A Hearing-Impaired Person and the Mitzvah of Shofar

The following responsum is reprinted from Tomeikh KaHalakhah volume 3.  Tomeikh KaHalakhah is UTJ’s series of volumes of responsa (teshuvot) promulgated by the Union For Traditional Judaism’s Panel of Halakhic Inquiry.

As an introduction to his discussion on those obligated and exempt from the mitzvah of shofar, Rabbi Yosef Karo (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 589:1, citing the Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 3:8) sets out the general principle that “whoever is not obligated for something cannot fulfill that obligation for the community [lit. for many]” (nor can he fulfill the obligation for another individual—see the formulation by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Shofar 2:2). Having done that, he enumerates those exempt from this obligation (589:2): “the deaf [usually understood to mean the deaf mute], the imbecile, and the minor are exempt. Even the speaking deaf cannot fulfill the obligation for others, since he cannot hear, he is not under obligation.” Rabbi Moshe Isserles adds in his glosses at this point: “but one who can hear but cannot speak can fulfill the obligation for others.” This triad of “the deaf, the imbecile, and the minor” (heresh, shoteh, ve-katan) who are exempt from commandments of all sorts appears in many other contexts (see, e.g., Mishnah Hagigah 1:1, Mishnah Hullin 1:1). The first two categories of individuals mentioned were exempted from the mitzvot under discussion because the average person in those categories was considered legally incompetent (although the rabbis conceded that exceptional individuals did exist, for them too the legal presumption of incompetence remained—see commentary of Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura on Mishnah Hullin 1:1).

Regarding the deaf mute, this remained the halakhic consensus for many centuries. In the last two to three hundred years, in the wake of the strides made in the education and training of the deaf, however, rabbis have steadily reduced the exemption of the deaf from mitzvot, to the point that in practically every area of legal practice the deaf are considered to be competent. (See Entsiklopedia Talmudit article on “heresh,” vol. 17, columns 495-499, and the references cited there, especially Responsa Divrei Hayyim part 2, Even Ha-Ezer #72; Responsa Maharsham part 2 #140; and Siddur of Rabbi Ya’akov Emden, laws of reading of the Torah, p. 170, par. 20. In Responsa Shevet Sofer 2:21, there is an interesting responsum in which, after a visit to an institution for the deaf in Vienna, the author reports that his father, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer (Ketav Sofer), was so impressed by the responsiveness of the students that he began to question the idea that a deaf mute was incompetent. See, however, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, Responsa Yehaveh Da’at 2:6, and the sources quoted there.)

Despite this general trend, the exemption of the deaf from the mitzvah of shofar remains in effect, as it relates not to mental competence, but to the physical ability to perceive sounds. See the comments of the Kol Bo and Rabbi Shimon ben Tzemah Duran (cited by Rabbi Yosef Karo in Bet Yosef to Arba’ah Turim Orah Hayyim 589 s.v. ve-khatav ha-Kol Bo), which recall that the very formulation of the blessing recited before the sounding of the shofar: “Who has sanctified us by His commandments and has commanded us to hear the sound of the shofar” proves that in the case of the mitzvah of shofar the ability to hear is paramount. Even the deaf person who can speak (who is considered competent and therefore obligated in general to observe mitzvot) and knows how to blow the shofar would therefore still be exempt and may not blow the shofar for a congregation (see Levush Ha-hur of Rabbi Mordekhai Yaffe on Orah Hayyim 589 par. 2; Peri Hadash on Orah Hayyim 589 par.1 and Levushei Serad ibid. par.2; Minhat Hinukh commandment #405, end of par. 1). On the other hand, a person who can hear but is mute may blow the shofar for the congregation, with another individual reciting the blessing (see Bayit Hadash on Arba’ah Turim Orah Hayyim 589 s.v. adam ha-ra’ui at the end of the paragraph; see also Responsa Terumat Ha-deshen #140).

The previous discussion rests on the premise that the person in question is completely deaf. However, a person who suffers from hearing impairment yet retains the ability—though residual—to perceive sounds and who uses a mechanical device of some sort (ear trumpet or hearing aid) to amplify or gather sound that he could have heard anyway (though faintly) does not fall under the halakhic category of heresh. Hence such a person would be obligated to hear the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah and could sound the shofar for the congregation (see Responsa Halakhot Ketanot part 2 #45, cited by Kaf Ha-hayyim Orah Hayyim 589, par. 13, and by Be’er Heitev in Orah Hayyim 589:1).

In this matter, there is a further discussion over whether an individual who wears a hearing aid must remove it in order to fulfill the mitzvah of shofar. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, in a lengthy and detailed responsum (Responsa Minhat Shlomo vol. 1 #9), explains that when one uses a hearing aid, that person does not hear the sound of the shofar, but rather an artificially reproduced sound created by the amplifier. With great sensitivity he writes (pp. 64-65), “I am pained that according to this, those who are hearing impaired (oznam kaveda mi-shemo’a) and utilize a hearing aid, which gathers the sound to their ears, do not fulfill the mitzvah of shofar and the reading of the Megillah and similar things.” It appears from this responsum that when Rabbi Auerbach speaks of the hearing-impaired, he is referring to people who are completely deaf without the hearing aid. This issue of hearing through such an aid is linked to the permissibility of hearing blessings or fulfilling mitzvot through a microphone, something that is forbidden by Rabbi Auerbach and others, including Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg (Responsa Tzitz Eliezer vol. 8 #11), Rabbi Ya’akov Yitzhak Weiss (Responsa Minhat Yitzhak vol. 3 #38 par. 16), Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef (Responsa Yabi’a Omer vol. 1 Orah Hayyim #19) and Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Mo’adim U-zemanim vol. 6 #105) (Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Responsa Iggerot Moshe Orah Hayyim vol.2 #108, and Hazon Ish, quoted in Responsa Minhat Shlomo ibid. p. 66, note 4, however, suggest that one can in fact fulfill mitzvot through a microphone). It is a different matter, however, when a person has the ability to hear on his or her own, however faintly, for in such a case the artificial apparatus merely increases the volume of the sounds that the person would have heard independently. It is therefore permissible in this instance to leave the hearing aid in. This understanding is analogous to the position of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef (Yehaveh Da’at vol. 3 #54), who rules that while those who hear the Megillah read through a microphone have not fulfilled their obligation, those who were close enough to the reader to have heard the reading anyway have fulfilled their obligation.

May we all serve the Creator according to the best of our ability and in accordance with His Torah, until that day when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall shout aloud;…And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with shouting to Zion. Crowned with joy everlasting. They shall attain joy and gladness, while sorrow and sighing flee” (Isaiah 35:5-6, 10).