The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 35 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
Part IV · Movement III
Zecher la’Mikdash — Modeling the Temple
Rather than let the Mikdash fade from memory, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai expanded mitzvos to echo how they were kept in the Temple — the shofar in Yavneh, the lulav all seven days — so the nation would keep living the Mikdash’s ritual.
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MoedSederסדרמוֹעֵד
Rosh HashanaMasechtaמסכתראש השנה
4Perekפרקד׳
1Mishnahמשנהא׳
נושא · Topicשׁוֹפָר בְּשַׁבָּת לְאַחַר הַחֻרְבָּןBlowing the shofar on Shabbos after the Churban
Mishnah ראש השנה ד׳:א׳ · Rosh Hashana 4:1
יוֹם טוֹב שֶׁל רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה שֶׁחָל לִהְיוֹת בְּשַׁבָּת,
בַּמִּקְדָּשׁ הָיוּ תּוֹקְעִים,
אֲבָל לֹא בַמְּדִינָה.
מִשֶּׁחָרַב בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ,
הִתְקִין רַבָּן יוֹחָנָן בֶּן זַכַּאי,
שֶׁיְּהוּ תּוֹקְעִין בְּכָל מָקוֹם שֶׁיֶּשׁ בּוֹ בֵית דִּין.
אָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר,
לֹא הִתְקִין רַבָּן יוֹחָנָן בֶּן זַכַּאי אֶלָּא בְיַבְנֶה בִּלְבָד.
אָמְרוּ לוֹ,
אֶחָד יַבְנֶה וְאֶחָד כָּל מָקוֹם שֶׁיֶּשׁ בּוֹ בֵית דִּין.
When Yom Tov of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos,
in the Mikdash they would blow,
but not in the medinah.
After the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed,
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai enacted
that they blow in every place that has a beis din.
Said Rabbi Elazar:
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai enacted it only in Yavneh.
They said to him:
Both Yavneh and any place that has a beis din.
case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTanna
Transcript
Summary Chart
Blowing the shofar on Shabbos after the Churban▾
CaseRulingReason
When Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, where is the shofar blown?In the Mikdash — not in the medinah—
After the Churban, where may it be blown?Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: Anywhere with a beis din—
Rabbi Elazar: Only Yavneh—
Chachamim: Yavneh and anywhere with a beis din—
All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
Why the shofar fell silent outside the Mikdash — and how Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai answered the Churban▾
עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai · Dor 1 · Churban — רבן יוחנן בן זכאי

The youngest and greatest of Hillel’s talmidim (Avos 2:8; Sukkah 28a). As Yerushalayim fell he had himself carried out in a coffin and secured from Vespasian the request ten li Yavneh va’chachameha — give me Yavneh and its sages (Gittin 56a–b) — pivoting the nation from Mikdash to beis medrash. His takanos (Rosh Hashanah 31b) built the world of zecher la’Mikdash, several of them the mishnayos in this series: the shofar on Shabbos, the lulav for seven days, the new grain.

What ‘medinah’ means here

The mishnah’s Mikdash/medinah line is itself a machlokes rishonim. Rambam holds ‘Mikdash’ means all of Yerushalayim and ‘medinah’ the rest of Eretz Yisrael, as he explains on the mishnayos that follow (Maaser Sheni 2:4, Shekalim 1:3, Sukkah 3:10). Rashi reads it the other way: ‘Mikdash’ is the Beis HaMikdash proper, and ‘medinah’ takes in even the rest of Yerushalayim. The shofar-on-Shabbos line was drawn at whichever boundary.

Why the shofar is silent outside — two reasons

Sounding the shofar is not melacha, so why is it barred outside the Mikdash on Shabbos? Bartenura and Tosafos Yom Tov give the Bavli’s gezeirah — lest one carry the shofar four amos in reshus harabim to bring it to someone who can sound it for him. The Yerushalmi does not know that gezeirah; it reads the limit from the pesukim, ‘yom teruah’ against ‘zichron teruah’ — on Shabbos the day keeps only a remembrance of the teruah, not the blast itself.

What the Chachamim add at the end

The mishnah seems to repeat itself: the takanah already permits sounding ‘wherever there is a beis din,’ and the Chachamim answer R’ Elazar with ‘both Yavneh and anywhere with a beis din.’ The difference the exchange turns on: the stam takanah follows the beis din wherever it happens to sit, even for a time, while the Chachamim permit sounding only where a beis din is permanently fixed.

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Eduyos 8:6
Consecrated items after the Churban
Mishnah 35 of 41
Rosh Hashana 4:1
Preserving the mitzvah: shofar after the Churban
Next →
Rosh Hashanah 4:3
The lulav for seven days, as a zecher la'Mikdash

Where this sits

Here the series opens its account of Jewish practice in light of the destruction. With the Mikdash gone, the shofar that had sounded on Shabbos only in its precincts would go unheard in the year Rosh Hashanah fell on Shabbos, and the mitzvah risked being lost. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s takanah preserved it, moving the sounding to Yavneh, the new center of leadership he had secured with ten li Yavneh va’chachameha. It is the first of the post-Churban ordinances the coming mishnayos trace: some preserving Temple practice, some relaxing what the Temple required, some guarding against the day it is rebuilt.

The quieter shift

There is a subtler move underneath the takanah. By tying the shofar’s Shabbos sounding to wherever a beis din sits rather than to the Mikdash, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai let the beis din take the place the Mikdash had held. Both Talmudim read the decree this way — as magnifying the beis din once the Mikdash no longer anchored the nation’s guidance — and the fuller point follows: Torah, seated at Yavneh, now functioned in its own right, a center no longer dependent on the Mikdash’s imprimatur.

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