Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of The Ram's Horn - Vol. 3

HEARING SHOFAR:
THE STILL SMALL VOICE OF THE RAM’S HORN
Book Three – The People of the Ram
By Michael T. Chusid
Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 1 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FRONT MATERIAL
Title Page
About the Author
Notices
Acknowledgements
FrontMaterial.htm
Forward – by Rabbi Dr. Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi
BOOK ONE – THE CALL OF THE HIGH HOLY DAYS Click here.
BOOK TWO – FOR THE SHOFAR BLOWER Click here.
BOOK THREE – THE PEOPLE OF THE RAM.

3-1 Shepherd Nation: Shofar is a legacy of our ancestor’s vocation.
3-2 The Still Small Voice: Shofar as a call to silence.
3-3 Sometimes a Shofar is Just a Shofar: Psychological perspectives.
3-4 The Shaman’s Shofar: Tikkun olam and the healing of our souls and world.
3-5 Beyond the Days of Awe: Shofar for other holidays and rituals.
3-6 The Ram’s Horn of Passover: A proposal for a shofar on a seder table.
3-7 The Silent Shofar: Including the deaf in shofar.
3-8 Iconography and Iconolatry: The visual symbolism of horns in Judaism.
3-9 More Teachings from the Ram: Grazing among the writings of the Sages.
3-10 Shalshelet and Shofar: A trope and the chain of tradition.
3-11 After Jericho, Shevarim: Shofar insight from The Book of Joshua.
3-12 Would a Shofar by Any Other Name Smell So Sweet?: Insights from etymology.
3-13 Spirituality and “Spirality”: Shofar’s spiral shape as a map for spiritual growth.
3-14 Blow it as it Grows: Can a side-blown horn be a shofar?
3-15 Shofar, So Good: Teachings too good to ignore.
Appendices:
Scriptural References to Shofar
Bibliography
This copyrighted book is offered as a free download as a public service to support understanding and
appreciation of shofar. If you receive value from this work, please consider making a tax-deductible
donation to support Shofar Corps. Visit www.HearingShofar.com or click here to donate.
© 2009 by Michael T. Chusid
Cover Image: Akedah, from mosaic at Bet Alpha Synagogue, 6th Century,
www.jhom.com/calendar/tishrei/popup_art2.htm.
RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 3-1 – Shepherd Nation
“Shofar is part of the Jewish Operating System, the RAM that carries our
collective memory.”1
It is likely that Jews have blown and responded to shofar for as long as there has been a
Hebrew tribe. The ram’s horn was an established technology among the sheep herding
cultures of the ancient Semitic world. “The earliest portrayals of such horns in the Near
East date to the… eighteen century B.C.” 2, and their use is undoubtedly much older than
the existing archeological record.
The pastoral and nomadic children of Israel remained in an “Ovine Age” even after the
more advanced civilizations around them had entered the Bronze Age. Sheep provided
meat and milk for sustenance, wool for clothing and shelter, plus born and horn to
fashion into implements and utensils; no part of the animal was wasted.
This image, carved 20,000+ years ago in the wall of a cave in the Dordogne Valley, France, is known as
The Venus of Laussel. She is also the archetype of Eve, whose Hebrew name, Chava, means breath. The
horn she is holding is thought to be associated with fecundity, and its crescent moon shape relates to a
woman’s monthly cycle of fertility.
1
Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, speaking at Makom Ohr Shalom High Holy Day services. In this pun on
contemporary technology, “RAM” is an acronym for “random access memory, a part of a computer’s
“operating system.”
2
Braum, page 301.

