Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi's shiur about the Chabad custom in blowing the shofar (Elul 5773)

00:01 Speaker 1 After the rabbi was here, I thought it might be worth looking it up inside the Shulchan Aruch, to see what the issues are and how we can do it according to our custom. Since you’re used to sitting comfortably, I’d like to sit comfortably too. And you agreed to go a little further into the text. I want to say that, in truth, we don’t find the required length of a tekiah in the Torah. A tekiah is a plain sound, but how long does it have to be? We don’t find that. It doesn’t explicitly say how long a tekiah is. Likewise, the length of the shevarim isn’t stated explicitly either; rather, we learn it from the teruah. I’ll explain in a moment. The starting point is the teruah. What is a teruah? A teruah could be a creaking sound. It’s, it’s, it’s “chu, chu, chu”—all sorts of things. The point is that it’s a sound. But what is it? What does it sound like? So it sounds close to—

01:17 Speaker 2 Like the teruah.

01:18 Speaker 1 Huh?

01:18 Speaker 2 Like the teruah.

01:19 Speaker 1 Huh?

01:19 Speaker 2 That’s what the Alter Rebbe says: the tekiah is like the teruah.

01:22 Speaker 1 Yes, it’s like the teruah, no question. But the tekiah itself isn’t specified. We learn it from the teruah. But what is the required length of the teruah? And what does the tekiah sound like? What kind of sound? There could be several kinds. You know yourself: you can have “bo-bo-bo,” “bo-bo,” “du-du-du.” So it says in the Yerushalmi that its measure is three: “tu, tu, tu.” And “tu, tu, tu” means “tu, tu, tu”—not “bo-bo-bo,” not “bo-bo-bo,” not “bo-bo-bo,” but “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu.” That’s what the teruah sounds like. But there’s something else. You know that when we say “tu, tu,” we mean “tu, tu.” “Tu, tu” is two sound-units. “Tu, tu, tu” is three sound-units. That’s our starting point here. In other words, one such utterance is called a sound-unit. Now what does that tell us? Yes, the required length of a tekiah is like that of a teruah, because the required length of a teruah was stated in the chapter. The required length of a tekiah written in the Torah—what does that refer to there? Because the required length of a teruah was stated in the chapter. Once the length of a teruah was stated in the chapter, the length of a tekiah was stated there too. Where? Where does the Torah state the required length of a teruah? So he says: the length of a teruah was stated in the chapter, because it is a sound of groaning. Teruah means three sobs. In the preceding chapter, the first chapter, we read about Sisera: “The mother of Sisera sobbed.” Sisera’s mother—where do we find an explanation of teruah? Sobs. So we see what teruah means. That’s how we know it. Sisera’s mother, “The mother of Sisera sobbed”—she cried. How did she cry? There are two opinions. One opinion says she cried with sighs. Another explains that it was... one says it was wailing. There are sighs and there is wailing. What’s the difference between wails and sighs? A wail is a short sound; a sigh is a longer sound.

03:44 Speaker 1 But again, what does “longer” mean? How much longer? We know a sigh is longer than a wail. A wail is certainly a short sound, the shortest sound there is, but it is still a sound-unit. So now what? How do we know what a teruah is? How long is a teruah? So he says this: the required length of a teruah was stated in the chapter, because it is a sound of groaning. As for the teruah itself—“The mother of Sisera sobbed”—when she wailed, it wasn’t just one sound. When a person wails, they make several sounds. A person can sigh once, but when they wail, they generally make several sounds. So he says: what is the required length? Our Sages wrote that the required length of a teruah is three sobs.

04:40 Speaker 6 Here’s the mezuzah.

04:42 Speaker 1 So it isn’t. And then we begin—

04:44 Speaker 6 Mezuzah.

04:45 Speaker 1 [unclear]. The first opinion in the Gemara mentions [unclear]. That is called terumitin. In other words, what have I understood from this now? What is the required length of a teruah? It’s “tu, tu, tu” three times. That is the required length of a teruah. Now, according to the opinion that says the required length of a teruah is three terumitin, we already know what a tekiah is. When we say that the required length of a tekiah is like three terumitin, like the length of a teruah, that means the tekiah must last as long as three sound-units. What’s the difference? This is one long tekiah, and those are three short sound-units. “Tu, tu, tu” is “tuu,” but that “tuu” lasts long enough to contain three sound-units. In other words, here’s what we have. We’ve established that a teruah consists of sound-units. What is its required length? Three sound-units. Consequently, I have a measure for the tekiah, because I have a measure for the teruah. Now this is where it starts to come into practice. And again, what does this mean? It depends on whether the teruah is shevarim or a teruah; accordingly, the tekiah becomes longer too. But first let’s skip to the main point. What does it mean? Let’s look here. According to this, the required length of a tekiah equals that of a teruah, and a teruah is three sound-units. So the tekiah has to last no less than three sound-units. Now what about shevarim? How long are the shevarim? We know shevarim are in between a tekiah and a teruah. But how long are they? It doesn’t say. Except that here, in the middle, the Gemara says the length is that of three medium shevarim. In other words, when you have to blow three—

