Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash
parasha series is dedicated
Le-zekher Nishmat HaRabanit Chana
bat HaRav Yehuda Zelig zt"l.
Rambam comments (Taanit
1:1) as follows on the commandment concerning the trumpets as set forth in this
It is a positive commandment
from the Torah to cry out and to sound the trumpets for any calamity that
befalls the community, as it is written: "By an enemy that oppresses you, you
shall sound the trumpets." In other words, for whatever distresses you such as
drought, pestilence, locusts etc.
you should cry out over them, and sound the trumpets.
Thus, there is a biblically
ordained obligation to sound the trumpets at a time of communal distress, and
its source is in our parasha.
It would seem that the halakhic perception of this commandment is molded
largely around the above words of the Rambam. In this shiur, our examination of
the relevant verses from the Torah will show that the Rambam's interpretation is
not the only possible one neither on the level of the literal meaning, nor in
terms of halakhic ruling.
Our parasha states as
spoke to Moshe, saying:
for yourself two trumpets of silver; of a solid piece you shall make them, that
they shall be for you for calling the assembly and for the journeying of the
when they sound them, the entire assembly will gather at the entrance to the
Tent of Meeting.
if they sound only one [of them], then [only] the princes the heads of the
thousands of Israel will gather to you.
you sound the alarm, the camps that lie on the eastern side will move
when you sound the alarm a second time, the camps on the southern side will
follow; they will sound an alarm for their journeys.
gathering the congregation you shall sound a blast, but not an
the children of Aharon, the kohanim, shall sound the trumpets, and they
will be for you for an eternal statute, for all your
if war comes upon you in your land by an enemy that oppresses you, then you
shall sound an alarm with the trumpets and be remembered before the Lord your
God, and be saved from your enemies.
(10) And on your
festive days, and your days of solemn assembly, and the beginnings of your
months, you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the
sacrifices of your peace offerings, that they may be a memorial for you before
your God; I am the Lord your God.
In terms of structure, this unit
resembles other halakhic units (the commandment concerning the first month; the
unit detailing the order of the Yom Kippur service; the commandment concerning
the red heifer) in that the first part represents a commandment directed
specifically to that generation, while the second part is a commandment for all
generations. All of these halakhic
units are introduced with a statement pertaining to the commandment for all
generations, as in our case: "And they will be for you for an eternal statute,
for all your generations." Likewise, in all of these units (except for the
commandment of the first month) the command directed towards that particular
generation concludes with one or more halakhic points, related to the main
halakhic subject but representing a sort of parenthetical comment in terms of
the flow of the text. In our case,
this refers to the phrase, "The children of Aharon, the kohanim, shall
sound the trumpets." This is not an additional act that is being commanded, but
rather a detail pertaining to that which has already been
In terms of content, this unit
commands the fashioning of trumpets and the sounding of them in the desert in
To assemble the entire nation with a blast on both trumpets, or to gather
just the princes by means of a blast on one trumpet.
To serve as a sign to the tribes encamped around the Mishkan,
indicating that they should begin journeying.
