The Amida recited in the Musaf service of Rosh HaShana differs from that of Shabbat and the other festivals in that the Amida contains nine blessings instead of seven: the standard first three and the last three, as in all Amida prayers, and three unique blessings in the middle which each include ten specialized verses related to the blessings. These three blessings are called Kingship [Malkhuyot], Remembrance [Zikhronot], and Shofar [Shofarot]. The first blessing includes ten biblical verses that relate to God’s kingship over all of creation. In the second blessing of Remembrance, ten verses are cited that attest to the fact that God remembers all deeds performed by every person throughout history. The third blessing about Shofar quotes ten verses describing the sound of the shofar in various historical settings, past and future, from the revelation at Sinai until the messianic redemption, about which it is stated: “It shall be on that day, that a great shofar will be sounded” (Isaiah 27:13).

The congregation first prays the Musaf Amida silently, each person to himself. In some communities, especially among Sephardim and Hasidim, the shofar is sounded during this silent prayer as well, at the end of each of the three aforementioned specialized blessings. These soundings are performed as follows: When reaching the end of the blessing of Kingship, each worshipper stops and waits for the sounding of the shofar. The ba’al toke’a waits until in his estimation most of the congregation has finished the blessing, and then he sounds ten blasts (tashrat, tashat, tarat). When he has concluded, each person returns to his personal prayer and recites the blessing of Remembrance, at the end of which he waits for another series of blasts. The same process is repeated for the Shofar blessing. The total number of blasts sounded in the silent Musaf is thus thirty. These blasts are called “the blasts heard while standing” because the congregation listens to them during the Amida prayer, which must be recited while standing.

Even one who has not yet reached the end of the relevant blessing when the ba’al toke’a begins to sound the shofar must pause and listen to the blasts and only afterward continue with his silent prayer.

At the conclusion of the silent Amida prayer, the cantor begins his repetition of the Amida, which incorporates liturgical poems that he recites with the participation of the congregation. These poems were composed in ancient times, many of them rhyming and arranged in an alphabetical acrostic.

Thirty blasts are sounded during the cantor’s repetition: Ten each at the end of the three blessings of Kingship, Remembrance, and Shofar.

After the cantor’s repetition, in the middle of the Kaddish following the Amida, he pauses and ten more blasts are sounded, bringing the total number of blasts to one hundred.

Most Ashkenazic communities do not blow the shofar during the silent Amida prayer. Instead, they blow forty blasts during the Kaddish at the end of Musaf, bringing their total to one hundred as well.

The Sephardic custom is to sound one more blast at the end of the prayers, a “great tekia,” containing the addition of many short blasts. The number of blasts they sound thus amounts to 101.