07:05 Speaker 1 Shevarim: three medium sound-units. What does “medium” mean? Again, he doesn’t explain, but it means somewhere between a tekiah and a teruah. A teruah, we said, according to this, is one sound-unit. A tekiah is one long sound lasting three sound-units. So a shever is medium: it falls between the tekiah and the teruah. And here there’s a lengthy discussion of how the sound should be from its beginning.

07:40 Speaker 7 I—teruah is three—

07:53 Speaker 1 Just a moment, just a moment. Let me first tell you what the Alter Rebbe says, even in the tashrat sequence, at the end of section 5: Even in the tashrat sequence, a single shever should not be long enough to be—“two,” it says in parentheses, “two, three, nine”—one should not prolong a single shever to the length of three sound-units. Why? Because if you make a tekiah last three sound-units, then if you blow a shever for three sound-units, it already counts as a tekiah. Where? In the tarat sequence. In the tarat sequence, where you say that the whole teruah is three sound-units, the tekiah is the same length as the teruah—three sound-units. So if you prolong a shever for three sound-units, you should preferably avoid doing that even in the tashat sequence, where, by this calculation, the tekiah lasts twelve sound-units. Nevertheless, it’s best not to do it. So that means, ideally, not making the shever two sound-units long. Ah, that depends on the different versions of the text—“the length of two or three terumitin.” So how long should it be? Not three, but how many? How many can it be? The shever gets squeezed in. One sound-unit is a teruah; three sound-units is already a tekiah. So it has to be shorter. How much shorter? In fact, we haven’t yet reached the second opinion. I want to say that the Tzemach Tzedek writes in Chiddushei HaShas: this is Rashi’s opinion. Up to this point, this is Rashi’s opinion. One must take care, because the main ruling follows Rashi’s view, and therefore one must take care to make the shever somewhat shorter. But he doesn’t say how much shorter either. Somewhat shorter. What do we learn from that? That ideally a shever should not last three sound-units; it should be shorter than three. He doesn’t say how much shorter. Why? So that, again, it won’t be—if it’s three sou—if,

09:53 Speaker 1 If the shever lasts three sound-units, then it is already a tekiah. That’s it. After that, in...

10:01 Speaker 8 Because it lasts as long as three shevarim.

10:02 Speaker 1 What, what?

10:03 Speaker 8 The tekiah lasts as long as three shevarim.

10:05 Speaker 1 That means that, ideally, one should be careful even about this. Since a sound that long counts as a tekiah in the sequence of Tashat, ideally one should be careful with every shever, even in Tashat, not to make it that long. Because a sound of three beats counts as a tekiah in the sequence of Tarat, as we said. Yes, that too. There are a lot of details here; don’t get confused. “Some say”—the second opinion is Tosafos’—that the measure of a yevavah is not one beat but three beats. Now, when I say that a teruah is three yevavos, that makes nine beats. In other words, according to this view, a shever is much longer than according to the view stated at the end. According to that view, a shever lasting three beats already counts as a tekiah. According to this second opinion, when does it count as a tekiah? When it lasts nine beats. If it is shorter than nine beats, it is not a tekiah. That is Tosafos’ opinion. So we have a disagreement between Rashi and Tosafos. According to one view, a yevavah is one beat; according to Tosafos, it is three beats. A teruah must contain three yevavos, making nine beats. According to the view stated at the end, it is three beats; according to Tosafos, nine beats.

11:29 Speaker 8 Only two—that’s for the shevarim. [unclear]

11:33 Speaker 1 I wanted to [unclear]. But in any case, we’ll soon see how this works out for us in the end, according to our custom in practice. I don’t know; I can’t find even a hint of it. But once you start looking closely into this subject... I want to move on.

11:53 Speaker 8 Explain what a shever and a teruah are.

11:54 Speaker 1 What? What?

11:55 Speaker 8 Explain what a shever and a teruah are.

11:57 Speaker 1 What do you mean?

11:59 Speaker 8 A teruah—what does it consist of?

