We're up to our 9th pasuk of Shofarot in our special Rosh Hashanah Musaf series. It's from Zecharya 9,14
וַֽיהֹוָה֙ עֲלֵיהֶ֣ם יֵֽרָאֶ֔ה וְיָצָ֥א כַבָּרָ֖ק חִצּ֑וֹ וַֽאדֹנָ֤י יֱהֹוִה֙ בַּשּׁוֹפָ֣ר יִתְקָ֔ע וְהָלַ֖ךְ בְּסַעֲר֥וֹת תֵּימָֽן׃
Hashem will appear upon him and will come out like lightning, His arrow, and Hashem will blow a shofar and it will go like a whirlwind to the south. Four words from the next pasuk are added,
יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָאוֹת֮ יָגֵ֣ן עֲלֵיהֶם֒
Hashem will protect them, (referring to the Jewish people)
So at the time when Hashem is bringing punishment upon the goyim with His shofar, He will protect us.
And we add another two stanzas. יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָאוֹת֮ יָגֵ֣ן עֲלֵיכם֒Hashem, God of hosts should protect you.
יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָאוֹת֮ יָגֵ֣ן עֲלֵינו Hashem should protect us.
So Hashem will protect them, you and us- in other words, everybody. That's the simple reading of this.
The Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah 32B tells us that when a person says pesukim on Rosh Hashanah (they do not prescribe exactly which pesukim but there are some suggestions), you cannot choose a negative pasuk. All the pesukim of Malchuyot/Kingdom, Zichronot/Remembering and Shofarot have to be positive. Positive remembrances, positive kingdoms, positive shofar. But when we reference the goyim, it can be a negative pasuk.
The example the Gemara uses is our pasuk, when Hashem is going to blow the shofar and come with a whirlwind against the south, referring to Esav, then it's going to punish the goyim, but God's going to protect us. So this is a shofar of punishment. But in this case the punishment to the goyim is really a protection for us. How so? Rabbenu Bachye tells us something very interesting on Parashat Bereshit 25,25.
Esav is described like a כְּאַדֶּ֣רֶת שֵׂעָ֑ר/cloak of hair. He was a very hairy being when he was born. That's why he's called Ish Seir. It's not only the land of Seir, but it also means He was a se'ar/he was ahairy man. (The word Seirem, like the Seir L'Azazel, is also connected to him.) Rabbenu Bachye goes on to tell us something very fascinating, which is that Esav's angel has hair opposite his heart. That means it has a hairy chest, so to say (of course, this is figuratively). Yaakov was an Ish Chalak/a smooth man. He wasn't a hairy man. But Esav's angel had a lot of hair on his chest, a sign of strength. At the time of redemption, the hair will fall out with the blowing of the shofar, which is read into our pasuk
יֱהֹוִה֙ בַּשּׁוֹפָ֣ר יִתְקָ֔ע וְהָלַ֖ךְ בְּסַעֲר֥וֹת תֵּימָֽן׃
God will blow the shofar It's going to go through בְּסַעֲר֥וֹת תֵּימָֽן the hair of Teiman (which means Esav) and his hair will fall out.
This is the punishment, and obviously it's good for us. But what exactly is going on? We have two points.
Number one is that Esav is hairy, which we'll explain in a moment.
He's also red, and the sefer of Rav Avigdor Katz in Shir Hashirim 5,10 tells us that red, in Esav's case, is a symbol of sin. That's why when they pushed the Seir Azazel off the mountain, the red string in the Holy of Holies turned white. So red is a sign of sin, and red is a sign of Esav.
What is the hair all about? The Maharal, in his essay on Shabbat Shuva, tells us that the pasuk that says Yaakov is smooth and Esav is hairy, means that when something is smooth, nothing sticks to it. It's like Teflon, things comes right off. Whereas when something is hairy, things get caught in it.
Esav symbolizes the concept that sins become part of the person, sins become part of the essence, whereas Yaakov's smoothness symbolizes that his sins do not become part of him, they roll off of him; they're not his essence. His essence is good. His essence is pure.
The force of Esav represents getting stuck and tangled in sin. That's why the midrash tells us that at Akedat Yitzhak, the ram's horn stuck in the tangles of the bush. That symbolizes how we get stuck in Esav, so to say, through the times of Galut, but in the end, when the shofar (the ram'a horn that got stuck)blows, we're going to be freed from that clinging and that tightness, that we're connected to sin (even though we're really smooth). We're going to be totally redeemed. That redemption is going to happen with the shofar, as the evil forces disappear and we become the true beauty of our Jewish people. This is symbolized with the shofar blowing and the hair of Esav's angel's chest falling out.
That's a bit of a deeper background on this pasuk. When the shofar blows and it goes through the south, this is a negative for the goyim, but it is a positive for us.