The Torah emphasizes that the
sign for the camps to journey on is a "teru'a" blast (translated here as
an "alarm"), while to call the congregation together a "teki'a" ("blast")
For future generations, too, the
trumpets serve a dual purpose: they are meant for sounding a "teru'a" in
a situation of war, or a "teki'a" to be sounded over the sacrifices on
A fundamental question that
arises here is, to what extent is the commandment as directed to the generation
of the desert connected to the commandment as directed to future
In the other halakhic units that
we mentioned above, with a similar structure to our text, the relationship
between the two parts is clear: the second part is built upon and relates
directly to the first part. Thus,
the festival of Pesach for all generations is to serve as a memorial to the
Pesach in Egypt, as stated explicitly in the verse that connects them
(Shemot 12:14): "And this day shall be for you as a remembrance, and you
shall commemorate it as a festival to God for your generations; you shall
commemorate it as an eternal statute." In the parasha detailing the order
of the Yom Kippur service, as explained by the Vilna Gaon (end of Sefer
Chokhmat Adam), the first part with its detailed description of the order
of the service is a personal commandment directed to Aharon himself, while the
second part, starting with the words, "It shall be for you an eternal statute"
(Vayikra 16:29), is a command for future generations, such that the Kohen
Gadol should repeat, every year, the actions that Aharon was commanded to
perform. In the case of the red
heifer, the first part is a command to Elazar to prepare the ashes of the heifer
with no indication, at this stage, of when and how these ashes are to be
used. The second part, starting
with the words, "It shall be for Bnei Yisrael, and for the stranger who dwells
in their midst, as an eternal statute" (Bamidbar 19:10), deals with the
laws of impurity associated with a corpse, and the manner of purification from
such impurity. It is in the context
of that process that the ashes of the red heifer are to be
In our case, however, the
connection between the two parts seems to be far hazier. The situations in which "blasts" and
"alarms" are to be sounded in future generations are completely different from
the situations requiring trumpet blasts in the desert.
Ibn Ezra attempts to bridge the
gap between the two parts:
"'And they shall be for you as
an eternal statute' for the camps are journeying in order to wage war, as we
see from Moshe's words as the Ark moves.
Hence what the statute means is You shall do thus, that the
kohanim should sound the trumpets when they go off to war, to fight, to
the land of their enemies, and likewise when an enemy comes to your land and you
gather to wage war against him."
In other words, the journeying
of the camps is meant to proceed (were it not for Israel's sins) straight to
Eretz Yisrael, to wage war in order to conquer the land. This we see from Moshe's words further
on in the parasha (10:35): "And it was, when the Ark journeyed, that
Moshe said: Arise, Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who
hate You flee from before You." The camps are camps of war, organized around the
Mishkan under their military banners, following the military census of
Parashat Bamidbar. In
view of this, suggests Ibn Ezra, we may say that the "alarm" to be sounded for
the journeying of the camps is required owing to the military character of the
journey. For this reason, the
command for future generations to sound the trumpets at a time of war is a
direct continuation of the command to the generation of the desert to sound the
trumpets for the journeying of the camps.
What, then, is the nature of the
"alarm" to be sounded on the trumpets at a time of war? Ibn Ezra explains (in
his second explanation of the verse):
"The alarm is a reminder to
people to cry out to God."
In other words, the danger and
distress of war necessitate a call and cry to God, and the trumpet alarm is the
sign reminding Bnei Yisrael to do so.
The result is that "you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and
be saved from your enemies." The trumpets remind the nation to cry out, and the
cry "reminds" God of Israel, as it were; He answers their prayer and delivers
As we saw above, Rambam too
regards the obligation of sounding the trumpets at a time of war as being
related to the need to cry out to God in a situation of distress and
danger. However, to Rambam's view,
it is not the trumpet blast that reminds the nation to cry out; rather, the
blast itself is the "cry": "It is a positive commandment from the Torah to cry
out and to sound the trumpets for any distress that comes upon the community
for whatever distresses you such as drought, pestilence, locusts etc. you should cry out over them, and
sound the trumpets."
This exegetical approach,
connecting the obligation of sounding the trumpets with the danger and anguish
of war and even broadening the obligation to include other types of danger
has its source in the words of Chazal, in the Sifri
(Beha'alotekha, piska 76):
"Rabbi Akiva said: The Torah
mentions only war; from where do I deduce (that the obligation applies also in
the event of) blight, plague
(etc.)? We learn this from the words, 'By an enemy
that oppresses you.' (This means,) for any distress or anguish that may befall
What is missing from this
exegetical approach is the connection to the other parts of the mitzva
the blast for the purposes of assembling the congregation and the blast sounded
over the sacrifices. Ibn Ezra's
explanation makes no connection between these two parts of the
mitzva. His interpretation
implies that the words, "They shall be for you an eternal statute for your
generations" which links the commandment for that specific generation and the
commandment for all future generations are relevant principally with regard to
the "alarm" sounded for war.