12:01 Speaker 1 So a teruah is three beats.

12:03 Speaker 8 And shevarim?

12:05 Speaker 1 A shever is shorter. How much shorter? It doesn’t... I’m saying that, according to the explanation here at the end of section 5, it has to be less than three beats. But how long is it? We know it has to be more than one beat, because otherwise it’s a teruah. So you know it has to fall somewhere in between. How much? The expression used here several times is that a shever is an intermediate beat. When we say “in between,” the simple meaning, seemingly, is two beats: three beats is a tekiah, and a teruah is one beat. A shever, being in the middle, is two beats. So it has to be of intermediate length. In practice, that could be two beats—not precisely two beats, but somewhere in between.

12:57 Speaker 8 According to the first opinion.

12:59 Speaker 1 According to the first opinion. According to the second opinion, it is three beats. Now, in section 7 the Alter Rebbe writes: “By law, one should be stringent according to both opinions. In practice, one should be stringent according to both opinions. That is, the tekiyos in Tashrat should be extended to the length of eighteen terumitin, etc., and the tekiyos in Tashat should be no shorter than nine terumitin, etc. And each shever should be extended to three terumitin.” The great Torah scholars struggled with this. Why? We want to fulfill our obligation. The instruction here seems to be to be stringent according to Tosafos. But if you are stringent according to Tosafos and blow a shever lasting three beats, you have not fulfilled your obligation according to Rashi. According to Rashi, we said it should not last three beats. So how can you do it? After all, when we establish a practice, we want to satisfy all opinions. Right? Seemingly it has to be one or the other. Either you blow for less than three beats, satisfying Rashi but not Tosafos, who requires three beats; or you blow for three beats, which does not satisfy Rashi. How can you satisfy both Rashi and Tosafos at once? Yet the Alter Rebbe says just the opposite: be stringent according to both...

14:25 Speaker 9 The stringency.

14:26 Speaker 1 What is the stringency here? If you are stringent according to Tosafos, you haven’t fulfilled your obligation according to Rashi. The stringency is that the blower has to make a greater effort: three beats. There are a few more fine points here, and perhaps we’ll discuss them later. I just don’t want to bore you. In practice, among Ashkenazim—perhaps not among Sephardim—there were two customs for the sound of a shever. In Austria-Hungary, a shever sounded “tu, tu, tu, tu.” In Russia and Lithuania, it sounded “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu.” What is behind this? In simple terms, when you say “tu,” that is two beats. “Tu, tu, tu”—two beats. “Tu, tu” is three beats. One custom followed Tosafos, and the other followed Rashi. We said that according to Rashi, ideally a shever should not last three beats but less—two beats. So they would blow “tu,” with its two components, “t” and “u.” That satisfies Rashi but not Tosafos. Those who blew “tu, tu” had three beats. How, then, do they satisfy Rashi? According to Rashi it must be less than three beats, whereas here we have [unclear]. But what have we done? That is the simple explanation, but it doesn’t actually say how to do it. What is the form of the sound? There is no musical notation here. How do you blow it? What does a shever sound like? When you study both approaches carefully, though, you can see it. The first approach, Rashi’s, is the custom of Hungary and [unclear]: “tu, tu, tu,” two beats. The custom in England and Russia, “tu-u, tu-u,” follows Tosafos. In “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu,” each “tu-u” has three beats.

16:38 Speaker 1 So they followed Tosafos. But the Pri Megadim writes [unclear] according to Tosafos. If you have fulfilled your obligation according to Tosafos and according to Rashi, how can both be true at once? You have to give it a name. What? [unclear] the mitzvah of shofar [unclear]. He explained to you what Tosafos and Rashi say. If he rules according to Tosafos, then what does [unclear] mean? He said [unclear]: he stated the law according to Tosafos, not according to Rashi. What does [unclear] mean? In other words, when you put it that way, it sounds as though Rashi’s view is included too, and he is being stringent according to Tosafos. But according to Rashi, you don’t have to do it that way. And as for how the melody begins, it went like this. I admit I’m no great musician, but I’ve discussed this with several people who study musical notation and melody. In a tekiah, you move between two notes: “tu” and “u.” It isn’t just “tu” or just “u”; it’s “tu-u.” “Tu, tu-u, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu.” But it all revolves around “tu-u, tu-u, tu-u, tu-u.” That, our Sages established, is the form of the tekiah. But what if I hear only “tu”? It’s a “tu.” He says that “tu, tu” is “tu, tu.” But the tekiah suggests that—so apparently even a tekiah has two sounds. Yes, yes, that’s right. Maybe that’s easier. It’s just that, you know, I can’t manage it. Two sounds in a tekiah—which “tu” and “u”? Right. But seemingly, once you look into it a little, it goes like this: you blow “tu.”

