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Thursday

י"ח אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

Thursday
י"ח אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

חיפוש בארכיון

Mitzvah 331) To blow the Shofar (Ram’s horn) on the day of atonement of the jubilee year

Parshas Behar

“On the day of atonement you shall make a shofar pass in all of your lands…and you shall proclaim freedom in the land for all of its inhabitants!” (Vayikra 25:9-10)

It is a positive commandment that one must blow the shofar on the day of atonement of the jubilee year, as it says “And you shall make a shofar pass… on the day of atonement you shall make a shofar pass in all of your lands…and you shall proclaim freedom in the land for all of its inhabitants!”. It is known that the purpose of this commandment is to proclaim and publicize the freedom of all the Jewish slaves, who receive their liberty at no cost.

Amongst the roots of this commandment are that it is well-known that the sound of the shofar arouses the hearts of people, be it for war or peace, and the idea of giving liberty to a slave who has served his master for a long period of time is extremely difficult for the master, and in order to provoke people to thinking about the issue, and to strengthen their hearts and to warn them about this obligation, we are commanded to blow the shofar. It also has the effect that the aforementioned people realize that it is something which applies all over the land and that everyone is doing it, which leads to a great stimulation to fulfil this obligation as there is nothing which motivates so much as the deeds of the general public. The slave himself, when hearing the sound of the shofar, will also be motivated to leave his beloved master, and by so doing will enable the commandment to be fulfilled, to return to being in the sole jurisdiction of the Master of all.

Amongst the laws of this commandment are that from the new year until the day of atonement the slaves were eating, drinking and rejoicing in their master’s houses, on the one hand they could not yet return home, and on the other hand the masters were not allowed to make them work, and once the day of atonement arrived the Beis Din would blow the shofar and the slaves would be free to return home. At the same time the fields return to their original owners.

This commandment applies in Eretz Yisrael at the period when the jubilee year existed. It is the responsibility of the Beis Din, and if they transgressed it and did not blow the shofar, even if the slaves went free and the fields were returned anyway, this commandment has been transgressed.