Sorry this is after Rosh haShanah. It’s my version of R’ Chaggai Raviv’s (my LOR’s) explanation of a thought by R’ YB Soloveitchik. I couldn’t share it before hearing his derashah, but I was enamored with the thought. It closely fits for Other-Focused Orthodoxy.

אַשְׁרֵ֣י הָ֭עָם יֹודְעֵ֣י תְרוּעָ֑ה, ה֝׳ בְּֽאֹור־פָּנֶ֥יךָ יְהַלֵּכֽוּן׃

Happy is the nation that knows teru’ah, Hashem, they walk in the Light of Your Presence.
– Tehillim 89:16

Think about how ironic of an intro this is. We are about to blow shofar in three sets of three because we do not know what a teru’ah is. So, we blow teqi’ah, shevarim teru’ah, teqi’ah. Then with just shevarim in between, then teru’ah. Because one of those three would be the biblical teru’ah, but we don’t know which.

So why do all three? Well, different communities had opinions, and Rabbi Avahu (RH 34a) thought it was appropriate to unite by everyone doing all three.

Rav Soloveitchik raises a question about years like this one, where we skip shofar blowing on the day that is Rosh haShanah according to the Torah because it’s Shabbos. Someone might carry their shofar to someone who knows how to blow, and thus carry it on Shabbos. Yes, we blow it on the next day, but that’s “only” Rosh haShanah rabbinically.

This is despite the fact that the gemara says, “כל שנה שאין תוקעין לה בתחלתה, מריעין לה בסופה – Any year that they don’t blow teqi’ah for it at its stard, they will suffer for it at its end.” There is also word play here, since “מריעין” could not only refer to the year’s bad ending, from the word “רע”, but also could be taken as referring to teru’ah.

The whole debate about what a biblical teru’ah is rests on the concept of crying, responding to that ra in the gemara’s wordplay. It is crying, like our shevarim? Is it a short sob, like our teru’ah? Is it a cry that turns into a sob as despair sets in — shevarim teru’ah? What kind of crying are we to announce with this shofar blast?

What we actually say before shofar blowing is:

Happy are the people who understand crying, Hashem, they walk in the Light of Your Presence.

Rabbi Avahu’s point was that you don’t understand crying until you listen to everyone’s cry, everyone has to be included. Settling for a teru’ah that is only kosher according to my own subset of communities, is not “knowing teru’ah”.

And with that idea, R YB Soloveitchik answers the question about not blowing shofar when Rosh haShanah falls out on Shabbos.

Think of the poor guy who owns a shofar even though doesn’t know how to use it. He lives across a reshus harabbim deOraisa — an area one may not carry in by Torah, rather than rabbinic, law — and runs with it over with it to an expert. This guy is a combination of ignorant, impulsive and unlucky.

But a teru’ah has to include everyone. Even some poor fellow who makes a grave unthinking mistake in a pretty rare situation. Otherwise, it’s not a teru’ah.

So, to hone our opening:

אַשְׁרֵ֣י הָ֭עָם יֹודְעֵ֣י תְרוּעָ֑ה, ה֝׳ בְּֽאֹור־פָּנֶ֥יךָ יְהַלֵּכֽוּן׃

Happy is the nation that understands teru’ah, crying, that it is fundamental that we all share such burdens;
for then truly, Hashem, they walk in the Light of Your Presence.
– Tehillim 89:16