This image is from a mural in the Palace at Mari, an outpost of Sumerian culture now in Syria. Parrot, the
archeologist who led the excavation, discusses the horn in his chapter on music, but cautiously speculates it
could be either a shofar or a horn for oil.3 Braun, however, states that the image, dating from the 18th
Century BCE, it is among “the earliest portrayals of [shofars] in the Near East…and are thus considerably
older than the first written mention in the Old Testament.”4
Detail from a group of Hittite musicians from bas-relief in Carchemish, 9th-8th century BCE, provides
evidence of shofar’s antiquity.5
It would have been entirely natural for shepherds to use horns as instruments. Not only
were horns readily available, they are small, lightweight, and portable – important
considerations for a nomadic people. The blast of a horn was one of the loudest noises an
individual could generate during that era, enabling the blower to be heard by an
assembled multitude or by a lone comrade far across a valley; it was the telephone of its
day. Horns were used to call assemblies, to wake the sleeping, and to sound alarms –
communication motifs that continue as themes of Rosh Hashanah.
Totem Animal
Why, then, did the children of Israel use, in particular, a ram’s horn and not the horns of
an ox, cow, or another animal in their fold? The answer is that, despite its highly evolved
3
Parrot, Andre, Assur, 1961, pg. 308, photo also by Parrrot.
4
Braun, Joachim, Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine, Page 301.
5
Erich Lessing /Art Resource, NY Image Reference : ART49211,
www.artres.com/c/htm/CSearchZ.aspx?o=&Total=243&FP=599954&E=22SIJMY9NQR6L&SID=JMGEJ
NTMAZLTG&Pic=26&SubE=2UNTWAGMT6JY, August 12, 2006

theology, literature, and laws, Judaism was – and remains at its core – a primitive
religion.
I say this without criticism, for it is the Faith’s ability to satisfy our primal urges that has
kept it vital from generations to generation. We are sustained by rituals performed over
open flames, blood rites like circumcision, earth-based ceremonies marking the seasons,
and other hallmarks of “primitive” practice more than we are by the fund drives, Hebrew
schools, bar mitzvah parties, and sermons that too often demand the attention of
“modern” Jews.
Part of our primitive legacy is that we have a totem. A totem is a symbol, usually an
animal or other natural object, used to signify a tribe or group of people. More than just a
mascot, emblem, or iconographic signature, a totem embodies a tribe’s self-identity. It
carries the tribe’s spiritual energy, informs decisions about behavior, and often acts as an
intermediary between a people and its god or gods.
Jews do not erect totem poles like those of Native American tribes in the Pacific
Northwest; our biblical proscription against graven images is too strong to allow that. Yet
our totem is alive and well and deeply rooted in our history and liturgy; our totem is the
sheep; more specifically, the ram.
Consider some of the evidence: “Sheep…are the first animals to be singled out by name
in the Bible.”6 The five books of Torah contain more than two hundred references to
sheep and make clear that sheep were a fundamental commodity in both economic and
spiritual commerce; the flock Jacob accumulated while in service to Laban is an example
of the former,7 while the requirements for sacrificing rams on Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur are examples of the latter.8 The Torah and mezuzot are written on sheepskin
parchment, and the tent of the Mishkon – the sanctuary that we accompanied from Sinai
until the building of the first Temple – was covered in tanned ram skins.9
Creation myths of many tribes recount how their totem animal brought the tribe into
being. This test, too, applies to Israel’s relationship with the ram:
6
Schochet, Elijah Judah, Animal Life in Jewish Tradition: Attitudes and Relationships, Ktav Publishing
House, Inc., 1984, page 13, Sheep are first mentioned in Genesis 4:2. The word “cattle” in Genesis 1:24
refers to the broad category of domesticated animals, not to members of genus bos.
7
Genesis 30:43, “So the man grew exceedingly prosperous, and came to own large flocks…”. On a deeper
level, the differences economic and spiritual commerce may not be clear cut, as wealth comes through God.
As Laban says to Jacob, “the Lord has blessed me on your account.” Genesis 30:27.
8
On Rosh Hashanah: “You shall present a burnt offering of pleasing odor to the Lord: one bull of the herd,
one ram, and seven yearling lambs, without blemish… And there shall be one goat for a sin offering, to
make expiation in your behalf – in addition to the burnt offering of the new moon…and the regular burnt
offering… (Numbers 29:2-6) Yom Kippur required the same animal sacrifices (except for the new moon
offering). (Numbers 29:8-11) Additional sacrifices of sheep are described in Leviticus 1:10-13, 3:6-11,
4:32-35, 5:5-6, 5:15-16, 5:18, 5:25, 8:18-29, and 9:18-21.
9
Exodus 26:14 and 36:19. The tent, itself, was made of goat’s hair cloth (Exodus 26:7 and 36:14); as
discussed elsewhere in this book, goat and sheep often carry similar meanings.

