סדר ראש השנה שחל בשבת במקדש | הרב אליהו ובר

We are in the week of Rosh Hashanah. This week is the upcoming Shabbat. There is no weekly Torah portion. Our weekly portion is Rosh Hashanah. What do we read on Rosh Hashanah? The Gemara states that we read "And the Lord remembered Sarah." When saying this, what is special about the verse "And the Lord remembered Sarah"? That is where the reading begins. Because the Gemara says that on Rosh Hashanah, Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah were remembered. So in the Torah reading, we read "And the Lord remembered Sarah," and in the Haftarah, we read how the Lord remembered Hannah; so we read that the Holy One, Blessed be He, remembered Sarah, we read the... What? We don't read the verse that... We read about this matter of Hannah being remembered. Yes, we don't read the verse itself, perhaps we read the prayer of Hannah because it says "He will judge the earth," because it relates to the Day of Judgment. So we read the portion in the Torah. Now, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Gemara says we read the portion of the Binding [of Isaac]; it comes immediately afterward, that is the portion of the Binding. Between the portion of Sarah being remembered and the portion of the Binding, there is another small section where our father Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech, and it teaches us something, and perhaps it is also a lesson regarding the sacrifices, since this coming Shabbat... Yes, perhaps this coming Shabbat, since this is going to be a Shabbat that we hope will happen, a special order in the Holy Temple. Maybe we can describe a bit what a Rosh Hashanah that falls on Shabbat looks like in the Temple: First thing, we wake up in the morning like every day, for the morning service . What song is said for the morning service? Every day a weekday song is said. On Rosh Hashanah, a weekday song is also said, but this year, since it falls on Shabbat, they will of course say the Shabbat song, "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day," and finish. Then we ask: "Wait, is today Rosh Hashanah or not Rosh Hashanah?" We don't know. Is it Rosh Hashanah or not? We will see in a moment. Okay, we offer the additional sacrifices of Shabbat, we replace the loaves in the Temple in... In the Hall, we take out the pans, we burn the incense. Perhaps if the witnesses haven't arrived yet, we already pour the wine for the Shabbat additional sacrifices, and we sing the regular Shabbat song. We are in such a case. There will be one, there will be shofar blasts as well. Suddenly two witnesses arrive: " We saw the moon." Alternatively, it could be that the court decided to sanctify the month without seeing witnesses (this is a whole topic: when, if there is such a possibility, when and when does this possibility exist?). And then, the moment they announce: " Yes, today is the day of Rosh Hashanah, " suddenly everything changes. They go to bring two bulls, three bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs. We said there is a covenant with seven lambs, but here on Rosh Hashanah there is both Rosh Chodesh and Rosh Hashanah; we need seven lambs because it is the covenant of Rosh Chodesh and seven lambs for the covenant of Rosh Hashanah, so we bring all 14 lambs. We must first offer the additional sacrifices of Rosh Chodesh, and if there are goats for sin-offerings, after that we bring the two bulls, the ram, and the seven lambs , offer them as burnt offerings, bring the limbs to the altar, bring the meal offerings, and wait a little while with the wine libation. After that, they bring more sin offerings, they bring a bull for a burnt offering, a ram for a burnt offering, seven lambs, and sacrifice them; then they bring the wine, and they sing a long, special song in honor of this day, conducting the wine ceremony with musical instruments, trumpets, and everything. But there is something more on this day , something else special: Rosh Hashanah falls on the Sabbath, but in the Temple , they do not refrain from the shofar. In the Temple, they used to sound it, even if not in the rest of the country, in the Temple they sounded it. They bring a special shofar, coated—near the mouthpiece—coated with gold. Around him stand two priests—the priests are required for this sounding —and they stand with two trumpets. Two trumpets stand there and sound the shofar. Now, the regular shofar blast has a specific measurement. Not just a shofar blast, the blast must be long because the trumpets must be the same length as the blast, with the shofar extending and the trumpets ending. So the shofar needs to make an even longer blast. They live and sound the teruah ( broken blasts). Another blast, then a teruah. That is what we do today in our generation, we do three sets of sounds. Shevarim-Teruah, regular shevarim, teruah, but ah, that’s it, and then they sound the shofar and pray Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, and Shofarot, and in this way, in the Holy Temple, they crown the Holy One, blessed be He. May we merit this. I mentioned this on Thursday afternoon; it is written in the Gemara that at four times of the year the world is judged: Passover for the grain, Shavuot for the fruit of the tree, on Rosh Hashanah all who enter the world pass before the Creator, and on the Festival (Sukkot) they are judged for water. The Gemara says that is why we bring the Omer on Passover, because we are judged for the grain. We bring the two loaves on Shavuot because we are judged for the two loaves. We bring the water on Sukkot because we are judged for the water. What do we bring on Rosh Hashanah? We are the ones being judged. What do we bring? We bring ourselves. We come before the Lord and say Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, and Shofarot. We are the ones bringing it. We are the ones coming. That is what the Gemara says. We say Malkhuyot and Shofarot. Afterward, the Gemara mentions that we bring a shofar, corresponding to the shofar of the binding of Isaac on the altar, as if we are bringing Isaac himself. But the Gemara begins by saying that we say Malkhuyot, Zikhronot , and Shofarot, and we bring ourselves before Him. We say Malkhuyot, Zikhronot , and Shofarot; as we see, the Holy Temple is still destroyed, we didn't sacrifice the Omer, the Rosh Hashanah was different, maybe they also succeeded. The Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, or Shofarot. From this place, we also want to bring, with the help of the Holy One , blessed be He, He will help us to also rebuild. An altar to bring the additional offerings, but even if not —the Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, and Shofarot of this place on the upcoming Sabbath, how can one forgo them? We want this so much, before the Lord we will cry out, to come and pray before the Lord Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, and Shofarot, with trumpets and the sound of the shofar before the King, the Lord . In this way, the blasts of the trumpets and the gold-plated shofar will return to this place, and we will cry out for a special holiness. May this special Rosh Hashanah that falls on the Sabbath help us be saved from all our enemies by the merit of these prayers.