Daf Yomi - Rosh Hashana 27 - Shofar and the Trumpets

The Mishna in Sukkah (3:12) states that a lulav is taken in the Beis Hamikdosh for seven days and the “medinah” only one day. The Rambam in his commentary to the Mishnayos writes that the explanation of “medinah” is any city in Eretz Yisroel outside of Yerushalayim; however one would have a Biblical mitzvah to take the lulav for seven days in the city of Yerushalayim. Other Rishonim disagree and maintain that the Biblical mitzvah for seven days is only inside the Beis Hamikdosh but Yerushalayim will be like all other cities in Eretz Yisroel that have a Biblical mitzvah for one day and a Rabbinical mitzvah for seven days.

Bikurei Yaakov (658-1) and Reb Shimon Sofer in his sefer Hisorirus L’tshuva both state that according to the Rambam that the possuk “U’smachtem lifnei Hashem” is referring to Yerushalayim, this would apply even nowadays when the Beis Hamikdosh is not in existence. The Ramban rules in Hilchos Beis Habechirah that the sanctity of Yerushalayim exists even after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdosh. It would emerge that there would be a Biblical mitzvah to take the lulav for seven days in Yerushalayim even nowadays.

Reb Meir Simcha, in his commentary on Sukkah asks many questions on this elucidation of the Rambam. One of them is from the Gemora on our daf where Rava learns from the verse “With trumpets and the sound of a shofar, raise your voices before the King, the Lord.” (Judaica Press) According to the Rambam that “before Hashem” means the entire Yerushalayim, there should exist a mitzvah nowadays of sounding the shofar and the trumpets in Yerushalayim.

Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach in his sefer Minchas Shlomo (57) is bewildered by this question since our Gemora explicitly states that the obligation of blowing the shofar and trumpets only applies by the eastern gate of the Temple Mount and nowhere else. How can Reb Meir Simcha say that it should apply in the entire Yerushalayim according to the Rambam?

It would seem to me that this is precisely Reb Meir Simcha’s point. The Bikurei Yaakov understands the Rambam that whenever the Torah says “lifnei Hashem,” this is referring to the city of Yerushalayim and would even apply nowadays because the sanctity of Yerushalayim still exists. If so, the same way that regarding the mitzvah of lulav, there is a Biblical obligation for seven days in Yerushalayim nowadays, so too there should be a mitzvah to sound the shofar together with the trumpets in Yerushalayim nowadays. Reb Meir Simcha is asking why the mitzva is limited only to the Beis Hamikdosh.