

A.

If you wish, say

if you wish, say:

Every gathering

every assembly—with the sounding of trumpets

is of silver

is made.

For every sounding for the purpose of gathering the people was done with silver trumpets.

As it is written

[Numbers 10]:

“Make for yourself two silver trumpets,

and they shall be for you for summoning the assembly.”

And here too, they made the overlay of the mouth of the shofar of silver.

B.

And if you wish, say,

and if you wish, say, that we find that

the Torah takes pity on the money of Israel.

And just as we find that the Torah takes pity on the money of Israel concerning the affliction of the house, as it is stated: “And the koen shall command, and they shall clear out the house” [Leviticus 14]. This was in order that the earthenware vessels in the house not become impure when the koen renders the afflicted house impure, and be lost, since they have no purification.

Therefore, they make the trumpets of silver, which is cheaper than gold.

And therefore they also made the overlay of the mouth of the shofar of silver.

And we wonder about the second reason:

There too,

on Rosh Hashanah in the Temple,

let us make

the overlay of the mouth of the shofar

of silver,

and not of gold, and let us take pity on the money of Israel!

And we answer:

Even so,

even though the Torah takes pity on the money of Israel, nevertheless

the honor of the Festival day

of Rosh Hashanah

is preferable,

and therefore they made them of gold.

Rav Pappa bar Shmuel thought of performing an act in accordance with the Mishna.

He thought of acting in accordance with the words of our Mishna, and sounding also with trumpets at the time of the sounding of the shofar.

Rava said to him: They said

to sound with trumpets

only in the Temple.

It was also taught so: In what case are these words said,

that there were two trumpets on the sides?—

In the Temple

only.

But in the provinces,

in the other cities of Israel,

where there are trumpets,

that is, on fasts —

one does not

sound with a

shofar.

And

where there is a shofar—

one does not

sound with

trumpets.

And likewise,

in accordance with the words of our Mishna, that they would sound with two trumpets together with the shofar,

Rabbi Halafta instituted this practice in Sepphoris, and Rabbi Hanania ben Teradion in Sikhnin.

And when the matter came before the Sages, they said: They practiced this only at the eastern gates

of the Temple courtyard [that is, in the women’s courtyard],

and on the Temple Mount only.

The Gemara explains why there is a distinction between the Temple and the provinces in this matter:

Rava said, and some say

[perhaps]

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi: What is the verse?

From which verse did they learn that they sound with trumpets and a shofar together only in the Temple, and not in the provinces?

As it is written

[Psalms 98]:

“With trumpets and the voice of a shofar”—

sound before the King, the Lord.”

And from here, only

before the King, the Lord, is it required

that they need

trumpets and the voice of a shofar

together.

But elsewhere—

no.

We learned in the Mishna:

The Jubilee is equivalent to Rosh Hashanah with regard to sounding, and

also

with regard to the blessings,

for they mention in the Musaf of Yom Kippur of the Jubilee: kingships, remembrances, and shofarot, just as they mention on Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Yitzhak said: In accordance with whom do we pray nowadays,

in accordance with whose view do we pray in our days, and say in the order of remembrances of Rosh Hashanah

“This day is the beginning of Your works

that today all Your works were created,

a remembrance of the first day

on which the world was created”?

In accordance with whom,

in accordance with whose view?—

In accordance with Rabbi Eliezer, who says: In Tishrei the world was created.

[But according to the view of Rabbi Joshua, above, 8a, the world was created in Nisan.]

Rav Eina objected:

A contradiction to our practice, that we say in the remembrances of Rosh Hashanah “This day is the beginning of Your works,” from what we learned in our Mishna:

The Jubilee is equivalent to Rosh Hashanah with regard to sounding and with regard to the blessings.

And

it is difficult:

But there is

after all, there is a difference between them concerning the recitation of

“This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day.”

For on Rosh Hashanah there is,

there is a remembrance of the day of the creation of the world. Therefore we say this in the remembrances of Rosh Hashanah.

But

if

in the Jubilee there is not,

there is no such remembrance, since this blessing is said on Yom Kippur, and it is not said in the remembrances of Yom Kippur, for the world was created on Rosh Hashanah and not on Yom Kippur!

And from the fact that our Mishna says that they are equivalent with regard to the wording of the blessings, it is evident that according to our Mishna one does not say in the prayer of Rosh Hashanah “This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day.” And the halakha is in accordance with an anonymous Mishna !

And we answer:

When it taught,

everything that we learned, “The Jubilee is equivalent to Rosh Hashanah with regard to sounding and with regard to the blessings”—

with regard to the rest,

we learned it only concerning the other matters.

But there is a difference between them concerning the recitation of “This day is the beginning of Your works.”

Rav Shisha, son of Rav Idi, taught it this way,

he transmitted the question and answer of Rav Shmuel bar Yitzhak in another manner:

Rav Shmuel bar Yitzhak said: This that we learned, “The Jubilee is equivalent to Rosh Hashanah with regard to sounding and with regard to the blessings”—

in accordance with whom,

in accordance with whose view does our Mishna hold?

Not in accordance with Rabbi Eliezer!

For if

our Mishna is in accordance with

Rabbi Eliezer,

it should be difficult:

For,

since he said

Rabbi Eliezer that

in Tishrei the world was created,

it follows that they mention this in the blessing of remembrances in the Musaf prayer.

And if so,

there is

after all, there is a difference between Rosh Hashanah and the Jubilee concerning

“This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day.”

For on Rosh Hashanah it is stated,

they mention this in the prayer of Rosh Hashanah,

but in the Jubilee it is not stated,

for they do not mention this in the prayer of Yom Kippur! And from here it follows that our Mishna, which holds that one does not say in the prayer of Rosh Hashanah “This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day,” holds that the world was created in Nisan, in accordance with the view of Rabbi Joshua!

And we reject this: It is possible that our Mishna holds in accordance with Rabbi Eliezer.

And

when it taught,

everything that we learned, that the Jubilee is equivalent to Rosh Hashanah with regard to sounding and with regard to the blessings,

with regard to the rest.

We learned it only concerning the other matters.

But there is a difference between them concerning “This day is the beginning of Your works.”

Mishna:

A.

A shofar that split

and they attached it

with glue, or by heating it with fire —

invalid.

Because it is like two shofarot.

And Scripture said to sound with one shofar, and not with two or three shofarot.

b.

Glued fragments of shofarot —

It is invalid.

For this is like two shofarot. And the Scripture said to blow with one shofar and not with two or three shofarot.