18:38 Speaker 1 Tu, tu. The “o” is a continuation of the “tu.” When you sound an “o-tu,” you use your tongue to stop the “o” and begin the “tu.” Right? Right? That’s how it works. When you say “tu, tu,” you have a “tu” that continues as one “tu.” The “o” doesn’t count as another “tu.” A tekiah is “tu, tu.” I’m not talking about the Yemenite approach, which says that a tekiah should have no “tu” at all—just “o.” But according to what we heard from the Rebbe, and what has always been customary among us, a tekiah was always “tu, tu,” not “o,” but “tu, tu, tu.” It begins with “tu” and continues with “o.” But what does “short” mean? A tekiah is long, so it has a “tu” and an “o.” When you say “tu,” it’s “tu” and “o”; the “o” is a continuation of the “tu.” “Tu, tu; tu, tu.” You have a “tu” and an “o” as one continuous sound, or “tu.” That’s already another sound: you’ve stopped and started a new one. So seemingly, one could say that this custom of [unclear], who sounded “tu, tu,” follows not only Tosafos. It’s not only Tosafos, because Rashi’s approach is here too: “tu” is two sounds, but in one continuous sound. Seemingly, that is a short tekiah according to Rashi. They just added another “tu.” In other words, there’s a “tu,” two beats. As we said, according to Rashi, a shever lasts two beats. So they added another “tu” to make three beats, satisfying Tosafos too, who say it has to be three beats. Understood?

20:43 Speaker 10 Why is that according to Rashi?

20:44 Speaker 1 Huh?

20:44 Speaker 10 Why is that according to Rashi?

20:46 Speaker 1 “Tu” is Rashi. I added another “tu”; that’s Tosafos.

20:49 Speaker 10 Rashi doesn’t need the addition.

20:52 Speaker 1 So seemingly, some wanted to explain “tu, tu” that way: one “tu” satisfies Rashi, and you add another beat for Tosafos. But it seems difficult to say that you can rely on this as fulfilling Tosafos, because then, according to Rashi, it’s an interruption. Rashi doesn’t need that extra “tu.” In other words, if you understand it this way, according to Rashi the first “tu” is the shever. Adding another “tu” afterward doesn’t lengthen the shever, because it’s already a different sound. But then, seemingly, it’s an interruption. If you don’t need it, it’s an interruption. So what are you saying? What is it, then? One might suggest that the meaning of... I think perhaps this is where our custom comes from. Our custom isn’t to make all the sounds “tu, tu, tu,” but “o-tu, o-tu, o-tu.” And what lies behind the form of—don’t ask me about the various customs today, which I don’t know. Everyone writes something different about what happened after the Baal Shem Tov, and it’s impossible to know anything about that period. I think it was very difficult, but in any case, from what I heard was customary, it was “o-tu, o-tu, o-tu.” You sound “o-tu, o-tu, o-tu.” Each shever has that form. Very good. We said—and what about David Turgeman[unclear]? Now look at the passage: “As a matter of halachah, one should be stringent in a Torah obligation... in the sounds of Tashrat... Kashrak... and lengthen each shever slightly, to the measure of three beats.” What does that mean? That he should lengthen it slightly, to the measure of three beats. He doesn’t write—

23:05 Speaker 1 He could simply have written, “Lengthen it by three terumitin,” or “Lengthen it slightly, to the measure of three terumitin.” What I want you to see is that seemingly, this also follows Tosafos, who require three terumitin, but it doesn’t have to be precisely three. Two and three-quarters is also good; that too is called three terumitin. “Lengthen it slightly, to the measure of three terumitin.” What does that mean? When you sound “o-tu, o-tu, o-tu, o-tu”—let’s think carefully. The “o” is not two sounds; it’s a sound lasting three-quarters of a beat. When you sound “o-tu, tu, tu,” those are three sounds. The “o-tu” has a light emphasis, as it were. “O-tu” is a sound—something like half a sound, half, or three—an eighth of a sound, three-quarters of a sound. So it’s “o-tu, o-tu, o-tu.” That’s how it works out. We said that according to Rashi, we need two sounds, two beats. When you sound “o-tu”—and why does the Alter Rebbe use that wording? What does “lengthen” mean? The restrictive approach would seemingly be to shorten it. So the Alter Rebbe says to lengthen it, but not to three beats; it should be less than three. How? By sounding “o-tu, o-o.” That’s a beat lasting three-quarters. The “o” is three-quarters of a beat. Then you add another “tu,” bringing it to two and three-quarters. What’s the point here? This is where we’ll explain it. The Alter Rebbe says that according to Rashi, the shever is—he could have written simply that a shever is two beats, two and a half beats. There’s “three-quarters,” and “intermediate between a tekiah and a teruah.” What does “between” mean? What does that mean? Is the Alter Rebbe the only one who uses this expression, “between”? There is another expression like it: a shever is an intermediate sound.

