In an unusual comment for one of the nosei keilim (main
commentaries) on the Shulchan Aruch the Magen Avraham (Orach
Chayim 585:11) records not a halachah but a story.

One Rosh HaShanah the baal tokei’a couldn’t manage to get a sound
out of the shofar. He turned the shofar to the wide opening and recited the pasuk “Vihi
no’am Hashem Elokeinu aleinu u’maaseh yadeinu konenah aleinu u’maaseh yadeinu
koneneihu — May the pleasantness of Hashem our G-d be upon us; our
handiwork establish for us; our handiwork establish it” (Tehillim
90:17). Suddenly they were able to blow the shofar properly.

This comment is difficult to understand on several accounts.

First of all the Magen Avraham wrote many of his comments in almost
cryptic shorthand partly due to the fact that he was destitute and sometimes had
to write on the walls of his house because he did not have paper. This story is
either a maaseh nissim (miracle) or a segulah. Why did the Magen
Avraham deem this story worthy of being recorded on paper?

Second why the pasuk “Vihi noam Hashem Elokeinu” — a pasuk that was originally recited
during the inauguration of the Mishkan — which seems entirely unrelated to Rosh
HaShanah? Since the problem was with the shofar why not recite something to
the effect of “Alah Elokim bisruah Hashem b’kol shofar — G-d has
ascended with the blast; Hashem with the sound of the shofar” (Tehillim 47:6)?

Finally why recite this pasuk into the wide end of the
shofar? The baal tokei’a wasn’t going to be able to get sounds out of
that end no matter what they did! Why not recite the verse into the end from
which he blew?

The Tolna Rebbe Rav Yitzchak Menachem Weinberg shlita provides a
deep insight into this difficult Magen Avraham.

The Magen Avraham is not merely sharing a segulah for getting
sounds out of the shofar says the Tolna Rebbe. In recording this incident the
Magen Avraham alludes to a principle that applies to tkiyas hashofar specifically
to the avodas hayom of Rosh HaShanah in general and even beyond this Yamim
Noraim season to the avodah that we were placed into this world to
fulfill every day of our lives.

We must be aware — constantly — that in all our endeavors in both
spiritual and material pursuits all we can do is make our hishtadlus
(effort) and the ultimate outcome of any enterprise is up to Hashem.

This is a double-edged sword because on the one hand we have to be
aware that without siyata d’Shmaya nothing can happen. At the same
time however we cannot simply sit back and say “Well it’s up to Hashem
anyway let Him make it happen without me.”

That attitude doesn’t work in gashmiyus (material pursuits) —
without hishtadlus we cannot earn a living — and it’s that way in ruchniyus
as well in our avodas ha’adam. We must put our efforts into any
endeavor if we want to succeed.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this principle was the inauguration
of the Mishkan. Here you had a People who just a few months back were enslaved
by Pharaoh and his brutal Egyptian regime. While they had been forced to
construct cities they couldn’t possibly have become skilled in the
artistry and precision needed to produce such a magnificent dwelling for the Shechinah.
And yet somehow they managed to do just that.

How?

Through extraordinary siyata d’Shmaya. The people did theirs
donating raw materials for the Mishkan and Hashem did the rest endowing Betzalel
and several others with the talents necessary to build the Mishkan and all of
its intricate vessels.

This held true not only for the construction of the Mishkan but to the
task of erecting the finished product as well. Chazal relate that when they tried
to connect the kerashim of the Mishkan they kept falling down until
Hashem gave Moshe special power to do it himself.

Now if Hashem wanted the people to see that His Hand was necessary in
constructing the Mishkan why
didn’t He simply send a fully constructed Mishkan down from Heaven as Chazal tell us
will be the case with the third Beis HaMikdash?

The answer is that Hashem wanted to teach us that the way of the world
until Mashiach’s times is that we must put in our hishtadlus in
any enterprise we undertake but in the end we must eventually rely on Him for
it to succeed.

When the Mishkan was
finally standing Moshe Rabbeinu said “Vihi noam Hashem Elokeinu
aleinu u’maaseh yadeinu konenah aleinu u’maaseh yadeinu koneneihu ” a tefillah
that summarizes the proper approach to life. We put in the necessary effort to
have an endeavor succeed but then we turn to Hashem and ask Him “U’maaseh
yadeinu koneneihu — establish our handiwork.”

