The Voice of the Shofar
The first time the Shofar is explicitly[1] mentioned is in preparation for receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai. In Exodus 19,16, we are told
On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, lightning, a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a loud blast of the horn; and all the people in the camp trembled.
and
The voice of the Shofar grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.
It is interesting to note that when the Shofar is mentioned in the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah when there is a commandment to blow the Shofar, the following is said:
amidst thunder and lightning, You revealed Yourself to them, and with the sound of a shofar, You appeared to them
(Mussaf, Shofrot)
The Abarbanel deals with the Shofar in relation to the other elements mentioned - namely thunder, lightning and the dark cloud which was upon the mountain. He explains that there are two ways to achieve enlightenment. The first is through intellectual means. While intellectual pursuits can achieve perfection, there are elements within it that can limit its use. The first is contradictions which might exist in the interpretation of any given notion. In Abarbanel's words “Plato might contradict Aristotle or vice versa”. It is difficult to ascertain which interpretation is correct. This ambiguity is expressed through the thunder which was heard on the mountain. Each sound which was heard cancelled out the previous one, in much the same manner as one authority can overwhelm the ideas of another authority.
The second issue with intellectual pursuit of perfection is that complete clarity is not something that occurs very often. It takes a huge amount of intellectual effort to come to a very basic truth, and most of the time, thinkers remain in intellectual darkness. This, the Abarbanel compares to a darkness at various moments in time illuminated by a flash of lightning. One can see the landscape in great clarity when the lightning appears, but thereafter, one is left in the dark.
The Shofar is the one element which is different, because “the voice of the Shofar continually continued and increased”, whereas the lightning and thunder ceased. The Abarbanel compares the Shofar to the second approach to achieving enlightenment - the voice of prophecy. Because prophecy belongs to G-d it is not of this earth, and therefore did not reach a crescendo and then fall back into the background as did the lightning and thunder. He concludes that the voice of prophecy creates a level of clarity that cannot be achieved through intellectual pursuit, because of the previously mentioned limitations inherent in it.
When the Jewish people heard the 10 commandments at Sinai which they achieved through collective prophecy, they were being shown something with absolute clarity, something that they could never have achieved if they had used their intellect.
The sound of the Shofar should therefore remind of us the clarity that the Jewish people had when they heard G-d’s voice at Sinai - to know absolutely and without any doubt that (a) G-d existed, and that (b) his words were the only way in order to achieve perfection.
With this in mind, we can return to our liturgy. The reason that the Shofar is mentioned in the liturgy connected to the Shofar is to express the idea that at Sinai, the Jewish people not only achieved perfection, but they achieved clarity of purpose. They knew exactly what they needed to do, and there was no doubt whatsoever in their minds.
[1] It is mentioned at the binding of Isaac, but it is hinted to as “a ram which was caught in a bush by its horns” (Genesis 20)