25:06 Speaker 1 An intermediate sound—what does “intermediate” mean? What does it mean? We’ve learned Tanya: we have a beinoni, a tzaddik and a rasha. What do the tzaddik and the rasha have to do with each other? They’re opposites. And a beinoni has to be in the middle, connected in some way to both the tzaddik and the rasha. That means a shever also has something of a tekiah. What does that mean? It has something of both a tekiah and a teruah. We said that a tekiah is made up of two sounds, two beats: “o-tu” and “o.” We find “tu” in “tu, tu, tu,” and we find “o” in a tekiah. And why is there—when we now begin with a shever according to the custom of Poland and—according to the custom that [unclear] said, they sound “tu, tu, tu, tu.” So that tekiah has both beats, “tu” and “o.” Now let’s consider what we have here. This shever, in the form of “tu,” is intermediate between a tekiah and a teruah. A teruah is “tu, tu, tu”; a tekiah is “tu,” then “tu” and “o”—a long “tu” and “o.” A shever has both “tu” and “o,” so it is intermediate between a tekiah and a teruah. But... it has only two beats, not three. Yet why is it intermediate between a tekiah and a teruah? According to the Radbaz’s approach, or the practice in Poland and Lithuania, where they sound “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu,” the shever has no resemblance at all to a tekiah. “Tu, tu” has no resemblance to a tekiah; it’s based entirely on the teruah: “tu, tu, tu, tu.” It has “tu” twice, only longer. So why does it

27:26 Speaker 1 work out this way? We said that a shever has two beats. A tekiah has “tu”; in a shever, according to the Polish and Lithuanian custom—according to that Polish custom—there is again a long, short “tu,” while a teruah is “tu, tu, tu,” only “tu.” So the shever is intermediate because it has both “tu” and “o.” The “o” is just shorter than the “o” in a tekiah. When you sound “o-tu”—when you sound “o-tu,” not “tu” but “o-tu”—it has both beats. The “o” is the “o” of a tekiah, and the “tu” is also found in a tekiah. A tekiah has a “tu,” after all. You’re just doing it in the opposite order: not “tu,” but “o-tu.” What’s the reasoning behind this approach? If you say “o-tu,” then the question we raised earlier no longer applies. When we sound “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu,” you’ve already sounded a “tu,” so why do you need the last “tu”? According to Rashi, it’s an interruption. But when you sound “o-tu,” it’s not an interruption. You need the “tu” even according to Rashi, because, as we said, a shever is intermediate: it needs both an “o” beat and a “tu” beat. Understood? So when you sound it in the opposite order, “o-tu,” the “tu” isn’t an interruption, because you need it according to Rashi. You have the “o,” which is a tekiah.

29:02 Speaker 11 Listen—two, not three.

29:04 Speaker 1 The “o” is one and three-quarters, as we said. And the “tu” is—

29:08 Speaker 11 The “tu” is...

29:08 Speaker 1 So how much is that? Two and three-quarters. And here, I think this is the meaning. If you look closely now, you’ll see it. I want to add something else that’s very interesting. When the siddur presents Tosafos’s approach, it goes more like this: the measure of a tekiah—the measure is three terumitin, and the measure of a teruah is three whimpers totaling nine terumitin, and the measure of a tekiah is also nine terumitin. The measure of a shever, certainly... Look, look: here we see that the measure of a shever isn’t clear, except that it is certainly shorter than a tekiah, which is at least nine terumitin. From this, he says that each shever must be extended to at least three terumitin, so that the three shevarim together won’t be less than nine terumitin. Why all this elaboration? What he’s saying is that each shever must last at least three terumitin, three sounds, so that the whole teruah will contain nine terumitin. Everyone understands that if you say each shever has to have three terumitin, then three whimpers give you nine—uh, nine terumitin. But with the three shevarim, the insistence on three terumitin isn’t because each shever itself requires three sounds; it’s so that together they add up to nine. Across all three shevarim together, there must be nine sounds. So you’re saying that even if each sound were two and three-quarters... But it’s possible to have three times two and three-quarters. How much is that?

