- Q. Dear Rov Shlit”a. Thank you and your group of Rabbis for your answers and the willingness to address so many different and often unusual and interesting new questions, and provide great and understandable answers.
My shailah refers to the blowing of the Shofar during Elul that we began today.
In our Shul, I noticed that although most of the people were standing when the shofar was heard, some of the present were seating down. Is that correct?
A. Since the blowing of the Shofar during Elul is generally accepted as only a Minhag (tradition) and not as an obligatory mitzva, Poskim rule that although people usually do stand, there is no obligation to stand when blown, as we do on Rosh Hashana. (Shevet Hakehosi 3: 183, Piskei Teshuvos 581: 3).
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is similar.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a