• Every Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world, we retell the Akedah, the story of
the binding of Isaac, describing how the sacrifice of a ram saved the life of our
patriarch, Isaac.10 This preserved the bloodline from which Jews descend and marked
the covenant between God and the descendents of Abraham – the biological and
spiritual bases for our tribal identity.
• The ram of the Akedah is so important to our tribe that legend tells us God created the
ram at an auspicious moment during Creation. According to Talmud, the ram was
created at twilight after the sixth day, on the eve of the first Sabbath.11
• Other legends say it was created even before the first day of Creation (see box
below). Zohar, for example, explains that the letters of bereshit – the first word of
Torah and meaning, “in the beginning” – can be rearranged to form bara tayish – “He
created a ram.”12
• The significance of the ram is reinforced each year at Passover when we recount how
the blood of a young ram, painted on the doorposts and lintels of our houses, saved
our lives on the eve of our liberation from slavery.13 Our tradition states that we have
to understand this as meaning not our foreparents’ lives, but our lives.
• The sound of the ram’s horn was seared into our collective psyche when it blew at
Mount Sinai, heralding the renewal of our covenant with God.
The Ram Whose Horns Reached To Heaven

“The ram that Abraham found caught in the thicket at Mount Moriah was one of the
seven things created before the creation of the world, along with the Torah, the rainbow
of Noah, and other precious things. The ram waited in Paradise for many centuries until
that fateful day on Mount Moriah. All this time the ram knew why it had been created,
but it was not afraid. Instead, it looked forward to fulfilling its destiny.
“Then the day came when the angel brought the ram from Paradise to serve as the
sacrifice in place of Isaac at Mount Moriah. There, its horns caught in the thicket, it
waited for Abraham to set it free.
“Nothing of the ram that was sacrificed there was wasted. The skin of the ram became
Elijah’s mantle, the gut was used in David’s harp, one horn was sounded by Moses at
10
Genesis 22.
11
Chapters of the Fathers, Samson Raphael Hirsch, 1972, 5:9. In his commentary, Hirsch says the ram and
other things created at twilight before the Seventh Day of Creation, “are part of the physical world which
was made during the first days of Creation. But their purpose is more in keeping with that of the Seventh
Day, because, like the Sabbath, they, too, have the function of training man for his moral destiny. Thus they
stand midway, as it were, between the works of the Six Days, and the Sabbath, forming a transition from
the one to the other. …the ram became the symbol of all future sacrifices by which man selflessly pledges
all of his being, his skills, his endeavors and his achievement to the fulfillment of God’s will for all times to
come.” pg 80-81
12
Attributed to Nachman of Breslov. “Tayish” is also translated as, “male goat,” another animal whose
horn can be used for shofar.
13
Exodus 12:5.

Mount Sinai, and the other will be blown by Elijah at the End of Days. And the sacrifice
itself was accepted; the fire of the Lord descended to consume the burnt offering.”14
Other midrashim add that the ashes of the ram became the foundation for the altar in the
Temple in Jerusalem.15
And others say that the ram was one of the “phenomena that seemed to partake at once of
the natural and supernatural” that were created during the twilight of the first Sabbath
eve.16 Further, “It was ordained on the eve of the first Sabbath at twilight that a certain
ram in Abraham’s time should be ownerless so that when Abraham would require one as
a last-minute substitute for Isaac, he might find it readily at hand and could rightfully (i.e.
without robbing anyone) appropriate it for a sacrifice.”17
The question remains, however: If the ram was consumed in the sacrificial fire, how
could its horns have become shofarot? Nachmanides, “answers that perhaps God gathered
the ashes of the horn and restored it to its original state. Nachmanides sees a hint of the
resurrection of the dead in the shofar. The original shofar, although consumed by fire,
was restored. The Shofar speaks of many great things, but perhaps we can add the idea
of God rebuilding and recreating even those things, or people, who have been consumed
by life, and have lost their spiritual form.”18
More, our liturgy says, “You are our shepherd, we are thy flock.”19, and Psalms, written,
according to tradition, by a shepherd, declares, “we are the people of His pasture and the
sheep of His hand,”20 and, “The Lord is my shepherd.”21 The divine promise of
redemption read in the Haftorah on the second day or Rosh Hashanah says, “He who
scattered Israel will gather them, and will guard them as a shepherd his flock.”22
14
From Gabriel’s Palace, Jewish Mystical Tales, selected and retold by Howard Schwartz, Oxford
University Press, 1993, pg 137, based on Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, Constantinople: 1514, chap. 31. See also
Book of Legends, 391:22 that attributes saying to Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa.
15
R. Nosson Scherman in Overview of Rosh Hashanah, Mesorah Publications, Ltd. pp 32-33 and We are
also told by R. Eliezer that the ashes of the ram became the base of the inner altar of the Temple, see
Agnon pg 67.
16
The Book of Legends, 16:67, and Authorized Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of
the British Empire, 13th ed., pg. 200, from The Book of Legends, pg 16, note 15
17
J. Israelstam in Avot, Soncino, p. 64, n. 3, in which he quotes Israel Lipschultz, ad loc. Found in The
Book of Legends, pg 16, note 14
18
Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, “Sound Bites: The Shofar of the Messiah,”
http://blog.thefoundationstone.org/2009/08/21/sound-bites-the-voice-of-eternity/ September 7, 2009.
19
Compare Ezekiel 34.
20
Psalm 95:7. See also Psalm 79:13.
21
Psalm
22
Jeremiah 31:10.

