The shofar, a ram’s horn or sometimes the spiral horn of an African antelope, produces a distinctive sound. While creating this sound isn’t complex, it does require practice, explains Rabbi Alicia Jo Rabins, a musician based in Portland, Oregon. You need to take a deep breath and purse your lips, similar to playing a brass instrument.
Rosh Hashanah marks the Jewish new year and begins at sunset on Friday. Jews globally observe this two-day holiday through prayer, reflection, and celebration. The shofar, an animal horn blown like a trumpet, is a significant part of these festivities for many.
Daniel Picus, an associate professor at Western Washington University who focuses on religious practices, notes that the fundamental purpose of the shofar is to create noise. It grabs people’s attention, a role it plays throughout the Hebrew Bible. The shofar signals significant events, such as the revelation of the Torah at Mt. Sinai and the commencement of the Jubilee year. It was sounded as priests circled Jericho to bring down the walls, marking moments of intense experience and emotion.
In the Hebrew Bible, Rosh Hashanah is described as the day of trumpeting and remembrance. The connection between the shofar and Rosh Hashanah is straightforward within these texts. Centuries later, the Mishnah, the earliest rabbinic codification of law, further detailed the shofar’s use. The Rosh Hashanah tractate specifies how the shofar should be prepared and blown. Debates over linguistic interpretation affect its blowing schedule. Whether to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah when it falls on Shabbat is another debated aspect, with some modern synagogues changing traditional practices.
Further interpretations of the shofar’s sound exist. Rabbi Micha’el Rosenberg from the Hadar Institute discusses sources comparing its sound to the cries of a mother in pain. The broken staccato blasts, known as “teruah,” can resemble a mother’s cries, such as those of Sisera’s mother from the Bible. The Rambam, a medieval Jewish scholar, describes the shofar as a spiritual wake-up call, prompting individuals to seek their best selves.
Rosenberg adds that Hasidic traditions see the blowing of the shofar as a reenactment of breathing life into the world. Yet, one of the shofar’s powerful aspects is that it exceeds words and rational thoughts, embodying a pure feeling.
Rabins emphasizes that the shofar connects listeners across generations, striking a chord with the timeless human experience. It calls attention to life’s joys and sorrows, urging awareness of both the present moment and the future.
This story was developed through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.
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