30:48 Speaker 12 How much is three times two and three-quarters?

30:50 Speaker 1 How much?

30:51 Speaker 12 Eight and a quarter.

30:51 Speaker 1 Eight and a quarter! If you add one more sound, you’ll have nine.

30:57 Speaker 12 Nine.

30:58 Speaker 1 You’ll have nine.

30:59 Speaker 12 Ah, okay.

31:00 Speaker 1 You’ll have nine. That’s where the Rebbe came and introduced the idea of adding another sound. Otherwise, it’s either “oh-tu” or “oh-tu-tu.” Not “oh”—“tu.” So what are you saying? You have nine sounds altogether. In other words, this is what the Alter Rebbe says: there must be at least nine sounds. Because in practice, someone might come along and say that a shever doesn’t need three sounds. It can also be two and something, as on the other side—something shorter. But what happens if we now add another sound? We’ll have nine sounds. Do you see what I mean?

31:43 Speaker 12 That sound is separate.

31:44 Speaker 1 What?

31:45 Speaker 12 It isn’t part of the shever itself; it’s an addition, as it were.

31:48 Speaker 1 I didn’t pause. I didn’t pause. No. So if I didn’t stop in the middle, I’ll continue with the three... of the shever.

31:55 Speaker 12 In the same breath.

31:55 Speaker 1 In the same breath, yes. In the same breath. So this is what emerges in practice. When we examine this custom closely, it turns out that we’ve fulfilled the obligation according to every opinion. On one hand, we sounded “oh,” which follows Rashi. That third sound is more than... it’s more than the one sound required by Torah law. We sounded... we, uh, added the “tu” to the “oh,” because according to Rashi the “tu” is needed: the shever must consist of two sounds, both “tu” and “oh.” But we had only two in each of the three, so we added another “tu,” bringing the total to nine. So now we understand what [unclear] means. The Rashbi does indeed say [unclear], in line with Tosafos’s reasoning. Because in fact, once you... you can fulfill the obligation according to both opinions together. You can sound... that is, “oh-tu, oh-tu, oh-tu, oh-tu.” So it turns out that this also follows Rashi: there’s the short blast, “oh,” and also the “tu” required according to Rashi. Then, by adding one more sound, we have nine sounds altogether.

33:15 Speaker 13 But in the additional section four, he says it was customary not to do that.

33:19 Speaker 1 Where?

33:21 Speaker 13 In the concluding statement.

33:22 Speaker 1 No, that’s something different. There he says that...

33:28 Speaker 13 Yes, yes, each time. Yes, yes.

33:30 Speaker 1 He makes three shevarim and another shever, but he doesn’t add a sound.

33:35 Speaker 13 Meaning, in two breaths.

33:36 Speaker 1 Even in one breath, but there he adds an entire shever. And why is that, really? Come, let’s examine that carefully afterward. What he does bring is that according to Rashi, one should not add to the three shevarim. He didn’t add to the three shevarim. Why didn’t he write that? He should have said—when bringing one approach from Tosafos—that one should not add to the three shevarim. What it says about adding to the three shevarim is only according to Rashi. According to Tosafos, you can add to the three shevarim. Why? What’s the difference? What’s the explanation? If there’s a reason not to add another shever to the shevarim, why does that apply according to Rashi? Why only according to Rashi? The explanation is this: it goes to the heart of the disagreement between Rashi and Tosafos. What does “shever” mean? What does “shever” mean? According to Rashi, a shever means a broken tekiah. This follows what we said earlier. A shever is a broken tekiah. We said that a tekiah has two sounds, “tu” and “oh.” So that’s a deep “tu.” A shever... you take that tekiah and break it into three, into three parts. After all, a tekiah has to be as long as three... as three teruos, right? You break that tekiah into three parts, and each third is a shever. So if you now add another one, there’s no reason to add it, because you’re adding to the... because that’s what “shever” means. You take a tekiah and break it into three. According to Tosafos, a shever means a broken sound. Why? Tosafos says: what is a teruah? Three broken sounds. According to Rashi, each one is just a single sound. A single sound. So there’s no break within it. “Oh.” What break is there? According to Tosafos, the sound itself is...

