Rosh Hashanah is a day in which we spend many hours davening to Hashem. What does the tefillah of the shofar add to the numerous tefillos we already recite?
The Beis HaLevi (Derush 15, brought at the end of Shu”t Beis HaLevi) offers a very profound approach. On Rosh Hashanah, as we stand before Hashem being judged, we daven extensively, hoping for a good year. We do not want to use any items that may remind Hashem of our aveiros, and that is why we don’t use a shofar made from a cow’s horn. We apply the principle of ein kateigor naaseh saneigor, which also explains why the Kohen Gadol would not serve in the Kodesh HaKodashim while garbed in his gold vestments. Both the shofar of the cow and the gold garments would remind Hashem of the sin of the Eigel. We do whatever we can to avoid recalling and highlighting averios we may have committed in the past, so that they can’t be held against us.
We posses a faculty that is used consistently throughout the year, and not always in the right way. At times we use our mouths to speak lashon hara, rechilus, motzi shem ra, sheker, etc. The last thing we want to do on Rosh Hashanah is remind Hashem of the improper ways in which we have used our mouths over the past year. There is probably a much greater concern of ein kateigor naaseh saneigor with regard to our own mouths than there is for the Eigel with which our ancestors had sinned. When our tefillos come up to Hashem on Rosh Hashanah, beseeching Hashem, “Zachreinu l’chaim,” the malachim will highlight the other words our mouths have said, words we are likely less than proud of, and which may steer our judgement in an unfavorable direction.
We therefore are gifted with a form of tefillah that bypasses the mouth. The Beis HaLevi writes that the shofar is the tefillah that arises from the depths of the heart, and it does not use the mouth in the same manner that it had been used to commit the aveiros that involved speech. Its tefillah goes straight from the heart to Hashem. It can be termed a quadruple bypass – bypassing the larynx, tongue, teeth and lips – and it allows our tefillos to come before Hashem without the downside of being offered through the same vehicle that had been used for sin. It is tefillah without utilizing the faculty of speech. The shofar is the cry from the heart of a Jew. And the heart of a Jew is holy and pure. (R’ Doniel Glatstein)
