More Discussions for this daf
1. One long Teki'ah serving as two 2. Two voices and mixed singing 3. From which end of the shofar do we blow?
4. Ein Kateigor Na'aseh Saneigor
DAF DISCUSSIONS - ROSH HASHANAH 27

alex lebovits asked:

Rav Masnah learns out from the word "Vehaavarta" meaning "to pass" that we require a shofar to be blown in the manner in which it was carried on the animal's head.

Now if you look at how the horn of the animal grows on the head of the animal, it is the wider part that's attached to the head and the narrower part is at the other end.

So why do we not blow the shofar from the wide end, the way it grows on the animal?!

At end of note 27 in the Art Scroll Gem. it brings this Halacha from the Mishna Berura 590:36(in the name of the Ritva and the Chaye Adam) who seems to explain it as" k'derech temunas gidulo sh'haayil maaviro berosho" that we look at the position of the horn not from the animal's perspective but rather from the person's perspective and while the animal was living it was always the narrow side that was facing the person! (I hope I got that correct.)

This really seems a very unusual way of learning "Vehaavarta".

Furthermore if this is the proper way of looking at the way things grow, then it should come out that when we take the lulav, arovos and the hadasim, we should take them with the tips facing down!

So which ends should really be facing up by the shofar and the lulav; the narrow or the wider part?

Take care

Alex Lebovits, toronto,canada

p.s. But if the word "Vehaavarta" means what Rashi in Chumash (Vayikra 25:9) says it means "loshon hachraza" obviously you know from which side of the shofar to blow from.

The Kollel replies:

(a) The Chayei Adam does not quote the Ritva (Sukah 29b DH veha'Yavesh) and Ran (in Rosh Hashanah here) to explain how we learn from v'Ha'avarta. He quotes them to show that even if one did not alter the Shofar, but he blew from the wide end, the sound is not valid (Chayei Adam 140:5). This is derived from a Yerushalmi.

(b) As for the Derashah of our Gemara, there seem to be two explanations in the Rishonim:

1. Rashi here explains it to mean that the Shofar must be in its natural form, in the state that it was while on the animal's head. (It is not referring to which side should be closest to the mouth, hence it would seem that it cannot be used as a source for the Halachah of the Yerushalmi I mentioned in (a).) One might argue, based on this explanation, that any other major alteration of the Shofar's natural form will also disqualify it. However, blowing from the reverse end of the Shofar without altering its shape should not disqualify the sound that it produces.

2. The Ritva explains it to mean "Derech Ha'avaraso me ha'Ayil", that is, the way it is removed from the ram. To remove it from the ram's head, one must grasp it from the narrower part (since the other side is attached to the head). Therefore, one must hold the narrow part while blowing. This provides a source for the Yerushalmi as well - which he himself quotes in Sukah, as mentioned.

According to the Ritva, this verse is teaching that one may not reverse the Shofar in his hand when blowing it. It is by no means disqualifying the use of a Shofar after its shape has been altered.

(I am not sure how the Chayei Adam is explaining v'Ha'avarta, but he may mean what I cited from the Ritva.)

Best wishes,

Mordecai Kornfeld