35:40 Speaker 1 broken. But according to Rashi, the sound itself isn’t broken. So what is broken? The tekiah. You take the tekiah and divide it into three. So the Alter Rebbe says not to add another one—another sound, another shever—because the whole point is to divide the tekiah into three parts. Has anyone read this? Where did he find that this is an ancient custom? Huh? Where did he find that doing it this way is an ancient custom? Where is that written? What’s the source? Rabbi [unclear]? That’s a stretch, a real stretch. I’ll tell you one thing: nowhere in the Shulchan Aruch are these two customs presented. But there is one place where you can find something fairly explicit. I’m talking about section 17. There are two opinions about how to sound the tashrat: in one breath or in two breaths. Right. And even according to the opinion that it should be sounded in one breath, you have to pause in the middle. That’s what he writes. [unclear] That’s what he says about tashrat—tashrat sounded [unclear]. According to [unclear], sounding it orally goes “tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu.” That implies you have to pause in the middle and begin again separately. You sound “tu tu tu tu tu tu.” If you follow the custom of [unclear] and sound “tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu,” then the final “tu” sounds like the beginning of the shever. Basically, that’s what we wrote: you have to pause. So that seems to follow from here; it’s one of the foundations for this. It’s written plainly there in the Shulchan Aruch, and [unclear]. But this implies—there are, after all, several ways to understand it—that the meaning is [unclear].

37:40 Speaker 1 He is discussing [unclear], following that approach, in which the form of the shever is “tu tu tu tu tu tu.” But on the other hand, he also cites the Ran, who writes that each of the three sounds can be two and a bit. So how does that work? And how can you fulfill the obligation with “a bit”? I think this is where the Chabad custom of sounding “oh-tu, oh-tu,” and changing the shever, comes in. Not “oh-tu,” but “oh-tu.” That way we also have his approach and the approach of [unclear]. So there are two sounds, two and two-thirds sounds, and we add another sound. That’s it: nine sounds.

38:26 Speaker 3 What does that mean—that it’s simply not customary to do it that way? What does “simply” mean here?

38:30 Speaker 1 That “simply” comes later; it’s a long discussion. That’s why they would sound “tu, tu,” but not “tu.” When you add just one sound.

38:45 Speaker 4 How does that fit with “ganuchei ganach”?

38:47 Speaker 1 What?

38:48 Speaker 4 So how does it fit...

38:49 Speaker 1 What?

38:50 Speaker 4 So how does “ganuchei ganach” fit with this?

38:52 Speaker 1 Right. That’s just it: you sound “oh-tu, oh-tu, oh-tu, tu tu tu tu.” You have to pause. You sound “oh-tu, oh-tu, oh-tu.” So the last sound, the “tu” of the shever, could sound like... like the beginning of the teruah. But if you sound it according to the usual custom, uh, then why would it matter? Why would you need to pause?

39:22 Speaker 4 It’s also the beginning of a shever.

39:23 Speaker 1 What?

39:24 Speaker 4 It’s also the beginning of a shever.

39:25 Speaker 1 How? “Tu tu tu.” You finish, you finish with “oh.”

39:29 Speaker 4 Ah, okay.

39:30 Speaker 1 So why would you need to pause?

39:49 Speaker 3 And here, when you bring the tekiah or the shevarim closer together...

39:52 Speaker 1 Well? What?

39:56 Speaker 3 When you begin the tekiah or the...

39:57 Speaker 1 There are all kinds of details here—two points. He just writes something else. How did he blow... how do many people begin a shever? Some say that the Rashbi—I don’t remember exactly—that the first shever starts with “tu” and not “oo.” The last two shevarim definitely...

40:17 Speaker 3 Those two start with “oo.”

40:19 Speaker 1 They say the first shever starts with “tu.” I don’t know. How does that work with our calculation? After all, what is it—let’s go over it again. It could very well be right. Why? Because we need to add a “tu” at the end. The Maharsham adds it at the beginning, so there will be nine sound units. Do you understand?

40:43 Speaker 3 So you can’t hold the rope—

40:44 Speaker 1 But you can hold the rope at both ends. “Tu, tu, tu,” or “tu, tu, tu, tu.” So—

40:52 Speaker 3 Now, with a tekiah, a plain tekiah: does it begin with “tu,” or does it begin with “oo”?

40:58 Speaker 1 No, so that’s what...

40:59 Speaker 3 That’s what...

41:00 Speaker 1 That’s what comes out of it. Now, a tekiah begins with “tu.”

41:05 Speaker 3 With “tu.”

41:05 Speaker 1 With “tu,” and continues with “oo.”

41:07 Speaker 3 It simply depends on whether, at the beginning of the tekiah, the tongue touches the lips or not.

41:11 Speaker 1 I’ve seen that the Briskers are particular to begin specifically with “oo,” not “tu.” Although... they certainly claim that Reb Chaim and everyone blew it as we do: “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu.” But they write a lot of “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu.” That’s a shever of [unclear], because there are no [unclear] there.

