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Rosh Kollel: Rabbi Mordecai Kornfeld
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Rosh Hashanah 027: From which end of the shofar do we blow?
alex lebovits asked:
Rav Masnah learns out from the word "Vehaavarta" meaning "to pass"
that we require a shofar to be blown in the manner in which it was
carried on the animal's head.
Now if you look at how the horn of the animal grows on the head of
the animal, it is the wider part that's attached to the head and the
narrower part is at the other end.
So why do we not blow the shofar from the wide end, the way it grows
on the animal?!
At end of note 27 in the Art Scroll Gem. it brings this Halacha from
the Mishna Berura 590:36(in the name of the Ritva and the Chaye Adam)
who seems to explain it as" k'derech temunas gidulo sh'haayil maaviro
berosho" that we look at the position of the horn not from the
animal's perspective but rather from the person's perspective and
while the animal was living it was always the narrow side that was
facing the person! (I hope I got that correct.)
This really seems a very unusual way of learning "Vehaavarta".
Furthermore if this is the proper way of looking at the way things
grow, then it should come out that when we take the lulav, arovos and
the hadasim, we should take them with the tips facing down!
So which ends should really be facing up by the shofar and the
lulav; the narrow or the wider part?
Take care
Alex Lebovits, toronto,canada
p.s. But if the word "Vehaavarta" means what Rashi in Chumash
(Vayikra 25:9) says it means "loshon hachraza" obviously you know
from which side of the shofar to blow from.
----------------------------------------------
The Kollel replies:
(a) The Chayei Adam does not quote the Ritva (Sukah 29b DH
veha'Yavesh) and Ran (in Rosh Hashanah here) to explain how we learn
from v'Ha'avarta. He quotes them to show that even if one did not
alter the Shofar, but he blew from the wide end, the sound is not
valid (Chayei Adam 140:5). This is derived from a Yerushalmi.
(b) As for the Derashah of our Gemara, there seem to be two
explanations in the Rishonim:
1. Rashi here explains it to mean that the Shofar must be in its
natural form, in the state that it was while on the animal's head.
(It is not referring to which side should be closest to the mouth,
hence it would seem that it cannot be used as a source for the
Halachah of the Yerushalmi I mentioned in (a).)
2. The Ritva explains it to mean "Derech Ha'avaraso *me*ha'Ayil",
that is, the way it is *removed* from the ram. To remove it from the
ram's head, one must grasp it from the narrower part (since the other
side is attached to the head). Therefore, one must hold the narrow
part while blowing. This provides a source for the Yerushalmi as
well - which he himself quotes in Sukah, as mentioned.
(I am not sure how the Chayei Adam is explainng v'Ha'avarta, but he
may mean what I cited from the Ritva.)
Best wishes,
Mordecai Kornfeld
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