4. Rosh Hashanah When It Falls on Shabbos
When Rosh Hashanah coincides with Shabbos (as it does this year), Rosh Hashanah {itself} does not exhibit this {latent} shofar-related quality {since the shofar is not sounded}, since the renewal of the world is not then coming about {mainly} through the avodah of a person. True, Shabbos, on its own, accomplishes the renewal and elicits all the necessary energies that would ordinarily be elicited by the sounding of the shofar (and it is for this very reason {on a deeper level} that shofar is not sounded on Shabbos, as explained in many places in Chassidic teachings). But when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, Rosh Hashanah lacks this fundamental quality, i.e., that the renewal comes about through a person’s avodah. For then {i.e., on Shabbos, when the shofar is not sounded by man}, the renewal of the world is initiated On High—harnessing the power of Shabbos itself, which is “independently holy”—without recourse to the shofar’s sounding.
This dynamic, mentioned above, whereby through the medium of the shofar, man’s avodah brings about Hashem’s renewal of creation (which is also an underlying idea of Rosh Hashanah) is evident on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, in a calendar-setting like this year’s. For on the second day, the shofar is sounded even in a year like this one, and through man’s avodah, all the spiritual energies of Rosh Hashanah are elicited.
[Furthermore, although in a calendar year like this, Shabbos really substitutes for the shofar-sounding in all respects, still, the sound of the shofar is not heard by the physical ear, and thus it cannot affect the physical body, to waken it, etc. Not so on the second day, when we actually blow the shofar. A person hears the sounds with his physical ear [in addition to other people who hear it too, and even non-Jews who can hear it] and this experience awakens one’s physical body to recall the sovereignty of the King of all kings, Hashem, to which the mitzvah of shofar alludes, as explained by Rabbi Saadya Gaon, based on the verse, “With trumpets and the sound of a shofar, raise your voices before the King, Hashem.” Additionally, the shofar stirs a person to recollect the shofar sounded at Mount Sinai {at the giving of the Torah} (which is linked to the sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah) even before one begins to recite the verses of shofaros, {which speaks about these topics}.]