Attention should be paid to the
fact that there is an element that is common to the two future uses of the
trumpets: the matter of "memory" or "commemoration."
Both in the context of sounding
the trumpets for war, and in the context of sounding them over the sacrifices,
the Torah notes that the trumpets recall Israel before God. With regard to the situation of war, we
read: "You shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and be delivered from
your enemies"; concerning the sacrifices we are told: "They shall be for you as
a remembrance before your God."
It is difficult to imagine that
this common element is coincidental.
What this means is that the crux of the commandment for generations is
the use of the trumpets as a remembrance before God.
We have already noted that from
the structure of the unit it arises that there must be some fundamental
connection between the first part the commandment for that generation and
the second part the commandment for future generations. Hence we may come to think that the
commandment for the generation of the desert, too, essentially involved using
the trumpets for a remembrance before God.
However, at this point we
encounter a difficulty: while the second part of the parasha emphasizes
twice the matter of remembrance before God, the first part makes no mention of
this concept at all. We conclude,
then, that the mitzva of the trumpets, as directed to the generation of
the desert, was not meant for remembrance at all. But then we are once again left with no
apparent connection between the trumpets of the desert generation and the
mitzva for future generations.
Why, then, does the Torah bind these two different mitzvot
together in the same unit, within a literary structure that would appear to
As usual, we will try to
understand the unit in question against the background of its literary
Immediately prior to the matter
of the trumpets, in preparation for the journeying of the camps, the Torah
describes the procedure for the journey.
It is signaled in accordance with the cloud of the Divine Presence, and
our unit emphasizes the fact that the journeying and encamping are decided by
God's word (9:15-23):
"By God's word Bnei Yisrael
would journey, and by God's word they would encamp
and when the cloud stayed
then Bnei Yisrael would keep the Lord's watch and would not journey
word they would encamp, and by God's word they would journey
by God's word they
would encamp and by God's word they would journey; they kept God's watch
according to God's word through Moshe."
The expression "by God's word"
is repeated no less than seven times, and this is unquestionably the main
message of the parasha an expression of God's absolute authority and
control, and Bnei Yisrael's observance of His rules. It seems that the use of the trumpets in
the desert should be understood in the same way: the gathering of the nation,
and the journeying of their camps, are in accordance with the signal of the
trumpets, expressing God's command.
The subjugation of all public activity to God's command expresses God's
Kingship and His absolute leadership of the nation in the
The above provides a reasonable
explanation for the use of the trumpets in the desert. However, we have already seen that the
verses specify that the use of the trumpets for future generation would be for a
remembrance before God. The
question remains how to connect the two contexts, as the structure of the unit
Attention should be paid to
another important point in the parasha: the use of the word
"ve-hayu they shall be," i.e., the plural. This word first appears in the
transition from the fashioning of the trumpets to their use by the generation of
the desert: "They shall be for you for calling the assembly and for the
journeying of the camps" (verse 2).
It appears again in the transition between the commandment for the
generation of the desert and the commandment for future generations: "They shall
be for you for an eternal statute for your generations" (verse 8); and then a
third time in the conclusion, in the description of the result of this
remembrance before God (verse 10).
Thus, the text emphasizes that
what binds the different parts of the unit together are the trumpets
themselves. In other words, the
very trumpets that were used by the generation of the desert should be sounded
in future generations. Admittedly,
the halakha sets down that the trumpets for future generations were not the same
ones that Moshe used (Menachot 28a-b). Nevertheless (and perhaps specifically
for that reason) the fact that the text speaks as though they were the same,
teaches us that from an existential perspective there is continuity between the
use of the trumpets in the desert and their use in future
Hence we may explain that the
"remembrance before God" that is referred to here means not only that the
actions of Bnei Yisrael, in sounding the trumpet blasts and alarms, arouse God's
attention, but also that the use of the trumpets in future generations recalls
to God the use of the trumpets by the generation of the
God tells Israel, "I remember in
your favor the kindness of your youth, how you walked after Me in the
wilderness, in an unsown land.