With the deaths of countless martyrs, we may have felt as if we were sheep being
sacrificed on the altars of history. As it is written, “But for Your sake we are killed all
day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”23
During the Roman and Byzantine periods, the ram’s horn was emblazoned on synagogue
floors, burial markers, and ritual objects in much the same way the Star of David is used
today.
In fact, the ram continues as a symbol of tribal and political identity. During the past few
years, for example, the ram’s horn has been promoted as a symbol of the State of Israel,
to be blown during observance of Yom ha’Atzmaut – Israel Independence Day.
Perhaps the selection of the ram as our totem can be understood by noting that many of
the central characters in our tribal story were shepherds; Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Rachel, Moses, and King David come readily to mind. The spiritual grounding of sheep
herding is suggested by Amos who declared, “I am not a prophet, and I am not a
prophet’s disciple. I am a sheep breeder… But the Lord took me away from following the
flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’”24 Perhaps the
experience of being alone in nature with a flock conditioned them for an encounter with
Spirit; it was, for example, while tending sheep that Moses witnessed the burning bush25
and David, presumably, wrote many of his psalms.
It must be stressed that a totem is not an idol; it has no divine powers and is not an object
to which prayers are directed. When Moses used a yearling ram for the Pascal sacrifice,
he demonstrated that we are not to deify the animal as did the Egyptians. The sages make
it clear that it is the shofar’s sound, not the horn’s physical entity that is important. (See
Chapter 3-8 – Iconography and Iconolatry.)
Judaism is skilled at making fine distinctions between the sacred and the ordinary, and
the boundary between ram as totem and ram as idol is clear; a pair of horns is unlikely to
be used as a crown on a Torah scroll, for example, because the image is too evocative of
an animal deity. This distinction, however, does not diminish the importance of the ram
to the Jewish tribal identity for the past five millennia.
The Mythic Image

Some students of religion interpret the ram as a relic from the distant past when animals
were not only symbolic totems, but were actual manifestations of divinity. For example,
Joseph Campbell, an authority on mythology, notes that the ram is “one of the traditional
Near Eastern animal avatars” of the divine and cites as examples: a Paleolithic petroglyph
of a sun-ram being worshiped, 15th century BCE Egyptian statuary of Amun (the creator
and sun-god) in the form of a ram, and iconography of Christ as a lamb.
23
Psalms 44:22. See also Isaiah 53:7, “Like a sheep being led to slaughter, Like a ewe, dumb before those
who shear her, He did not open his mouth.”
24
Amos 7:14-15.
25
Exodus 3:1.

The ram is associated with the sun in this ancient North African petroglyph26
Most interesting is his citation of a 21st Century BCE Sumerian sculpture of a ram (or
goat) chained to a thicket, an image with which Abraham could have been familiar. This
imagery is repeated in the depiction of the Akedah shown in the mosaic floor of the Sixth
Century C.E. Beth Alpha Synagogue near Galilee (See Volume Three Cover). The ram
occupies a central position in the panel and is on the main axis of the room. Campbell
describes the placement of the ram and the way it is tethered to a tree as symbolic of the
axis mundi – the link between heaven and earth.27
This statue of a goat in a bush is from Ur, the city from which Abraham and Sarah came. It suggests that
legends of a ram in a bush are very ancient.
Exploring the totemistic origins of Judaism may be anathema to those who hold that the
Patriarchs and Matriarchs knew God in the same way we do today, and that Torah was
delivered complete and engraved in stone at Sinai. Others will find their faith
strengthened by understanding that Judaism has been raised up from the primitive beliefs
of the past. Still others will profess that part of Judaism’s genius has been to take familiar
and ancient symbols and invest them with new, holy meaning.
26
From Spirit and Art: Pictures of the Transformation of Consciousness, Van James, Anthroposophic
Press, 2001, page 166.
27
Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image, Princeton University Press, 1974, pp 198-209.

