The Talmud(1) states:
למה תוקעין ומריעין כשהן יושבין, ותוקעין ומריעין כשהן עומדין? כדי לערבב השטן.
Why (do the Jews) blow the shofar while sitting and (again) blow it standing?
In order to confuse Satan.
The imagery invoked here is that of Satan in his role as prosecutor in the heavenly court. He is tasked with detailing the sins of mankind in order to bring G-d’s wrath upon them.
Three questions on this citation:
What is so confusing about the shofar blowing?
If it is so tough on Satan, why doesn’t he just take a coffee break from prosecuting before continuing? By the time the court reconvenes, the offensive blasts would be long finished!
What is the connection between the sitting and standing and Satan’s internal turmoil?
First, we must understand the significance of the ram’s horn as the means used to confound Satan in the first place. Our Sages(2) explain as follows:
אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא: תקעו לפני בשופר של איל, כדי שאזכור לכם עקידת יצחק.
The Holy One, Blessed be He stated: Blow the horn of a ram before me, that I might recall
the Binding of Isaac.
Thus, the reason for choosing the shofar of a ram is to “remind” Hashem of .עקידת יצחק
What exactly happened at עקידת יצחק?
In בראשית כבwe find Avraham preparing to sacrifice his son Yitzchak. Suddenly an angel stopped him, and Avraham noticed a ram caught in the bushes, which was then substituted for Isaac. But Rashi(3) adds a few details missing from the text:
בקרניו – שהיה רץ אצל אברהם והשטן סובכו ומערבבו באילנות כדי לעכבו.
“(Caught by) it’s horns”: for (the ram) had been running towards Abraham, and Satan
entangled and confused it in the brush in order to hold it back.
Here we have Satan attempting to “confuse and confound” the ram from accomplishing its mission of offering itself as a sacrifice in Isaac’s stead. Satan’s strategy apparently includes attempting to entrap and confuse do-gooders, in an attempt to halt their mission.
Rashi’s source is the following Pirkei D’Rebbe Eliezer(4), but notice the continuation of the story omitted in Rashi’s account:
ר’ זכריה אומר, אותו האיל כשנברא בין השמשות היה ובא להתקרב תחת יצחק והיה סמאל עומד
ומסטינו כדי לבטל קרבנו של אברהם אבינו; ונאחז בשני קרנותיו בין האילנות. שנאמר וישא אברהם
את עיניו וירא והנה איל אחר נאחז בסבך בקרניו. מה עשה אותו האיל? פשט את ידו ואחז בטלתו
של אברהם.
Rabbi Zechariah says, this ram was created during the twilight hour (on the eve of the first
Sabbath), and it was approaching (Abraham) as a substitute for Isaac. Samael (Satan) then
stood and distracted (the ram) in order to inhibit its plans, and it was then caught by its
horns in the brush, as is stated, “and Abraham lifted his eyes and behold he saw a ram
caught behind the thistles by its Horns.” What did the ram do? It extended its hoof and
grabbed onto Abraham’s garment.
A particularly resolute ram indeed… even from its helpless entrapment in the thistles, it manages to reach out to Avraham signal its existence. The animal literally extended itself, albeit ever so slightly, going beyond the call of duty to insure the success of its mission to save Isaac.
Thus, we see Satan attempting to block and distract the ram from its mission of offering itself as a sacrifice, but ironically, it is not the ram that is confounded by Satan, but on the contrary, the Adversary himself who is stymied by no more than a hapless sheep’s paw-extension.
In the following Zohar(5), we find הקב”ה כביכול turning the tables and using a very similar tactic against Satan himself; where Hashem’s instrument of “distraction” is the shofar, blown on Rosh Hashana:
(משל) לבר נש דהוה רגיז וחגר וזיין גרמיה, ונפק ברוגזיה לקטלא לבני נשא, חד חכימא קם על
פתחא ואחיד ביה; אמר אלמלא לא אחיד בי ואתתקף בי הא קטולא בבני נשא. אשתכח, בעוד
דאתתקפו דא בדא ואחיד דא בדא אצטנן רוגזיה על דנפק לקטלא, נפק לאוכחא. מאן סביל
רוגזא ותוקפא דדינא דההוא בר נש הוי אימא דא דקאים אפתחא. כך אמר קודשא בריך הוא
לישראל בני, לא תדחלון הא נא קאים על פתחא אבל אזדרזו בהאי יומא והבו לי חילא.
ובמה? בשופר.
This is comparable to a person who became angered and… prepares himself to kill
someone. A wise man stood in the way and stalled him. The (would-be murderer)
turned to the wise man and said, “had you not stalled me, I would have murdered
a person”… thus does Hashem say, to Israel, “my sons, fear not, for I shall stand
in the threshold (to thwart the Accuser). However, hasten on this day and give
me power; with what? With the shofar.