Israel is holy to God, the first of His produce; all who devour him shall
be held guilty; evil will come upon them" (Yirmiyahu 2:2-3). Israel's journey through the desert,
following God's command and in accordance with His instructions, are described
in our parasha: "By God's word they would encamp and by God's word they
would journey; they kept God's watch according to God's word through Moshe." It
is the remembrance of this youthful kindness and devotion that brings God to
deliver Am Yisrael from their enemies, as described in our text: "And you
will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your
Now we understand why the
concept of remembrance appears only in connection with the commandment for
future generations: the connection between the two parts of the parasha
is not one of continuity between two identical forms of fulfillment of the
command, in the wilderness and for future generations (as is the case in the
unit prescribing the Yom Kippur service).
Rather, the connection takes the form of an historical event that is
remembered for all generations. In
this sense, our parasha resembles the unit that speaks of the first
month. The only difference concerns
who does the remembering. In the
parashat ha-chodesh, it is Am Yisrael who must
remember, in every generation, the Pesach in Egypt. In our case, Am Yisrael must
recall to God, in every generation, the youthful devotion of the generation of
Obviously, it is not a technical
remembrance, an external symbolism devoid of inner significance. All acts of remembrance in the Torah are
built around some significant object or event that is part of the process being
remembered. In order to remember
the Exodus from Egypt, we do not chance upon some technical symbol to recall the
event; rather, we recreate the matza as our bread of affliction, also
expressing the haste of the departure with faith in God, as well as the Pesach
sacrifice, expressing rejection of Egyptian culture and acceptance of the yoke
of God's Kingship. Likewise in our
case we may say that the trumpets are selected to recall to God the generation
of the desert because they expressed - for that generation and for future
generations the nation's response and subjugation to God's Providence and His
leadership. Thus, the blasts and
alarms sounded on the trumpets in the future will be "trumpet blasts of the
king" (Bamidbar 23:21); they express the acceptance of God's Kingship and
recall to God the generation in which His Kingship was accepted
Thus, the blasts and alarms
sounded on the trumpets also express God's Kingship in another way: they
represent royal ceremoniousness.
It should be emphasized that we
do not mean to suggest that the substance of the "remembrance" is merely the
kindness of youth of Israel's history.
The verse states explicitly, "And you will be remembered": God will
remember and redeem Israel, and by virtue of this He will also deliver them from
their enemies. We mean merely to
point out that the recollection of Israel's youthful devotion adds a further
dimension to their remembrance before God, intensifying God's loving and
merciful response to their call.
We can now understand what
Chazal are telling us in the Sifri (Beha'alotekha, piska
"'God spoke to Moshe, saying:
Make for yourself two trumpets of silver' Why is this unit set
Because the Torah says: 'By
God's word they would encamp and by God's word they would journey.' What I
understand from this is that since they journeyed at God's command and encamped
at God's command, there was no apparent need for the trumpets. Therefore God says: 'Make for yourself
two trumpets of silver.' The text is telling us that even though they journeyed
by God's command and encamped at God's command, they needed the
The commentators are perplexed
by this Beraita. Do the words, "By
God's word they would encamp," not clearly indicate that there was no need for
the trumpets? What is the Beraita telling us?
According to our analysis above,
the message is clear: the trumpets expressed, for the generation of the desert,
the acceptance of God's authority and leadership in the desert. However, this acceptance is expressed by
the very fact of journeying on or staying put on the basis of the cloud's
movements and God's commands to Moshe.
This would indeed suggest that the trumpets were
Why, then, did God nevertheless
insist on having the generation of the desert fashion trumpets, not relying on
the very fact of the stops and starts of the journey following exactly the
signals of the Divine cloud?
The trumpets are described only
in the context of this halakhic unit, which as we noted on the basis of its
literary structure binds the commandment for that generation with the
commandment for future generations.
