Rosh Hashanah is one of the most important days of the year. It is the Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment. On Rosh Hashanah, Hashem decides what the coming year will look like. Health, parnassah, success, nachas, and many other things are all part of the judgment. A person may think he knows what the coming year will bring, but the truth is that we never know. One phone call, one new opportunity, one simcha, or one challenge can change a person's entire year. If we knew on Rosh Hashanah everything that would happen during the coming year, we would probably daven very differently. We would take every word much more seriously. Hashem does not show us what will happen. Instead, He gives us Rosh Hashanah and gives us a chance to ask for a good year.
I remember once I was driving and a police officer stopped me because I had been on my cellphone. I cannot tell you how nervous I was when I saw those lights behind me. My heart was pounding. I was thinking, “What is he going to say? Am I getting a ticket? How much is this going to cost me?” Afterwards I thought to myself, what was I so scared about? At the end of the day, it was only a possible ticket. Can you imagine Rosh Hashanah, when we are standing before Hashem and our entire year is being judged? Health, parnassah, family, success, everything. If we get nervous standing in front of a police officer, how much more should we understand the seriousness of standing before the Beis Din Shel Maalah.
No one walks into an important courtroom without preparing. Even for a traffic ticket, a person thinks about what he will say and how he will defend himself. Certainly, on Rosh Hashanah we also need someone to speak for us. Hashem, in His tremendous kindness, gives us a very powerful defender: the shofar. The sound of the shofar goes up before the Kisei HaKavod. It is like the cry of a Yid who wants to come closer to Hashem, and it also reminds Hashem of the Akeidas Yitzchok.
The Ohr HaChaim, in the name of the Zohar, says an amazing chiddush. Avraham Avinu did not only raise the knife over Yitzchok. He actually brought the knife down. Yitzchok's neck began to bleed, his neshamah left him, and Hashem brought him back to life. In a way, this was the first techiyas hameisim in history. This may also explain why the second bracha of Shemoneh Esrei, which is connected to Yitzchok, is the bracha of Mechayei HaMeisim, bringing the dead back to life.
Now we can understand the shofar on a deeper level. When Hashem sees the shofar, He remembers Yitzchok and the Akeidah. When a Yid blows shofar and gives himself over to Hashem, it is as if he is also going through his own Akeidah. Hashem then says, so to speak, "Just as I gave Yitzchok his life back, I will give you a new life too." The person you were last year does not have to be the person you are this year. Your old mistakes do not have to control your future. Hashem gives you a fresh start, a new beginning, and in a sense, a new neshamah.
The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah 16b says that when we blow shofar, it is meʼarvev es haSatan. The shofar confuses and silences the Satan. But why should the Satan be confused? He knows everything we did. He knows every aveirah and every mistake. He has seen us blow shofar every year. What is different this time?
Rashi explains that the Satan sees how much Klal Yisroel loves mitzvos. We are required to hear only the basic number of shofar sounds, but Klal Yisroel blows many more, traditionally reaching one hundred kolos. Why do we blow so many? Because we love the mitzvah. We are not trying to do the minimum. We want another tekiah, another shevarim, and another teruah.
Rav Akiva Eiger explains this with a beautiful chiddush. There are two types of teshuvah. One is teshuvah meyirah, doing teshuvah because a person is afraid of punishment. Chazal teach that through this teshuvah, aveiros that were done on purpose can become like mistakes. But there is a higher level called teshuvah meahavah, doing teshuvah because a person loves Hashem. A person says, “Hashem, You have given me so much. How could I have gone against You? I want to come back because I love You." Chazal teach that with teshuvah meahavah, aveiros can actually become zechuyos.
The Satan watches Klal Yisroel blowing one hundred kolos and thinks, “Why are they blowing so many times? They do not have to!” Then he realizes the answer: They love Hashem. They are doing more because the mitzvah is precious to them. The Satan becomes nervous. If he brings all their aveiros before the Beis Din Shel Maalah, and they do teshuvah meahavah, those very aveiros might become zechuyos. His best move is to stay quiet. That is how the shofar silences the Satan.
But now there is a major question. If the shofar does so much for us, what happens when the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos and we do not blow shofar? The Gemara explains that Chazal were worried that someone who did not know how to blow shofar might carry it four amos in a reshus harabim to bring it to someone who could teach him. Because of that concern, Chazal said not to blow shofar when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos.
But how can we give up the shofar? It is our lawyer. It silences the Satan. It reminds Hashem of the Akeidah. It gives us the chance for a new beginning. Our whole year is being decided, and we are giving up the shofar because someone might possibly carry it?
The Meshech Chochmah explains an amazing answer. Klal Yisroel says to Hashem, “We know that we need the shofar. We know that it helps us in our judgment. But if blowing the shofar might lead even one Yid to be mechalel Shabbos, we are ready to give it up. We would rather place our whole judgment in Your hands than risk the kedushah of Shabbos."
Hashem then says, so to speak, "You want Me to remember the Akeidas Yitzchok? I do not need the shofar to remind Me this year. You yourselves are doing an Akeidah.” Yitzchok Avinu was ready to give up his life because that was the ratzon Hashem. Klal Yisroel is also ready to give up something extremely important, the shofar, because we do not want to risk being mechalel Shabbos. That itself becomes our shofar. That itself becomes our Akeidah.
The Aruch LaNer takes this idea even further. He explains that when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, we are not left without someone defending us. Usually the shofar speaks for us. But on Shabbos Rosh Hashanah, Shabbos itself becomes our lawyer.
He gives a mashal. Imagine a man standing on trial before a king. The evidence against him is very strong. His wife grew up with the king and knows him well. She says, "Let me speak to the king for you." She tells the king, "Please have mercy on my husband. You and I grew up together. Please do this favor for me.” The king agrees and pardons her husband.
Now imagine another man who is also on trial. His wife also comes to speak to the king. But the king sees a large wound on her face. "What happened to you?” he asks. She answers, “Sometimes my husband gets angry and hurts me.” The king is shocked. “He did this to you, and now you are asking me to have mercy on him because of you?" Instead of helping her husband, her appearance makes his case worse.
The Aruch LaNer says that this is what happens on Rosh Hashanah that falls on Shabbos. Shabbos Malka walks into the Beis Din Shel Maalah. Hashem asks Shabbos, "How does Klal Yisroel treat you?" If Shabbos comes in looking like a queen, she can say, "They honor me. They prepare for me. They learn my halachos. They are careful with my kedushah. They sing zemiros, learn Torah, and treat me like a queen.” Then Shabbos can ask Hashem to have rachmanus on us.
But what happens if Shabbos comes in wounded? What if she has to say, "Sometimes they are careless. Sometimes they do not treat me with the respect I deserve”? Then Shabbos cannot defend us in the same way. This teaches us a very important lesson. When Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, the question is not whether we have a lawyer. The question is what our lawyer looks like.
Maybe one of our first kabbalos for the new year should be to make Shabbos more important to us. We can learn its halachos better, be more careful, prepare for it properly, and treat Shabbos like the queen that she is.
When Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos and we do not have the shofar, we are not alone. We have Shabbos Kodeshstanding for us. Let us make sure that Shabbos can walk into the Beis Din Shel Maalah like a queen and say, "Ribono Shel Olam, look how Your children honor me. Look how they protect me. Look how careful they are with my kedushah. Please have rachmanus on them and give them a year of life, health, bracha, parnassah and nachas." And perhaps Hashem will answer. “For Shabbos, I will give them a good year."