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To Blow or Not to Blow: The Debate Between Kotzk and Chabad

In the Ultimate Experience of Judaism, We Don’t Give Our Souls to G-d

1 hr 24 min

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Class Summary:

Rabbi YY Jacobson presented this class on Monday, 25 Elul, 5783, September 11, 2023, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

This is part one of a text-based class in a Sicha, a public address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, presented on Shabbos Parshas Nitzavim-Vayeilech, 23 Elul, 5749 (September 23, 1989), published in Sefer Hasichos 5749 vol. 2, exploring the true meaning of not blowing shofar when Rosh Hashanah coincides with Shabbos.

How is it possible that we don’t coronate G-d as King when Rosh Hashanah is Shabbos?

The Rebbe explores three states of Bitul—of alignment with the Divine oneness. The first is the way it can be experienced on Rosh Hashanah during the weekdays; the second is the experience of Shabbos Rosh Hashanah, and finally, the experience in the Beis Hamikdash, where they blew shofar even on Shabbos.

The first level is about surrender of self; the second, deeper level, is the complete fusion of self with Divine oneness, without any act of surrender, thus not blowing the shofar is far deeper than blowing the shofar. Then there is the third state, when nothing needs to be negated, not even a sense of identity and self. That is why in the Beis Hamikdash we did blow shofar on Shabbos Rosh Hashanah.

There is you. There is not you. And there is the space where “you” need not be negated, so that you can be you. Transcendence and infinity can also be a trap, and don’t capture the ultimate reality. Whenever we negate something, “He is not finite,” “I am not my ego,” we are still defined by it, albeit in a negative way. In the ultimate truth, the self is not a contradiction to oneness.

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Please leave your comment below!

Anonymous -1 year ago
I came across this piece from a Vietnamese Monk - Thich Nhat Hanh.
We are a wave appearing on the surface of the ocean. The body of a wave does not last very long – perhaps only ten to twenty seconds. The wave is subject to beginning and ending, to going up and coming down. The wave may be caught in the idea that ‘I am here now and I won’t be here later.’ And the wave may feel afraid or even angry. But the wave also has her ocean body. She has come from the ocean, and she will go back to the ocean. She has both her wave body and her ocean body. She is not only a wave; she is also the ocean. The wave does not need to look for a separate ocean body, because she is in this very moment both her wave body and her ocean body. As soon as the wave can go back to herself and touch her true nature, which is water, then all fear and anxiety disappear. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
כתיבה וחתימה טובה
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C
Chaim. -1 year ago
Killing an EVED KENAANI is not punished by capital punishment.

There is just a payment penalty of 30 Shekalim

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Anonymous -1 year ago
The pianist feels best when he's lost in the
music. But, he doesn't need an audience for that. He can lose himself in the music also when he's alone!
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Anonymous -1 year ago
We use a Shofar from an animal because
an animal is bittul. BUT a musical trumpet is even MORE bittul and always does what the master dictates!
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Anonymous -1 year ago
We don't blow Shofar on Shabbos because
someone might carry it outside to the Rabbi to see how to blow.

BUT such a person might be so ignorant that he could not realize that on Shabbos we don't blow Shofar and so nevertheless EVEN on Shabbos he might carry the Shofar outside to see how to blow!!
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