This is what the Magen Avraham is alluding to says the Tolna Rebbe.

We blow the shofar from the narrow end says the Levush writes as
an allusion to the verse “Min hameitzar karasi Kah anani bamerchav Kah — From
the [narrow] straits did I call upon G-d; He answered me with expansiveness” (Tehillim 118:5).

What do we do when we find ourselves in a situation where we are calling
out to Hashem min hameitzar from dire straits but our efforts don’t
bear fruit? It’s time to turn around the shofar. It’s time to receive His
assistance from the other side: “Anani bamerchav Kah — answer us with
expansiveness Hashem” — i.e. from the wide end.

How do we pray to Hashem for assistance in such a situation? By reciting
the pasuk
of “Vihi noam” the verse that was recited way back in the days of
the Mishkan when Hashem enabled Moshe to succeed in completing a task that
seemed insurmountable.

The baal tokei’a didn’t recite this pasuk into the narrow end because
he realized that this wasn’t just an effort to get the shofar to
blow; it was about telling Hashem “We did what we could do now please take
over and make us succeed.”

And this allusion from the Magen Avraham really symbolizes what Rosh
HaShanah and tkiyas shofar is about.

Chazal tell us that tkiyas hashofar causes Hashem to rise from the
Kisei HaDin His Throne of Judgment and move to the Kisei HaRachamim
the Throne of Mercy.

We know that if Hashem judges us with din exacting justice we
don’t stand a chance. Only when Hashem moves to the Kisei HaRachamim can
we survive the judgment of Rosh HaShanah.

We might think that it is up to Hashem to make that move but Chazal tell
us that it’s actually up to us. We have to blow shofar to call out to
Him “min hameitzar ” and only then does He respond by moving to the Kisei
HaRachamim thereby answering us bamerchav.

Beyond tkiyas shofar this concept applies to the entire teshuvah
process that we undertake in these days.

Sometimes we find ourselves so mired in the morass of mundane existence
that we just don’t feel that we have the ability to break free and come
close to Hashem during these holiest days of the year.

What should we do in such a case?

The same thing a person must do when he’s drowning at sea chas v’shalom
and someone comes to rescue him. If he just reaches out with his
hand the rescuer can pull him to safety. But he has to make the first move.

If Hashem were to leave it entirely to us to return to Him there would
be no way for us to bridge the gaping chasm that has developed over the year.
But He doesn’t require us to come all the way to Him on our own. We just have
to stick out our hand to show Him that we want to return to His loving
embrace and He will do the rest. This is perhaps alluded to in the tefillah
we recite at the very end of Neilah: “Atah nosein yad leposh’im.” Hashem
is there ready to pull us towards Him but we have to reach out to grasp His
“Hand.”

And once we imbue ourselves with this lesson during Aseres Yemei Teshuvah
we can hope to take it with us throughout the year.

We all know how difficult this past year has been for Klal Yisrael — both
on the national level with geopolitical forces pointing towards an inevitable
showdown in Eretz Yisrael in the not distant future and on a personal level
with all the terrible tragedies in recent months that have left us shaking our
heads in wonder. And we all know of countless cholim young people and
old stricken with terrible diseases; of the people who are jobless or just
can’t make ends meet; and of numerous other tzaros.

We go into this year with trepidation not knowing where the world could
be heading. We must take the lesson of tkiyas shofar encapsulated
in the story cited by the Magen Avraham and make it our guiding light.

For when we truly realize that our job is only to make our hishtadlus
and then leave the rest to Hashem we can be sure that we will eventually
have the no’am the pleasantness of Hashem rest upon us.

May we all be zocheh to kesivah v’chasimah tovah and a year
of health prosperity and nachas from our families.

BIO:

Rabbi
Yissocher Frand a rosh yeshivah at Yeshivas Ner Yisrael in Baltimore Maryland
is the author of sefer Ohalei Yissocher on Moed Kattan and Temurah.
Tapes and CDs of his shiurim delivered at the Agudas Yisrael of
Baltimore are popular worldwide and his lectures draw crowds in cities across
the globe. His seventh book published through ArtScroll/Mesorah Rabbi Frand
on the Parashah 3 a compendium of contemporary insights into the weekly parshah
is now available in Jewish bookstores and through Artscroll.com.