Shofar as the voice of tefillah

ראש השנה הוא יום תפלה.

Rosh Hashanah is a day of tefillah (prayer).

The Sefas Emes opens by defining the essential character of the day: above all else, Rosh Hashanah is a day devoted to standing before Hashem in prayer.

והשי"ת נתן לנו מצות השופר להעלות בו התפלות.

And Hashem gave us the mitzvah of the shofar in order to raise up our tefillos through it.

The blowing of the shofar is not merely a separate mitzvah; its purpose is to lift our prayers upward and carry them before Hashem.

לכן יש תקיעה לפני' ולאחרי' הוא כמ"ש בג' ראשונות כעבד שמסדר שבחו.

Therefore there is a tekiah before and after, corresponding to what is said about the first three berachos — like a servant who arranges the praises of his master.

The opening tekiah parallels the first three blessings of Shemoneh Esrei, which are pure praise of Hashem, like a servant who first sets out his master's glory before making any request.

ואחרונות כמקבל פרס והולך.

And the last ones are like one who receives his reward and takes his leave.

The closing tekiah parallels the final three berachos of Shemoneh Esrei, which are like a servant who, having received his portion, departs with gratitude.

ותרועה באמצע הוא בקשת צרכיו.

And the teruah in the middle is the asking for one's needs.

The broken, sobbing teruah-sound in the center corresponds to the middle berachos of Shemoneh Esrei, where a person pours out his requests and needs before Hashem.

ואיתא בגמ' אתקן ר"א תשר"ת תש"ת תר"ת מספקא לי' כו'.

And it is brought in the Gemara that Rabbi Avahu instituted the sequences tashrat, tashat, tarat — because he was in doubt as to the proper sound, etc.

The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 34a) records that Rabbi Avahu established the threefold pattern of shofar sounds because of an uncertainty about what the true teruah is — a moaning (shevarim), a wailing (teruah), or both together.

ובוודאי הכל אמת שיש זמנים שגנוחי גנח או ילולי יליל כפי הגלות בפרטות.

And in truth all of them are correct, for there are times of moaning (genichah) and times of wailing (yelalah), each according to the particular galus.

Both the groaning shevarim and the wailing teruah are real, because different periods of galus draw out different kinds of crying — sometimes a heavy moan, sometimes a sharp wail.

אכן זה הגלות האחרון כולל כל הגליות לכן יש בו כל הגניחות וילילות.

However, this final galus includes all the previous exiles, and therefore it contains all the moanings and all the wailings.

Because the present galus gathers within it every earlier exile, our shofar must voice every form of crying out — both the groan and the wail — all at once.

ורמז לדבר הג' שברים וג' תרועות וג' ש"ת.

A hint to this is the three sets of shevarim, three sets of teruos, and three of shevarim-teruah together.

The structure of the day's blasts — three of each combination — encodes this idea that every kind of cry must be sounded.

הם י"ב קולות כמו הי"ב ברכות בבקשת צרכי האדם שבתפלת שמו"ע.

These are twelve sounds, corresponding to the twelve middle berachos of request for a person's needs in the tefillah of Shemoneh Esrei.

The twelve broken shofar-sounds parallel the twelve middle blessings of Shemoneh Esrei, in which we ask for all of our needs.

שבוודאי כלול בהם כל מיני הצרות שצריכין להיות נושע בהם:

For surely included within them are all the kinds of troubles from which we need to be saved.

Just as the twelve requests of Shemoneh Esrei cover every form of distress, so too the twelve broken shofar-blasts sweep up every trouble and lift it before Hashem for salvation.

Summary: The Sefas Emes explains that the shofar is the instrument that raises our tefillos on Rosh Hashanah. Its structure mirrors Shemoneh Esrei — the unbroken tekiah of praise framing the broken shevarim-teruah of request — and its twelve broken sounds correspond to the twelve middle berachos, gathering up every kind of cry and every trouble of this all-inclusive final galus to be carried before Hashem for salvation.