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Please include
Israel's captive soldiers in your tefillot: Zecharia Shlomo ben
Miriam Baumel, Tzvi ben Penina Feldman, Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah
Katz, Ron ben Batya Arad, Guy ben Rina Chever.
Friday, 15 Sivan 5773 – May 24, 2013
We read in
Parashat Behaalotekha of the
mitzva to sound silver
chatzotzerot (trumpets) during times of war (10:9), a
mitzva which applies even to times of other grave crises (see Rambam, beginning of Hilkhot
Ta’aniyot).
The
Magen Avraham (576) raises the question of why this
mitzva is not observed nowadays during times of crisis.
Why should the
mitzva to sound trumpets not apply in our times?
Numerous
answers have been suggested by later writers (most of which are cited and
discussed by Rav Eliezer Waldernberg in
Tzitz Eliezer, 11:16).
The
Peri Megadim suggested that since the Torah introduces this command by
describing a situation of enemy attack on
Eretz Yisrael (“Ve-khi
tavo’u milchama be-artzekhem”), it stands to reason that the
mitzva applies only in the Land of Israel. Of course, as noted by the Chida (in
Machazik Berakha) and others, this does not explain why
even communities in
Eretz Yisrael do not observe this
mitzva.
The Maharam
Shick (on
Sefer Ha-mitzvot, 385) answers this question by noting the comments of
Talmidei Rabbenu Yona in Masekhet Berakhot that the Torah obligation of sounding
the chatzotzerot applies only to crisis situations that threaten the majority of the
Jewish nation. During other crises,
according to Talmidei Rabbenu Yona, there is only a rabbinic obligation
to sound the chatzotzerot (or a shofar) as part of the public fast
day service that would be held in response to the situation. The Maharam Shick notes the
well-known principle of “ein ta’anit tzibur be-Bavel” (Ta’anit 12b),
which means that the Babylonian communities did not observe formal “ta’aniyot
tzibur” fasts. (Several
differences exist between the formal ta’anit tzibur fast and the fasts we
occasionally observe from daybreak to nightfall.)
Among the reasons given for this rule is because the declaration of a
formal ta’anit tzibur requires the recognized authority of a Nasi,
which was present in Eretz Yisrael but not in Babylonia. Accordingly, nowadays, when we do not
have a Nasi, even in Eretz Yisrael formal ta’aniyot tzibur
are not observed (see Mishna Berura 575:25). The Maharam Shick thus maintains that
since the sounding of chatzotzerot in situations that do not threaten the
majority of the nation is required only in conjunction with the special
ta’anit tzibur observance, it is not practiced nowadays, when we do not conduct this special
service.
Rav Yaakov
Emden, in his
Mor U-ktzi’a, notes that the
mitzva requires that the
chatzotzerot be sounded by
kohanim, and he thus suggests that since
kohanim nowadays cannot definitively verify their ancestry, the
mitzva cannot be performed. However, later writers questioned
this theory, and claim that according to this rationale, today’s
kohanim should nevertheless sound the
chatzotzerot in case they are truly
kohanim and are thus obligated in this mitzva.
The Arukh Ha-shulchan (O.C. 576:4) answers by noting that the
verse in which this mitzva is presented is immediately followed by a
command to sound the chatzotzerot to accompany the sacrificial offerings in the
Mikdash. It stands to reason, the
Arukh Ha-shulchan contends, that since the command to sound the trumpets at times of war is
introduced in conjunction with the obligation to blow as the sacrifices are
offered, it applies only during the times of the Beit Ha-mikdash. Indeed, as Rav Waldenberg cites, the
Sefer Ha-chinukh (384) combines these two commands – to sound trumpets in
times of crisis, and during sacrificial offerings – into a single mitzva,
and concludes his discussion by asserting that this mitzva applies
only during the time of the Mikdash.
This might likely be an early source for the Arukh Ha-shulchan’s
claim that the two commands related to the chatzotzerot are linked to one
another, and thus even the obligation to sound the trumpets during wartime does
not apply after the Temple’s destruction.
(See a similar theory in Iggerot Moshe, O.C. 1:169.)
Moreover, Rav Waldenberg notes that the
Semag, in his listing of the mitzvot,
does not include the mitzva to sound the chatzotzerot
during times of crisis. Later
commentators suggested that the Semag interpreted the verse here in
Parashat Behaalotekha not as a command, but rather as a promise that when we
sound the trumpets and turn to God in sincere prayer, “you shall be remembered
favorably before the Lord your God and will be delivered from your enemies.” According to the Semag, then,
sounding the chatzotzerot is not a mitzva at all.
Rav David Silverberg |
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