Most of us lost contact with pastoral life millennia ago and no longer feel a personal
identification with sheep. But the memory lives on in our collective unconscious. Every
year, when we blow the shofar, we reenact, in the most primitive way possible, that we
are the “people of the ram.” It is our own voice we hear in the cry of the sheep’s horn,
calling to our Shepherd to let us pass beneath the staff so that we may be led to green
pastures and not culled for slaughter.28
Astrological Symbolism
The identification of the ram as the Hebrew totem may be connected to the phenomenon
of the “astrological age.” There is a slow precession of Earth’s axis relative to the stars, a
cycle taking about 26,000 years. Measured against the twelve zodiac constellations
spaced around the earth’s elliptic, Earth is said enter a new age every 2,100 years or so.29
We have recently entered the Age of Aquarius. The previous period, the Age of Pisces –
the fish – began in 234 BCE according to Vedic astrology and in 498 CE in the Western
reckoning. The adoption of a fish as a symbol for early Christians can be seen as a
declaration of the start of a new paradigm.
Aries the ram is seen on the right, between Taurus the bull and Pieces the fish in this mosaic of the Zodiac
from the Beth Alpha Synagogue.
28
Ibid, pg 276 – 280
29
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Aquarius, May 6, 2006

Preceding Pisces was Aries – the Ram – The Age of Aries began about 2300 to 1600
BCE, or about the presumed time of the exodus from Egypt. The anniversary of this
event, Passover, still occurs in Nissan, the Hebrew month corresponding to Aries.
This inspires speculation that the newly liberated Hebrew nation chose a ram as its totem
in the spirit of their “New Age.” From this vantage, the story of the Golden Calf takes on
added meaning, since the dawning of the Age of Aries also marked demise of the Age of
Taurus – the bull. As one scholar puts it, “One of the reasons that Moses was so cross
with the newly liberated Hebrews is that, when faced with adversity, they immediately
built a golden calf and returned to the god of the previous era (Taurus), not the new god
of the age of Aries.”30
How Common was it to have a Shofar?

Horn was one of the basic materials ancient people used to fashion tools and implements.
Metal was dear, pottery was heavy, and glass was not yet invented. This, and other
evidence laid out in Chapter 3-6 – The Ram’s Horn of Passover, suggests that the
Israelites used their shofarot as drinking horns. Venturing from home, a traveler would
bring his or her shofar to use for signaling, as a utensil, and even as a weapon.31 How
commonplace was this practice? We can get a sense of from the story of Gideon and his
troops.
Gideon separated the men who “lap up water with their tongues like dogs from all those
who get down on their knees to drink.”32 We are not told, however, how the kneeling
men drew water up to their mouths. While it is often assumed the kneelers used their
hands to raise the water, the Text suggests they may have used shofarot. For, when
Gideon selected the 300 lappers to go into battle, they “took the…horns of the other men
with them.”33 This indicates that the lappers did not have their own horns and may
explain why they resorted to lapping, a breach of etiquette so low it is compared to dogs.
Presumably, the men with shofarot could use their horns to scoop up water from a
kneeling position.
Why, then, did God instruct Gideon to use the less well-equipped lappers? This can be
deduced from the verse where, “The Lord said to Gideon, ‘You have too many troops
30
Harry Rand, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., http://members.bib-arch.org/nph-
proxy.pl/000000A/http/www.basarchive.org/bswbSearch.asp=3fPubID=3dBSBA&Volume=3d23&Issue=3
d2&ArticleID=3d20&UserID=3d0&, April 8, 2006
31
A shofar can be used as a club; that is afterall, the function of horns on an animal. A large shofar should
be at least as effective a weapon as the jawbone of an ass used by Samson to slay 1000 people. (Judges
15:15-16) Perhaps this is why Gideon’s troops held their shofar in their right hand – the stronger hand for
most people. Viewed this way, the battle cry, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon” takes on a literal
meaning. (Judges 7:20-21). Zangla, Dominick, (1998). Jewish Roots, Part One: Shofar and Prayer Shawl,
MV Press says that a, “…ram's horn was affordable to every family and not only could be blown in battle,
but also made an excellent weapon.”
32
Judges 7:5.
33
Judges 7:8.

