Daily Talk
A stolen shofar is valid, but the same night a stolen lulav is worthless. Why does theft ruin one and not the other? The answer hides a truth about Rosh Hashanah that changes everything: the commandment was never to blow the shofar. It was to hear it.
The Mitzvah Is to Listen
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About This Talk
The opening chapter of the laws of the shofar turns on a single, easily missed pivot: the mitzvah is not to sound the ram's horn but to hear its sound. From that one point flows everything strange in the chapter, why a stolen shofar works and an echo does not, why the ugliest tone is kosher and a golden coating is not. It is a chapter about receiving rather than performing.