As we begin to blow shofar during Chodesh Elul in preparation for Rosh Hashanah, it is an opportune time to begin discussing some of the rules and regulations of tekias shofar.
The Mishna states that a tekiah is equivalent to the length of a teruah, which is three yevavos. How long is the sound of a yevavah? This is a machlokes between Rashi and Tosfos. Rashi’s opinion is that a yevavah is one small sound, which means that a teruah is three short sounds. According to Tosfos, a yevavah is the equivalent of three small sounds, which means that a teruah will need to be nine short sounds. Thus, there is a machlokes whether a teruah consists of three short sounds or nine short sounds. According to Rashi it is enough to blow three short sounds and according to Tosfos one must blow nine short sounds.
The length of the tekiah will also depend on this machlokes. According to Rashi it is enough to blow the tekiah which is the length of three short sounds, whereas according to Tosfos one must blow the length of nine short sounds. It is important to point out that the tekiah – both at the beginning of each set, as well as the end of each set – has to be as long as the teruah of that specific set and it will depend on each specific set. In other words, the tekiah of the set of tsh”t has to be as long as the shevarim, the tekiah of the set of tr”t has to be as long as the teruah and the tekiah of the shevarimteruah has to be as long as the shevarim-teruah, which is obviously twice as long.
A longer tekiah or teruah
However, all agree that this is just the minimum and both the tekiah can be longer and the teruah can be made up of more short sounds. Therefore, when we blow a long tekiah or teruah, we are fulfilling the mitzvah according to both — even according to Rashi, since the length of three sounds is only a minimum and blowing longer is also a fulfillment of the mitzvah. On the other hand, if one blows a tekiah or teruah less than the length of nine sounds he will not fulfill the mitzvah, according to Tosfos.
But it is worth noting that although the tekiah can be as long as you want, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach recommended that one not blow longer than necessary, to ensure that the tekiah doesn’t change pitch in the middle.
This is based on the chumra of Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin zt”l, who held that the sound of the tekiah must be completely straight, without even a change of pitch midstream. The reason for this is based on the expression “ ”,וְ הַ עֲ בַ רְ תָּ used by the Torah for the tekiah, which has the connotation of being a completely straight sound, without any changes midstream. Although Rav Shlomo Zalman maintained that we pasken that one does not need to be concerned with a change of pitch, it is still better to avoid the issue. Therefore, one should not blow tekios longer than necessary, since when blowing a long tekiah it will often change pitch in the middle. There is another interesting question in the acharonim: if one blew a longer teruah – more than nine little sounds – does that require one to blow a longer tekiah, as well. In other words, the question is if the tekiah has to be as long as the length of the teruah, in general, or if it depends on each person’s teruah that he blew.
The Yaavetz and the Sfas Emes rule that it depends on each person’s teruah and if one blew a longer teruah he will be required to blow a longer tekiah. However, the poskim do not seem to be concerned with this.
In summary
There is a machlokes between Rashi and Tosfos as to what is the correct length of a tekia and a teruah. This is only as far as the minimum, but all agree that one can blow as long as he likes, and there is no maximum.
There is a kuntres of shiurim on the topic of tekias shofar available. If you would like a copy of any of these shiurim, or for any comments and questions, please send an email to: [email protected], or call 845 372 6618.
Rabbi Scheiner
