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THE DAFYOMI DISCUSSION LIST
brought to you by Kollel Iyun Hadaf of Yerushalayim
Rosh Kollel: Rabbi Mordecai Kornfeld
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Rosh Hashanah 033b: The 100 cries of Sisra's mother
Stuart Plaskow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asked:
Dear Rabbi Kornfeld,
Re. the blowing of 100 notes on the Shofar on Rosh Hashana, why is it
necessary to resort to a NON-JEWISH person (mother of Sisera) as the origin
of this custom. ( Tosafos in Rosh Hashana 33b)
Awaiting your reply & wishing you Shana Tova.
Sincerely,
Stuart Plaskow
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The Kollel replies:
I have seen in the Ba'alei Musar that we are not resorting as a non-Jewess
for a *source* for blowing 100 blasts. Rather, the Aruch means that when
Sisra's mother cried for her son, her heart-rending cries were so deeply
felt that they were able to arouse Din (strict justice) against Yisrael
throughout the generations. This Din can only by counteracted by the 100
Shofar blasts, which arouse us to repent yearly from the very depths of our
hearts.
It could also be that the Aruch simply means to prove from the mother of
Sisra that it is common for a person to wail 100 times when the life of
someone very dear to them is at stake. (It makes no difference whether the
person wailing is a non-Jew or Jew.) We, too, arouse ourselves to wail 100
times for our own and our family's well-being so that we should pray with
the utmost of concentration.
In fact, it would appear to me that the Aruch means that Sisra's mother
wailed only *99* times. Had she wailed 100 times, perhaps her prayers would
have been answered and Sisra would not have been killed. This would be more
consistent with the other Midrash that we quoted in the Insights to the Daf
(ibid.) about the mother who gives birth. (The Midrash there says that only
upon the birthing mother's 100th cry is she saved and granted life.) We
want to blow 100 blasts in order to correspond to the 100th, life-redeeming
wail, that Sisra's mother *could* have wailed but did not.
If this is true, I can point out a clever source for the Drasha of the
Aruch that Sisra's mother wailed 99 times. (We have no such Midrash, so we
cannot know the source for the Aruch's number of wails.) The verse says
that Sisra's mother wailed as she peered "Be'ad ha'Chalon." The Gematria of
the word "ha'Chalon" is exactly 99.
Be well,
Mordecai Kornfeld
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