Today’s daf is sponsored by Rochelle Cheifetz in loving memory of her father Shragai Cohen, Shraga Feivel ben Avraham Ben-Zion Halevi, on the occasion of his 19th yartzeit. “He would be both bemused and proud that his daughter is learning daf. You are terribly missed” and also on the occasion of her maternal grandparents, Rav Moshe Mashbaum, Rav Moshe ben Rabbi Yehuda Leib, whose yartzeit is on the 4th of Kislev, and Tzippora Mashbaum, Chaya Tzipora bat Rabbi Yaakov Moshe, whose yartzeit is on the 23rd of Kislev.
According to one opinion, the verses of blowing the shofar on Yom Kippur of the Jubilee year teach us about why we blow a tekia before and after a tru’a. According to another opinion, it is derived from the verses about the trumpets in Bamidbar. Why does each one not hold by the other? From where is it derived that we blow three sets of tekia/tru’a/tekia blasts? Is it all from the Torah or are one or two of them rabbinic? The basis for our custom today of blow 30 blasts with different combinations of tekia/tru’a/shevarim/tekia is brought in the name of Rabbi Avahu as something he instituted in his community to consider all sorts of possibilities of what a tru’a is meant to be. Do the blasts need to be heard one after the other or can there be a break between them? Can one hear them all at the exact same time (meaning from 9 different people blowing simultaneously)? Does one have to hear them all from the same person? Are the shofar blasts and the blessings (malchuyot, zichronot and shofarot) all necessary – can one fill some without the others? Is there a difference in this issue between fast days and Rosh Hashanah? Does shofar have to be sounded with each of the blessings or can they be sounded separately? Is it the same for the community and for an individual? The Gemara establishes that hearing the shofar is more important than saying the blessings. There is a debate in the Mishna between Rabban Gamliel and the rabbis regarding individual prayer – is it necessary or can the chazan pray on behalf of the community? Each questions the others’ opinion – if it is not necessary, then why do individuals pray and if it is not, why does the chazan repeat the amida prayer? Some held that the rabbis agreed in the end with Rabban Gamliel that individuals do not need to pray if the chazan prays for them. But others disagree.
