Shulchan Aruch: Chapter 593 - Whether the Blessings and the Shofar Blasts are Contingent on Each Other

SECTION 593 Whether the Blessings and the Shofar Blasts are Contingent on Each Other. (1–4)

1 The three [additional] blessings that are recited in the Mussaf prayers of Rosh HaShanah1 — Malchiyos, Zichronos, and Shofaros — are contingent upon each other; i.e., if one does not know all three blessings, he should not recite even a blessing that he does know.2 Throughout the year, by contrast, the blessings [of Shemoneh Esreh] are not contingent upon each other, and if one does not know all the blessings, he should recite those that he does know.3

2 The order of the blessings may not be changed. If one recited the Zichronos or the Shofaros blessing before the Malchiyos blessing, or the Shofaros blessing before the Zichronos blessing, he has not fulfilled his obligation.

3 Similarly, the shofar blasts are contingent upon each other;4 i.e., if one knows how to sound a tekiah but not a teruah, he should not sound the shofar at all. For he does not fulfill a mitzvah unless he sounds — three times — a tekiah, then a teruah, and then a tekiah, as stated in sec. 590[:1].

If, however, one knows how to sound [a tekiah and] what we call a teruah, but does not know how to sound shevarim, he should sound three series of tekiah-teruah-tekiah. Similarly, if he knows how to sound [a tekiah and] a shevarim, but does not know how to sound what we call a teruah, he should sound three series of tekiah-shevarim-tekiah. For perhaps the sound that he knows is the teruah required by the Torah, and thus he will be fulfilling the mitzvah as specified.5

4 The blessings [of the Shemoneh Esreh of Mussaf] are not contingent on the shofar blasts that are sounded during their recitation.6 Thus if there is no one in [a congregation] who knows how to sound the shofar, the sheliach tzibbur should still recite all the nine blessings [of the Shemoneh Esreh].

Similarly, the sounding of the shofar is not contingent on the recitation of the blessings; i.e., if there is no one [in a congregation] who knows how to recite these blessings, the three series of shofar blasts should still be sounded.

If a congregation recited the nine blessings and did not sound the shofar until the sheliach tzibbur completed [the recitation of] the Shemoneh Esreh, they have [nevertheless] fulfilled their obligation.7