This suggests that their main importance, for the generation of the
desert, was indeed to serve as the basis for the remembrance in future
generations. The journeying and
encamping at God's command was something that could not be replicated in future
generations, but the blasts and alarms sounded on the trumpets could be
It remains for us to explain the
situations in which the Torah requires that the remembrance of the trumpets be
performed in future generations.
The second situation sounding them over the sacrifices of holy days
is clear: the most appropriate context in which to proclaim God's coronation is
in the Sanctuary, and especially at those times when Bnei Yisrael are gathered
there ("your holy convocations").
The gathering of the nation (or the princes) likewise takes place at the
entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
The blast sounded over the festive sacrifices also recalls the gathering
of the people at the Tent of Meeting in terms of the specific sound: a "blast"
(teki'a) rather than an "alarm" (teru'a).
The first situation sounding
the alarm at a time of war is more difficult to explain, since according to
our interpretation the blast is neither an expression of prayer or crying out in
the face of danger (as Rambam maintains), nor a reminder to Bnei Yisrael to cry
out to God (as Ibn Ezra suggests).
How, then, are we to connect an expression of acceptance of God's
Kingship, and a recollection of our actual acceptance, with a situation of
One possibility is that since
the recalling of the devotion of the nation's youth brings God to protect Am
Yisrael and deliver them from their enemies, the danger and distress of war
require the use of the ceremonious memorial in order to be saved. According to this explanation, the Torah
commands the sounding of the trumpets in a situation of war because in such a
situation there is a need for "you shall be delivered from your enemies," and
the means of affecting this is the recalling of the youthful devotion of Israel
before God. This may be the
assumption underlying Rabbi Akiva's opinion in the Sifri, which extends
the commandment of sounding the trumpets to include other situations of
However, there is also another
possibility. As noted, the "alarm"
(teru'a) rather than the teki'a blast served the generation
of the desert as a sign for the camps to journey, and future generations in a
situation of war. The journeying of
the camps, as Ibn Ezra explains, had the character of going out to war. Contrary to Ibn Ezra's opinion, however,
it would seem that the feeling accompanying the journey would not be one of
distress and danger, but rather a sense of absolute faith in God's victory over
the enemies of Israel who are the enemies of God. "And it was, when the Ark moved on, that
Moshe said: Arise, God, let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate
You flee from before You" (10:35).
It is this atmosphere that would seem to render it appropriate to sound
the teru'a on the trumpets: it is the trumpet blast of the King Who goes
out to conquer His enemies. A
situation of war therefore represents an appropriate occasion to express God's
continuous Kingship over the nation, from its earliest history until the
Above, we quoted Rabbi Akiva's
opinion in the Sifri, extending the obligation of the teru'a at a
time of war to other situations of danger.
This is recorded as a minority opinion against the author of the
Sifri. The Beraita in its
entirety reads as follows:
"'By an enemy that oppresses
you' the text is speaking about the war of Gog and Magog. Do we conclude that the text is speaking
of the war of Gog and Magog [alone], or about all the wars in the Torah? [In
order to clarify this question,] the text says, 'And you will be delivered from
your enemies.' But which war is there, where Israel is delivered from it and
there is no subjugation that follows? The only such instance is the war of Gog
and Magog. Indeed, the prophet says
(Zekharya 14:3), 'God will go out and wage war against those nations.'
What is the meaning of the words, 'And God will be King over all the earth'
(ibid. 9)? Rabbi Akiva says: I
include [in this command] only [such situations as] war, blight, illness, and a
woman experiencing a difficult childbirth.
How do we conclude [that is applies] also to a ship being thrown about at
sea? The Torah states, 'By an enemy that oppresses you': i.e., for any type of
distress that may come upon the community."
