We started with nine, but ended up with 100 TB Rosh Hashana 34

Although the Torah commands us to blow shofar on Rosh Hashanah as it is written: “A solemn rest, a memorial of blasts [terua]” (Leviticus 23:24); “It is a day of sounding the shofar [terua] to you” (Numbers 29:1), it does not explicitly tell us the sound of the blast nor how me times we blow the shofar. Today’s daf TB Rosh Hashana 34 provides the above missing information through two different approaches. The first approach learns this missing information from the verses concerning the shofar blast on Rosh Hashanah and the shofar blasts on Yom Kippur of the Jubilee year (Yoval). The second approach learns this missing information from the verses about the blowing of the trumpets in the desert.

You can turn to our daf and see how each approach unfolds. They both come to the same conclusion that the Torah requires us to blow nine shofar blasts, a series of a simple blast called a tekia, followed by a broken blast called a terua, concluded by another simple blast three times. In the Gemara the term terua just means a broken blast and not what we associate today as the staccato nine blasts sound. Explaining the contradiction between the Mishnah and a baraita on TB Rosh Hashana 33b, Abaye teaches that the broken blast could either be what we call shevarim (three short blasts) or a terua (what we call nine short blasts). “Abaye said: In this matter, the tanna’im certainly disagree. Although the first baraita can be reconciled with the mishna, this second baraita clearly reflects a dispute. As it is written: “It is a day of sounding [terua] the shofar to you” (Numbers 29:1), and we translate this verse in Aramaic as: It is a day of yevava to you. And to define a yevava, the Gemara quotes a verse that is written about the mother of Sisera: “Through the window she looked forth and wailed [vateyabev], the mother of Sisera” (Judges 5:28). One Sage, the tanna of the baraita, holds that this means moanings, broken sighs, as in the blasts called shevarim. And one Sage, the tanna of the mishna, holds that it means whimpers, as in the short blasts called teruot.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Because of this ambiguity, Rabbi Abbahu instituted the following procedure. “Rabbi Abbahu instituted in Caesarea the following order of sounding of the shofar: First a tekia, a simple uninterrupted sound; next three shevarim, broken sounds; followed by a terua, a series of short blasts; and, finally, another tekia. The Gemara asks: Whichever way you look at it, this is difficult. If, according to the opinion of Rabbi Abbahu, the sound the Torah calls a terua is a whimpering, i.e., short, consecutive sounds, one should perform tekia-terua-tekia set. And if he holds that a terua is moaning, i.e., longer, broken sounds, he should sound a set as follows: Tekia, followed by three shevarim, and then another tekia... But if in any case one must perform the two sets of blasts, for what purpose did Rabbi Abbahu institute that one should perform a tekia-shevarim-terua-tekia set? If a terua is moaning, one already did it; if it is whimpering, one already did this, too. The Gemara answers: Rabbi Abbahu was uncertain, and he thought that perhaps a terua consists of moaning followed by whimpering. Consequently, all three sets are necessary.” (Sefaria.org translation)

By blowing the following sequence we now hear 30 shofar blasts.

tekia, (shevarim-terua) moan-wailing, tekia
tekia, (shevarim-terua) moan-wailing, tekia
tekia, (shevarim-terua) moan-wailing, tekia

tekia, (shevarim) moan, tekia
tekia, (shevarim) moan, tekia
tekia, (shevarim) moan, tekia

tekia, (terua) wailing, tekia
tekia, (terua) wailing, tekia
tekia, (terua) wailing, tekia

We have moved from nine obligatory blasts of the shofar to 30 blasts. Earlier in our massekhet we learned that we add another 30 blasts after the Torah reading, called “sitting” in contradistinction to the “standing” during the Musaf even though we stand for both. But were not finished yet blowing the shofar. “The Arukh mentions a custom to blow 100 blasts: 30 before Mussaf, 30 during the Mussaf silent prayer, 30 during the cantor's loud repetition of Mussaf, and 10 more after Mussaf.^[1[2] The final 10 blasts are by tradition dating to the Geonim, and are usually blown in the middle of "Kaddish Tiskabal."^[3] Blowing 100 (or 101) blasts is nearly universal today, though many congregations omit the 30 blasts in the silent prayer, and instead blow 40 after Mussaf.^[4][5]

“The number 100 in the Arukh is intended to correspond to the tears which Sisera's mother is said to have shed when her son was killed in battle.^[6] (The Hebrew word used to describe her wailing is wateyabev (ותיבב‎); this is cognate to yevava (יבבה‎), the Aramaic translation of teruah.^[28]) The short Biblical story of Sisera's mother contains 101 letters;^[7] while the Arukh only mentions 100 blasts. This discrepancy is explained by saying that while each shofar blast is intended to "nullify" one of her cries due to hatred of Israel, nevertheless we leave her one tear out of recognition of the pain suffered by any bereaved mother.^[6] In any case, Sephardic communities typically blow 101 blasts, with the 101st symbolizing her legitimate mourning.^[6][7]” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shofar_blowing)

 

1 Arukh 272:1; mentioned in Tosafot Rosh Hashana 33b s.v. שעור

2 Ben-David, Rabbi Yaron. "מאה תקיעות בראש השנה" [A hundred blasts on Rosh Hashanah]. Retrieved 7 October 2018.

3

 "ד  מנהג מאה תקיעות" The Custom of a Hundred Blasts] (in Hebrew). 4 April 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2018.

 4 Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 129:17, et seq.

 5 There are 101 Hebrew letters in Judges 5:28-29, not including verses 5:30-31.

6 Kitov, Rabbi Eliyahu. "One Hundred Sounds". Retrieved 7 October 2018.

 7 Arthur L. Finkle, Shofar: History, Technique and Jewish Law, (Saarbrcken, Germany: Hadassah Word Press, 2015)