Welcome to our special Musaf Rosh Hashanah Pesukim series. We're now in the fourth pasuk of Shofarot. As we discussed, the first three pesukim of Shofarot refer to the shofar of Har Sinai. The next three refer to our shofar, that we blow on Rosh Hashanah, and the last three refer to the shofar of the times of Mashiach.
Our pasuk today is from Tehilim 47,6 עָלָ֣ה אֱ֭לֹהִים בִּתְרוּעָ֑ה יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה בְּק֣וֹל שׁוֹפָֽר׃
Hashem/Elokim (in His trait of justice) goes up in the Teruah, Hashem (with His trait of mercy)b'kol shofar.
The Teruah, which is a broken blast of the shofar, refers to Hashem's justice, and that's why the term Elohim, which is God's justice, is used, whereas Shofar refers to the straight sound of the Tekiyah, and that refers to Hashem's trait of mercy. This is quoted by the Maharsha in Rosh Hashanah 32B and indicated in a famous Midrash brought down the Pisikta Rabbati parashat מ-David Hamelech tells us there is no greater force than the shofar that removes God's trait of justice and brings Him close to mercy.
On Rosh Hashanah God sits down on the chair of justice and when we blow the shofar, God switches from His justice to His mercy. That's why it starts off, Elohim- God plans on going up as an Elohim, and the power of the shofar turns Him into Hashem. So God switches from His chair of justice to His chair of mercy.
The Slah, also known as the Noda BiYehuda (his real name was Rabbi Yehuda Landau), was one of the Gedolim of a few hundred years ago. In his sefer on Hagigah 14A, he shares something fascinating:
What are these two chairs? What's this chair of mercy? Does Hashem have a separate mercy chair?
He cites the Yalkut Shimoni in Malachim 2,46 which talks about the wicked king Menashe. Menashe caused a lot of idol worship. His father Chizkiyah saw, with Ruach Hakodesh, how bad he would be, and therefore he didn't want to get married, until the prophet came and told him, "You're going to die because you don't want to have children." He married the prophet's daughter and ended up having this Menashe. Menashe was extremely wicked. He actually killed the prophet, his grandfather! Ultimately , Menashe was caught by the enemy and was placed in a copper cauldron. They were about to boil him alive. After calling out to all the idols and not getting answered, he said, "I remember my father taught me a pasuk, 'When you are in pain and all difficulties are happening, return to Hashem, your God.' I'm going to try it." So he called out to God, but the angels were blocking the windows of the heaven, so as not to allow his prayer to go up. They said, "God, this man put an idol into the Bet HaMikdash! We're going to let him return in Teshuva?!"
But God, so of say, has to follow the rules. God made a tunnel under the Kiseh Hakavod and allowed his Teshuva to sneak in.
Says the Slah, That is the Kiseh Rachamim/the chair of mercy. When God wants to, so to say, circumvent the angels and let somebody in, He lets them in. What exactly does that mean for us? How are we to understand this? The Yaarot Devash, Rav Yonatan Eybeshutz says something fascinating (helek rishon derush 15) He says, Chizkiyah didn't want to get married because he saw Menashe with Ruach Hakodesh. But, he says, Ruach Hakodesh comes through angels, and therefore he was not privy to the final, happy ending of Menashe being chozer B'Teshuvah, because the angels didn't believe Menashe was deserving. Based on the angelic knowledge of the future, there was no hope for Menashe. That's why Chizkiyah didn't want to have children. But what he didn't know was that Menashe would be accepted by God. It says he ended up becoming the chief of all Baalei Teshuva in Gan Eden!. Chizikiyah didn't realize what he brought into the world through Menashe. Fascinating.
What's even more fascinating is this chair of mercy, where God looks down and doesn't just see where we are right now, what we're fit for right now. God sees the Teshuva in the person, and the greatness of our future.
This is different than what we learn from Yishmael, about the way you are now. He quotes a midrash in Bereshit 53,14 that says that when the angels wanted to kill Yishmael, Hashem said, I see what you don't see. I see the Yishmael is going to make Teshuva. The angels didn't know that. They knew his wickedness. They didn't know his Teshuvah. And that's the concept of the chatira.
The Yaarot Dvash says, look at how much Hashem does for us, that there can be someone that even the angels don't see any hope for, and Hashem, with His mercy, opens a special door for him. He says, This is one of the miracles that God does for us, and quotes the Pasuk in Tehilim, Even Maasu HaBonim Hayeta L'Rosh Pinah/The rock that the builders despised becomes great, and says it refers to Baalei Teshuva. The angels despised him, yet he became the chief, even greater than Sadikim. That is M'Et Hashem Hayta Zot/This is a miracle of God. It's one of the wonders that God does for us, that He's able to see what's going to happen and accept even the most distant person in Teshuva, which is aroused at the time of the shofar.
So, whoever you are and whatever you are, that's what happens at the time of Shofar.