Q&A: Nullifying the Positive Commandment of Shofar on the Sabbath Out of Concern for Carrying
Nullifying the Positive Commandment of Shofar on the Sabbath Out of Concern for Carrying
Question
It seems that our current practice is self-contradictory.
On the one hand, every Sabbath we permit carrying by means of an eruv; that is, we do not worry that our streets are a public domain on the Torah level.
On the other hand, we nullify the positive commandment of shofar on the Sabbath lest someone carry it in a public domain.
In your opinion, should one, at least in principle, blow the shofar on the Sabbath?
Answer
This whole decree is very puzzling, even for their time. In my article on blowing shofar on the Sabbath, I explained that the concern that one might carry it in a public domain is not the real reason (the Babylonian Talmud does not fundamentally disagree with the Jerusalem Talmud).
Clearly, if that is the reason for the decree, then in principle one should blow; but that would have been true in their time as well.
Discussion on Answer
Rabbi Michi, and what about lulav on the Sabbath, where there is no derashah of the Jerusalem Talmud from “a memorial of teruah” as there is with shofar? Meaning, there all that remains is the “puzzling” reason?
Good question. Maybe there too there is some other reason. I don’t know.
I heard that in Jerusalem within the walls,
they take the four species on the Sabbath.
This difficulty is mentioned in Biur Halakhah 303:18, and no resolution is suggested there.
In my humble opinion, it stands to reason that many decrees of the Sages are aimed at the decree itself, and not at the technical concern that one may come to violate a prohibition. “A safeguard for My safeguard” means that by adding further prohibitions as a fence around a Torah prohibition, they strengthen the severity of the Torah prohibition in the eyes of the public.
It may be assumed that carrying was a prohibition in which many people stumbled, both because it was not perceived as a true labor (“an inferior labor”) and because it is easy to forget and carry; see Jeremiah chapter 17 and Nehemiah chapter 13, where their rebuke regarding Sabbath desecration focused mainly on carrying burdens. Apparently for that reason the Sages decreed the nullification of such important and central positive commandments as shofar and lulav, so that the decree itself would instill in the public the gravity of the prohibition of carrying on the Sabbath.
The custom in many places in Jerusalem is to blow on the Sabbath,
because in the “province” they did not enact the decree, and “province” means Jerusalem, certainly from any place where one can see the Temple Mount ground.
In one place they also seated a religious court of three and blew before them
(and afterward they made kiddush and all was well).
The problem is that I moved away from Jerusalem,
and when it falls on the Sabbath, who will blow for me?