with you for Me to deliver Midian into their hands; Israel might claim for themselves the
glory due to Me, thinking, “Our own hand has brought us victory.”’”34
Instead of scooping water with their hands, many of Gideon’s troops may have used shofarot to drink.35
Not only did Gideon win the battle with just 300 soldiers, he won it with the least well-
equipped soldiers – troops so dismally equipped they lacked even their own shofarot – so
no one could claim that the battle was won by a squad of elite troops.
Of the 10,000 men that Gideon tested, only 300 used their hands to drink. Based on this, I
calculate that 97 percent of the Israelites owned shofarot. If we further assume that some
of the men lost or broke shofarot earlier in the war, we can surmise that shofar ownership
was nearly universal among adult males.
34
Judges 7:2.
35
Image by James J. Tissot, 1886-1900, http://www.cts.edu/ImageLibrary/Images/oldtest/Tiss300.jpg
September 15, 2007.

Chapter 3-2 – The Still Small Voice
“And lo, the Lord passed by. There was a great and mighty wind, splitting
mountains and shattering rocks by the power of the Lord; but the Lord was not in
the wind. After the wind – an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake – fire; but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire – a
still, small voice.”36
“The great shofar is sounded and a still small voice is heard.”37
Our ancestors believed that the loud blasts of shofar would frighten away Satan, “the evil
inclination within each of us,”38 that tries to interfere with our connection with the
Divine. Today, we have the opposite condition, and it is loud noise itself that too often
interferes with our ability to meditate and do the inner work necessary for spiritual
growth. As American author James Thurber wrote, “Nowadays men lead lives of noisy
desperation.”39
As I write this, I can distinctly hear a rumble from a highway more than a kilometer
away. An alarm clock, telephone, and radio punctuate the quiet in the house. A
neighbor’s property is being remodeled to the accompaniment of pneumatic hammers and
a diesel generator. In the afternoon, there will be the din of gas engine powered
lawnmowers and leaf blowers. A jet flies overhead drowning out thought.
In our world, the blast of a shofar is a noise among noises. Its specific timbre or plaintive
cry may stir our souls, but its acoustic intensity is unremarkable.40 Compared to the
electronically-amplified sound of a cantor or choir, the “unplugged” shofar is only
moderately loud by today’s standards.
36
1 Kings 19:11-12. The Hebrew expression, “kol d’mamah dakah,” is translated as, “a still small voice,”
or, “a voice of fine silence.”
37
From the Un’taneh tokef” prayer recited on Rosh Hashanah.
38
The Complete Artscroll Machzor, page 431.
39
James Thurber, Further Fables for Our Time, 1956, derived from Henry David Thoreau’s statement,
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” http://james-thurber.quotes.ms/ July 29, 2006.
40
David Lubman, an acoustician, measured the source strength of a short shofar at 92 dB(A) at 1m; The
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, October 2003, pg 2325. As part of a science fair project,
Aaron Hoodin of Sandy Creek High School in Georgia measured the sound produced with each of a dozen
shofarot and found the average acoustical level the several instruments varied between 74 and 96 dB
measured at four feet on the bimah of his synagogue; there was not a significant correlation between the
length of the shofar and the strength of the sound it produced.
(www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/fayette/1205/22fyxshofar.html January 7, 2006 and private
correspondence). At a Rosh Hashanah service during which between 40 and 50 shofarot were blown,
Michael Chusid measured 96 dB(A), well below the 110 to 115 dB considered hazardous. (The room had
about 300 people in it and a fair amount of noise absorbent surfaces. The shofar blowers stood around the
perimeter and the sound measurement was taken in the center of the room using a Radio Shack Model 33-
2055 digital sound meter set on slow response.) As with any loud instrument, however, caution must be
exercised when blowing the shofar. It should not be blown with the horn in close proximity to a listener’s
ears. When a large number of shofarot are blown in a confined, resonant space, consideration should be
given to comfort and safety of young children, those with hearing aids, and anyone with hearing problems.

