For the source text click/tap here: Rosh Hashanah 33
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Although playing a musical instrument on Shabbat or Yom Tov is ordinarily forbidden by the Sages shema yetaken klei shir - lest someone fix the instrument - nevertheless, blowing a shofar on RoshHaShana is a mitzvah that must be fulfilled.
The Biblical command is to blow three sets of blasts on Rosh Hashanah. A set of blasts means one teruah sound preceded and followed by a tekiah sound.
The Rabbis established that the three sets of tekios be blown in three different ways, alternating the teruah sound in each set.
Thus we blow tekiah shevarim-teruah tekiah (TaSHRaT)three times; tekiah shevarim tekiah (TaRaT) three times; tekiah teruah tekiah(TaSHaT) three times.
All together that adds up to thirty different blasts.
We explore the music of the shofar from a number of perspectives, halachic, mystical and cultural.