On Rosh Hashanah we focus our prayers on coronating the King of Kings, expressing His grandeur, and standing in awe of Him. As we read the verses of malchiyos, zichronos and shofros – especially shofros, where we vividly describe Hashem’s appearance on Mount Sinai – many of us will daven in awe. Yet there is no mention of doing teshuva anywhere in the Rosh Hashanah prayer service. (In fact, Rav Yaakov Emden ZT”L writes that one should not say the line ”אבינו מלכנו חטאנו לפניך“ on Rosh Hashana!)

Many of the mefarshim discuss this obvious omission and try to explain it as follows: If a Jew were to stand in front of the King, he would not want to enumerate his sins. On the contrary, by extoling the grandeur of the King – with true, earnest words – there is an aspect of teshuvah implicit within these words. If we really know Hashem is the King, then this understanding would preclude our desire to sin!

Yet on this Rosh Hashanah 5781, not only will we not mention teshuva, but there is another omission which is very obvious to all: We do not blow the shofar on the first day. This is based on a Rabbinic decree, for the Rabbis were concerned that one might transgress and carry the shofar in a public domain on Shabbos.

The Meshech Chochmoh tells us that even though omitting the shofar on Shabbos Rosh Hashana fulfills a Rabbinic decree, at the end of the day we still lose the protection of the Shofar. This is disconcerting, as the gemora states (Rosh Hashana 16B) “a year in which the shofar is omitted at its beginning could be a disaster at the end.”

I would like to explain some of the significance of the sound of the shofar itself. The Sifrei Kaballah tell us that the unusual sound of the shofar is produced with air, vapor and heat. These are the three (out of four) of the basic elements of the world that can rise up to heaven. By blowing the shofar we are utilizing all the forces available to us, and by consecrating them in the service of Hashem, we are performing a true act of coronation. Shabbos represents the world in perfect form, מעין עולם הבא. If one were to desecrate the Shabbos, it would undermine the beauty of the world which Hashem, our King, created. On Rosh Hashanah of all days, to cause an imbalance in the world, would truly put us in a precarious position. Therefore, even though almost no one would accidentally carry the shofar, chazal felt that no chance should be taken.

Chazal tell us that if all klal Yisrael would observe just one Shabbos, the Moshiach would come. In other words, through Shabbos we can bring the world to perfection. This year we have two opportunities to plead our case before Hashem. Either with the protection of Shabbos or to rise heavenly with the voice of the shofar. May we merit on these days of Rosh Hashanah to all be inscribed in the sefarim of tzaddikim gemurim.