The Tiferes Yisrael (Rosh Hashanah, Boaz 4:1) writes that the Gezeirah that one may not blow the Shofar on Shabbos was an ancient institution which applied even when the Mishkan was in Nov and Giv'on. At that time, it was permitted to blow only in the city where the Mishkan was situated and nowhere else.

Kol Tuv,

Dovid Bloom

Here is an attempt to defend the Tiferes Yisrael that I cited in my first reply (who says that the Gezeirah not to blow the Shofar on Shabbos existed already in the time of the first Beis ha'Mikdash) and to suggest that it may be possible to deflect the challenge that I cited in my second reply from Rashi in Megilah (that the Gezeirah not to read the Megilah on Shabbos started only after the time of the Anshei Keneses ha'Gedolah, which was well into the time of the second Beis ha'Mikdash) by showing that there is a difference between Shofar and Megilah.

(I am writing this on Erev Rosh Hashanah, so this is Inyanei d'Yoma, but I will have to write rather quickly due to the impending Yom Tov.)

1. I will start with Rashi in Parshas Behar (Vayikra 25:9), where the Torah tells us that at the end of the Shemitah year we must blow the Shofar throughout the Land on Yom Kippur. Rashi writes that blowing the Shofar on the 10th of Tishrei overrides Shabbos throughout the entire Land, while blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah does not override Shabbos throughout the Land, but only in the Beis Din.

2. The Ramban there writes that Rashi's words are confusing because it is clear from the Gemara that all blowings of the Shofar, whether on Rosh Hashanah or on Yom Kippur -- or even optional blowing -- is permitted on Shabbos because this is a "Chochmah" and not a Melachah. According to Torah law, they would blow the Shofar both on Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur that fell on Shabbos. The Ramban writes that the idea of a difference between blowing the Shofar in a place where there is a Beis Din and blowing it in other places is something that started only after the destruction of the second Beis ha'Mikdash, when Raban Yochanan ben Zakai instituted a Gezeirah lest one would carry the Shofar four Amos in the public domain in order to ask an expert to show him how to blow.

3. I am now going to attempt to answer the Ramban's challenge on Rashi. The Pnei Yehoshua (Rosh Hashana 29b, DH Amnam) writes that there are two problems involved in blowing the Shofar on Shabbos. The first is that one might carry it four Amos in Reshus ha'Rabim, as we mentioned above. The other problem is that blowing the Shofar is a "Chochmah and not a Melachah," which, the Pnei Yehoshua asserts, gives it the status of a "Shevus d'Oraisa." That is, even though it is only a "Shevus" and not an actual Melachah, nevertheless it is forbidden mid'Oraisa. The Pnei Yehoshua writes that there are many examples of Shevus which are mid'Oraisa (he cites one of the Rishonim, the Semag, as support for his words). A source for this is the Gemara in Shabbos (30a) which says that Moshe Rabeinu made many Gezeiros. (Although the Maharsha there writes that the Gemara cannot be understood according to its simple explanation, the Gemara in Yevamos 79a indeed states that Moshe did make a Gezeirah prohibited Nesinim from marrying into Klal Yisrael.)

4. The Pnei Yehoshua writes that such a Shevus against blowing the Shofar, even though it is mid'Oraisa, would not override the explicit Torah Mitzvah to blow the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah. However, the problem is that we are not expert in "Kevi'a d'Yarcha" -- we do not know exactly when the new moon arrives every month, such that we know the exact day of Rosh Hashanah. This problem, though, applies only outside Yerushalayim, while inside Yerusahalayim they were always expert in "Kevi'a d'Yarcha."

5. I would like to add to this and suggest that the proscription against blowing the Shofar on Shabbos may not have applied from the time of David ha'Melech and onwards, but only during the era of the Mishkan in Nov and Giv'on, which was before the time of David ha'Melech. My source for this is the Kuzari (2:64) who writes that the lunar calculations were made by the House of David. Kol Yehudah, in his commentary to the Kuzari, writes that Jewish astonomers in the time of David ha'Melech fixed the times of the months. There is a source for this in the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah (25a) where Raban Gamliel stated that he possessed a tradition from the house of his father's father (Raban Gamliel was descended from David ha'Melech) concerning a certain matter connected with Kidush ha'Chodesh. Of course, we also mention David ha'Melech every month in Kidush Levanah.

6. My suggestion is that before the time of David ha'Melech, we were not yet expert when the new moon would come, and therefore -- according to the Pnei Yehoshua who says there is a Torah prohibition of Shevus against blowing the Shofar on Shabbos -- the Shofar would not be blown on Rosh Hashanah that fell on Shabbos.

I am aware that there are a lot of Chidushim in what I have written above, and the matter certainly requires further research, but I hope at least that this arouses some thought on this topic.

L'Shanh Tovah Tikaseivu v'Tikaseimu,

Dovid Bloom