G-d is offering to thwart the destructive designs of Satan, using the latter’s own MO. But Hashem’s trump card is the shofar, a reminder to the Accuser of his own impotence in the face of the self-sacrifice of the primordial ram.
But what is it about the seated and standing shofar blasts that throw Satan for a loop? Maharal(6) has a very simple explanation:
עצם המאמץ לעמד בתקיעות שניות הוא מערבב את השטן.
The very (simple) effort to stand for the second shofar blasts confuses Satan.
A deceptively simple explanation. The slight effort it takes to stand up for a few minutes causes Satan such confusion? Apparently, any extra effort that’s לשם שמים throws Satan into a state of bewilderment from which he can’t always recover – just as the ram’s stretching its hoof to alert Avraham of its existence saved Yitzchak’s life.
We tend to think of Satan as a sophisticated charlatan, armed with a bag full of tried and tested tricks nearly impossible for mere mortals to overcome. But truth be told, Satan has but one solitary destructive tactic, albeit with numerous variations: ערבוב illusion/confusion, another example of which is demonstrated in the following Midrash(7) about Avraham on the way to the Akeida.
א”ל (שטן לאברהם אבינו): זקן, לא שם הייתי כשאמר לך הקב”ה קח את בנך וזקן כמותך ילך ויאבד בן
שנתן לו למאה שנה… כיון שראה שלא קבלו (אברהם ובנו) ממנו (טענותיו) הלך ונעשה לפניהם נהר
גדול… כיון שהגיע עד חצי הנהר הגיע המים עד צוארו באותה שעה תלה אברהם עיניו לשמים אמר
לפניו רבש”ע… עכשיו באו מים עד נפש; אם אני או יצחק בני טובע מי יקיים מאמרך, על מי יתייחד
שמך?… מיד גער הקב”ה את המעין ויבש הנהר ועמדו ביבשה.
(Satan said to Avraham on the way to the Akeida): Old man, was I not there when G-d told you, “take thy son” – will an old man like you go and destroy a son given to him in his hundredth year?! When Satan saw that (Avraham and his son) did not heed him, (Satan) transformed himself into a great river. When (Avraham) had traversed half the river, the water was up to his neck. At that moment Avraham raised his eyes to Heaven and said, “Master of the Universe… now the water is threatening my life! If Isaac or I drown, who will fulfill Your word; who will unify Your Name”? Immediately, Hashem blocked the spring, and the river dried up, and they stood on dry land.
Again in the following source (8) depicting how the tragedy of the sin of the Golden Calf came about, Rashi again makes reference to the MO of Satan, עירבוב.
כשעלה משה להר (סיני), אמר להם: לסוף ארבעים יום אני בא בתוך שש שעות, הם סבורים שאותו
יום שעלה בו מן המנין הוה, והוא אמר להם ארבעים יום שלימים, יום ולילו עמו, ויום עלייתו אין
לילו עמו, שהרי בשבעה בסיון עלה, נמצא יום ארבעים בשבעה עשר בתמוז היה, בששה עשר בא
שטן ועירבב את העולם, והראה דמות חשך ואפילה, דמות ענן וערפל וערבוביא, לומר: ודאי
מת משה, שהרי באו כבר שש ולא בא.
When Moshe ascended (to Sinai), he told (Israel): at the end of forty days I shall arrive
by the sixth hour. They believed that that very day was part of the count, whilst (Moshe)
had intended (the count) to include forty full days (starting on the morrow)… (the
fortieth day according to Moshe’s reckoning was therefore) the seventeenth of Tammuz.
On the sixteenth, Satan came and brought chaos to the world, projecting an illusion of
darkness and obscurity, of dark clouds, fog and confusion, as if to say: of certainty
Moshe is dead, for the sixth hour is upon us and he has not come.
But the Demon’s belief in the weakness of spirit of his victims, of their utter susceptibility to confusion and loss of purpose, is in reality nothing but a projection of Satan’s own feebleness. Satan again and again tries the same confusion and obfuscation tactics, but when given a taste of his own medicine he verily collapses. A few toots of a shofar horn and he utterly loses his bearings.
Furthermore, not only does Satan disappear like a shrinking violet at the first sign of resistance, but Israel’s Ally lends a hand as well(9).
בשעה שהקב”ה עולה ויושב על כסא דין, בדין הוא עולה… ובשעה שישראל נוטלין שופר ותוקעין,
הקב”ה עומד מכסא דין ויושב על כסא רחמים… ומרחם עליהם והופך להם מדת הדין למדת רחמים.
When Hashem ascends to sit on the Seat of Judgment, he ascends with judicial (strictness)…
but when Israel take the shofar and blow it, the Holy One Blessed be He arises from the
Seat of Judgment and sits on the Seat of Mercy… and shows mercy to them,
transforming judgment into mercy.
