Shofar as the undivided life-force
Rosh Hashanah · shofar · penimiyus · creation · Baal Shem Tov
במדרש לעולם ה' דברך נצב בשמים.
In the Midrash: "Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens" (Tehillim 119:89).
The Sefas Emes opens with the verse that Hashem's word stands eternally — the starting point for understanding how creation is continually sustained.
כמ"ש בשם הבעש"ט כי מאמר יהי רקיע מחיה כל רגע הרקיע וכן כל מאמרי הש"ת חיים וקיימים.
As is said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, that the utterance "Let there be a firmament" enlivens the firmament at every moment, and likewise all the utterances of Hashem are living and enduring.
The Baal Shem Tov teaches that creation is not a one-time event: the divine word "Let there be a firmament" keeps sustaining the firmament every single moment. Every utterance of the Ten Sayings of Creation remains alive and active right now, holding existence in being.
ונמצא שורש כל דבר וקיומו הוא המקור והנקודה שנמשכת מן מאמר השי"ת.
It emerges that the root of each thing and its sustenance is the source and the point (nekudah) that is drawn from the utterance of Hashem.
Therefore the true root and life-force of everything is the inner "point" — the nekudah — that flows continuously into it from Hashem's creative word.
וזהו התקיעות שהוא קול בלי דיבור.
And this is the meaning of the tekios (shofar blasts), which are sound without speech.
The shofar's blast is pure sound — a voice with no articulated words. This corresponds to that undivided source.
שדיבור הוא התחלקות הקול לתנועות נפרדים ושונים.
For speech is the division of the voice into separate and varied movements.
Speech is what happens when a single voice is broken up into distinct, differentiated sounds — the realm of multiplicity and separateness.
אבל הקול אחד מיוחד דבוק במקורו והיום בר"ה החיות דבוק בשורשו כנ"ל קודם התחלקות והשתנות.
But the voice is one, unified, attached to its source; and today on Rosh Hashanah the life-force is attached to its root, as above, before any division or differentiation.
The unbroken sound of the shofar mirrors the state of Rosh Hashanah: on this day the life-force of all creation is reunited with its single root, as it was before being divided into the multiplicity of the created world.
ורוצין לדבוק עצמן בפנימיות החיות כנ"ל.
And we wish to attach ourselves to the penimiyus (inner dimension) of the life-force, as above.
Our avodah on Rosh Hashanah is to cling, through the shofar's wordless cry, to that inner life-force — the undivided source from which everything is continually given being.
[עיין בסידור הרב ז"ל]:
[See the Siddur of the Rav (the Baal HaTanya), of blessed memory.]
The Sefas Emes refers the reader to the Siddur of the Baal HaTanya for further treatment of this theme.
Summary: Following the Baal Shem Tov, the Sefas Emes teaches that Hashem's creative word sustains all things at every moment, so the true root of everything is the inner "point" drawn from that utterance. The wordless blast of the shofar corresponds to the one undivided "voice" before it splits into the multiplicity of speech. On Rosh Hashanah the life-force of creation returns to its single root, and our avodah is to cling to that penimiyus — the inner life-force.