"Make for yourself two silver trumpets…" (Num. 10:1-10)

The Mishna explains the verse:
"The trumpets were blown abruptly, but the shofar was blown for a long time, for the shofar was the timely mitzvah." (Rosh Hashana 3:3)

The Baal Shem Tov taught:
The Sages of the Kabbalah taught that every mitzvah, Torah, or prayer should be done with awe and love; that is, the awe and love should be equal.

...love and awe...arise simultaneously when one has a true experience of G·d.

Although love and awe are contradictory emotions, they arise simultaneously when one has a true experience of G·d. At certain times, though, as this teaching says, the context of the experience leans more to one or the other, although both are still present.

 However, on Rosh Hashanah, one's awe should be greater than one's love, while on the Sabbath and Festivals, one's love should be greater than one's awe. Therefore, on Rosh Hashanah, "the trumpets were blown abruptly, but the shofar was blown for a long time, for the shofar was the timely mitzvah," because the sound of the shofar arouses awe.

[Toldot Yaakov Yoseph, Kedoshim #5, as printed in Keter Shem Tov Hashalem, ch.130
Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Yehoshua Starrett, as posted on //baalshemtov.com. Reprinted with permission.]