We can understand Rabbi Akiva's
position: either he agrees with Ibn Ezra and Rambam, that the purpose of the
trumpets at a time of war is to cry out to God and to be delivered (where
according to Rambam's view the blast it itself the cry, and according to Ibn
Ezra the trumpet blast is meant to arouse our cry); or he agrees with what we
have said above that the trumpet blast recalls the nation's youthful devotion
in following God in the desert and accepting His Kingship and in accordance
with the first possibility that we noted above that the most appropriate
situation for recalling this memory is in a time of war, because of the danger
and distress, requiring that Israel's merit be recalled before God in order for
them to be delivered.
The opinion of the author of the
Beraita, however, is not clear.
What do Gog and Magog have to do with our parasha? How does he
arrive at the conclusion that the rather unspecific description "And if war
comes upon you in your land by an enemy that oppresses you" refers
specifically to this unique war?
The Tanna appears to interpret
the parasha in the same way that we have done: the teru'a recalls
the nation's youthful devotion in following God and accepting His Kingship but
along the lines of the second possibility noted above, i.e., that the blast
expresses faith in God's victory over His enemies; thus it is an appropriate
opportunity to give expression to God's Kingship over the nation from its
beginnings until the present time.
This commandment assumes that in every war that Israel will fight in its
land, Israel's victory will be assured.
Indeed, this is as it should be: the nation was meant to undertake one
single journey, signaled by the moving of the Ark, proceeding to conquer the
land and live a life of Divine service in peace and security, with God watching
over them and protecting them from every adversary. However, immediately after the verses
of, "And it was when the Ark journeyed
," the Torah records a series of sins
committed by the nation of Israel.
The state of redemption was thereby violated, allowing the concept of
exile to be reinvented, along with the possibility that God's salvation would
not necessarily always be absolute and assured. Therefore, the Sifri concludes, the
commandment is relevant only to a war in which victory is assured and that
will happen only at the end of days, when Israel will be worthy, in the war of
Gog and Magog.
The practical halakha is
codified by Rambam in accordance with Rabbi Akiva. Other Rishonim maintain that a public
fast day involves no requirement to sound the trumpets (see Rashi Rosh
Ha-shana 26b; Ramban Ta'anit 14a). Perhaps their opinions are based on that
of the Tanna Kama in the Sifri.
Obviously, our discussion here
concerning the trumpets opens the door to an understanding of the sounding of
the shofar on Rosh Ha-shana.
According to one opinion in the Gemara, at the end of Rosh
Ha-shana (34a), the unit discussing the trumpets serves as the model from
which we deduce the laws of sounding the shofar on Rosh Ha-shana. We shall not undertake a comprehensive
analysis of the significance of the shofar blasts on Rosh Ha-shana, but
it is worth raising one point that sheds some light on the
The Gemara in Rosh
Ha-shana 34b cites Rabba's famous words:
"Rabba said: The Holy One,
blessed be He, said: Declare before Me, on Rosh Ha-shana, the malkhuyot,
zikhoronot, and shofarot.
Malkhuyot that you may coronate Me over
Zikhronot that the memory of you may
come before Me for favor;
And how? Through the
The structure of this teaching
seems strange. Rabba starts by
establishing that there are three special blessings that dominate the Rosh
Ha-shana prayer service: they are known as "malkhuyot,"
"zikhronot," and "shofrot." Thereafter Rabba goes on to define the
subject of each of them. But when
he comes to "shofrot," instead of defining the subject and purpose of the
blessing, he simply notes that the blessings are uttered in the context of the
It would seem, therefore, that
the concept and significance of the shofar on Rosh Ha-shana parallels
precisely the concept and significance of the trumpets in our
parasha. In both cases we
are talking about an expression of God's Kingship, where this acknowledgment
recalls the nation's favor before God.
And in both cases there is an extra dimension to this recollection,
insofar as the instrument used for sounding the blast recalls to God an event
from Israel's history; an event whose invocation amplifies and intensifies the
connection between God and Israel.
In our parasha, the event that is recalled is Israel's journeying
at God's command in the generation of the desert. On Rosh Ha-shana we sound the shofar
to recall the event described in the blessing of "shofrot" the
revelation at Sinai, where "the sound of the shofar grew exceedingly
Translated by Kaeren