41:32 Speaker 3 So a tekiah needs to begin with “tu.”

41:33 Speaker 1 How else do they explain it? How do they explain why they blew “tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu”? Because there need to be nine sound units. So if you blow “tu, tu, tu,” that’s a teruah. If you blow “tu, tu, tu,” yes, then it’s neither a shever nor a tekiah. That’s the distinction between a shever and a tekiah. But they didn’t get into the calculation of the sound units—how many there need to be in each shever.

42:03 Speaker 3 What difference does it make whether we do “tu” or “oo”?

42:05 Speaker 1 What?

42:06 Speaker 3 What difference does it make for a tekiah whether we start with “tu” or with “oo”? With a tekiah, the order doesn’t matter.

42:15 Speaker 1 No, I’m saying that this is the meaning of the Mordechai: the shever is between them. The shever is derived from both of them, because it resembles both a tekiah and a teruah. How? Because both the tekiah and the—because the tekiah has “tu,” and the teruah also has “tu.” It’s just that the tekiah has— the tekiah has “oo” and “oo,” while the shever has “tu-oo.” That is the view of [unclear].

42:39 Speaker 3 So what difference does it make if we make the tekiah “oo”? Then the shevarim will have the “oo” of the tekiah and the “tu” of the teruah. If we begin the tekiah with “oo,” without “tu,” what difference does it make? The shevarim will still be between the two. They have the “tu” from the teruah and the “oo” from the tekiah.

43:00 Speaker 1 So then what should a shever be? Similar to a tekiah and similar to a teruah. It has to resemble both of them.

43:05 Speaker 3 Well, then it has “oo-tu”—it has the “oo” and the “tu.”

43:08 Speaker 1 But it has to resemble both, right? If you say that both the tekiah and the shevarim have “tu,” then you’re saying the shever resembles both: it has the “tu” that they both have, and the “oo” of the tekiah. But if the tekiah has “oo” and the teruah doesn’t, then it isn’t between them.

43:26 Speaker 5 How would the rabbi resolve that?

43:29 Speaker 3 I don’t know.

43:37 Speaker 5 So a tekiah—a tekiah needs to begin. In practice, a tekiah needs to begin with “tuuu.”

43:43 Speaker 1 Yes.

43:44 Speaker 5 Now, in general, someone simply... And at the end, does it need to be cut off, or is it like many people...? I mean, with a plain tekiah, yes? It begins. Should you do it like this: “tuuu,” the way everyone knows, letting it trail off at the end, or “tuuu,” cutting it off in the middle with your tongue? The end of the tekiah.

44:07 Speaker 1 What happens with the tongue? The tongue stops it, while you’re still putting force into the shofar.

44:17 Speaker 5 Why? What am I doing?

44:20 Speaker 3 The same thing with the tongue—

44:20 Speaker 5 I stopped it with my tongue. Someone told me that when most people do it that way, at the end there’s always a sort of little groan that isn’t part of the tekiah, like a—

44:36 Speaker 1 I don’t know. I need to think about it. But in any case, it seems that the lip—or the lip itself—follows this approach of making a break between the...

44:51 Speaker 5 Does the moustache hair separate one side of the moustache from the other?

44:56 Speaker 1 Could you explain...

44:57 Speaker 5 That’s a question for Michael.

44:58 Speaker 1 No, it isn’t important.

45:06 Speaker 3 A subject like [unclear].

45:20 Speaker 1 [Unclear]. The sound at the end of the break—you made it from the end; you didn’t add to it. Wait, wait, wait. And if you do [unclear] twice, is that a problem? That one needs to have a sound; it doesn’t have it. The length is fine, but it needs to be too short. That’s fine, do that one. So is that the same one again? A short one—is that the same one again? The last one at the end—is that the same one again at the end? No, not that one yet, just this one. Just this one. Now you did an eighth, a quarter, but maybe do it slowly, do it slowly. No, not together, not together. Wait, what’s next? At the end it shouldn’t make two sounds; it has more than one sound unit. No, you start with “oo,” and the other two with “tu”? If you do it that way, the first three-quarters are one sound, and the quarter is another. No, no, no, go back. You’re already throwing me off. “Tu, tu, tu, tu,” like that. Like the rabbi would do it. I don’t know. Apparently he did something. A little better. Wait. Hold the shofar higher, just higher. One last time, again for the pictures. You can’t; it would interfere with the plain tekiah. Maybe that’s too much—just the shevarim, just the shevarim. But you said it was good. What’s the problem now?