Thus, Hashem actually follows Israel’s lead; when we get up from our comfortable seats to hear the shofar, Hashem כביכול rises from His Seat of Judgment as well, and moves to the Seat of Mercy. Satan, instead of facing the anticipated judgmental ear, now must make his case in front of Israel’s loving and protective Father, quite uninterested in the Accuser’s rantings. But this only after Israel takes the first step and blows the shofar.
This is a sound explanation of Satan’s confusion, but still in all, Satan remains tasked with prosecuting on the Day of Judgment, and it is this task that we directly undermine by our shofar blowing. What is it about the ram’s horn blasts specifically that leads to the downfall of the Old Serpent’s well-rehearsed accusations?
The following beautiful Rambam(10) tells us of a subtle hint contained in the sudden sounding of the shofar:
אע”פ שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב רמז יש בו כלומר עורו ישינים משנתכם …
וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם.
Although the shofar blowing on Rosh Hashana is a Biblical decree, it contains
the following hint: awaken O you slumberers from your sleep! …search your
deeds, repent, and recall your Creator…
That is, the shofar is the quintessential alarm clock, meant to waken us spiritually at the eleventh hour, before it’s too late. Because it ain’t over till it’s over, as Rebbe poignantly reminds us(11):
בכה רבי ואמר: יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת.
Rebbi cried out and said: a person can acquire the World to Come in the span of a single
moment!
Indeed, if a person responds correctly to the shofar blasts, he is literally a new person at the end of those five minutes(12).
אמר ריש לקיש: גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כזכיות…
Resh Lakish says: great is repentance, for even malicious sins are transformed into merits!
If so, the Satan’s entire PowerPoint presentation of Israel’s misdeeds disappears without any backup… on the contrary, every accusation has been transformed into a merit! No wonder why poor Satan’s so confused – an entire year’s work is lost beyond recovery… ironically in the span of that very same moment.
We think of Satan as if he were some sort of a Loch Ness monster ready to chew us up and spit us out when he’s done. But in truth, he’s hardly a match even for the Cookie Monster. The good news for us is that we know all his tricks, and we therefore are potrntially immune to his ubiquitous obfuscation tactics. Indeed, even a hapless sheep has enough fortitude to defeat him with aught but an outstretched hoof.
Furthermore, Satan believes in dividing and conquering, in this case by diverting Avraham’s attention from the ram, which itself was acting as a duty-bound ערב (guarantor) for, and united with, Yitzchak. Hence, there is no more appropriate term for Satan’s confusion –measure for measure– than ערבוב.
What’s asked of us in our own lives is nothing approaching the sacrifice of that ram, let alone that of Avraham or Yitzchak. All that Hashem wants of us is that we take a stand, and determine to sacrifice, once and for all, our own superfluous misdeeds. And just as the innocent ram acquired life eternal through its indefatigability(13), so will we merit redemption through our emulating its determination and blowing the ram’s horn, as the Midrash(14) reminds us:
וישא אברהם את עיניו וירא והנה איל אחר. מהו אחר… א”ר חנינא ב”ר יצחק, כל ימות השנה
ישראל נאחזים בעבירות ומסתבכין בצרות. ובראש השנה הן נוטלין שופר ותוקעין בו ונזכרים
לפני הקב”ה, והוא מוחל להם – וסופן ליגאל בקרנו של איל.
And Avraham lifted his eyes and behold, he saw a ram ‘achar’ – What is ‘achar’?
Chanania b. Yitzchak says, all year long the Israelites are caught up in sin, and
are entrapped in adversity, but on Rosh Hashana they take the shofar and blow
Hashem then recalls them and forgives their sins. So too their ultimate
Redemption will come about through the horn of the ram.
May we be at least as resolute about our New Year’s resolutions as the ram of yore, and thus merit this promised redemption –from iniquity and from oppression- this very Rosh Hashana. All that’s asked of us is not to hit the snooze button when the shofar alarm goes off.
Footnotes:
ר”ה טז,א.
שם, שם.
רש”י בראשית כב:יג, ד”ה בקרניו.
פרקי דרבי אליעזר, פרק ל ד”ה הנס העשירי ויהי.
זוהר ג:יח,ב.
6. מהר”ל חדושי אגדות ברכות טז,ב.
תנחומא (ורשא) פ’ וירא כב, ד”ה ויאמר אליו.
רש”י שבת פט. ד”ה בא השטן.
ילקוט שמעוני פינחס תשפב:כט ד”ה ובחדש השביעי.
רמב”ם תשובה ג:ד.
ע”ז י,ב.
יומא פו,ב.
פרקי דרבי אליעזר פרק לא: אוֹתוֹ הָאַיִל לֹא יָצָא מִמֶּנּוּ דָבָר לְבַטָּלָה.
14. בראשית רבה פ’ נו.
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