The fundamental frequency of this shofar is 376 Hz, slightly higher than an F#.41
Consider how differently its sound must have been experienced in the ancient world.
During my youth, I spent a summer working on a ranch in Southeastern Utah, one of the
least populated regions of the country. When I returned to “civilization,” its cacophony
terrified me. For our foreparents, loud noises were almost always a cause of fear, either
violent acts of nature – such as thunder or storm – or the bellicose clash of war. For them,
the acoustical intensity of shofar must have been sensational in a way that we have all but
lost.
Reik points out the numerous phrases in the Bible that describe the acoustical power of
God. Citing Amos 1:2 as an example – “The Lord will roar from Zion” – Reik comments
that, “We have certainly great difficulty in understanding this vocal performance on the
part of Jahve now that we have so long been accustomed to hear God’s voice speaking to
us softly, but impressively, in the growth and decay of nature; perhaps, however, the
ancient Jews who were more closely in touch with totemism were able to appreciate this
quality.42
Immediately prior to Revelation at Sinai, there was the loudest noise imaginable:
“…the whole mountain trembled violently. The blare of the horn grew louder and
louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.”43
This was followed by a silence even deeper. Midrash44 says:
41
Tom Levine (tomlevine.com), “Welcome to Vibrationdata” January 2007, page 7,
www.vibrationdata.com/Newsletters/January2007_NL.pdf, January 10, 2009. The researcher notes that
“Interger harmonics are present and that the higher harmonics of the teruah staccato notes sweep
downward in frequency from about 9 to 13 seconds.
42
Reik, Theodor, Four Psychoanalytic Studies: Couvade, The Puberty Rites of Savages, Kol Nidre, The
Shofar; Grove Press, Inc. 1946, pg 252
43
Exodus 19:18-19.
44
Exodus R. 29.9, quoted in Bialik and Ravnitzky 5:35, pg 79.

“When the Holy One gave the Torah, no bird chirped, no fowl flew, no ox lowed,
not one of the ofannim45 stirred a wing, not one of the seraphim said, ‘Holy, holy,
holy!’ The sea did not roar, creatures did not speak – the whole world was hushed
into breathless silence; it was then that the voice went forth, ‘I am the Lord thy
God.’”46
Had the noise stopped before the Holy One spoke? Or had we heard the still small voice
of God within the powerful noise?
The poet answers this question:

“Now in the din before the silence
I can tell you things
I didn’t say in the silence before the din.”47
The best chance we have today to experience the full impact of the shofar is to cultivate
an inner quiet during our prayers and meditations during the Days of Awe:
• Some people take a fast from speech during the High Holy Days. Nachman of
Breslov said, “On the first day of Rosh Hashanah people should be very careful to
speak as little as possible. The greater the person, the more careful he must be.”48
• Others avoid all but essential conversation, and recite the penitential prayers of the
liturgy at a whisper.49
• In my congregation, Makom Ohr Shalom, we have a two-hours long, speech-free,
meditative “healing-service” during the afternoon of Yom Kippur. Others take a quiet
walk in nature.
• Before sounding the shofar, it is announced in many congregations that, “Silence is
proper at the time of sounding the shofar and its blessings.”50
However you can, quieting the mind during the High Holy Days will help you hear the
still small voice within the shofar that calls you to teshuvah. In that place of quietude, the
shofar blows will be experienced as true blasts that can open the Gates of Repentance.
From the Sages
“It is a good custom not to speak at all from the first night until the close of Rosh
Hashanah neither in the secular tongue nor in the sacred tongue, neither in the House of
Prayer nor in any other place, neither with Gentiles nor with Jews. If one wishes to greet
others, let him nod with his head. And the Writ51 says: ‘For Thee, silence is praise.’”52
45
A type of angel, see Ezekiel 1:16.
46
Exodus 20:2
47
Yehuda Amicha:, A Life of Poetry 1948 – 1994, translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav,
HarperCollins Publishers, 1994, From “Now in the Din” page 143, originally published in Now in the Din
before the Silence
48
Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom, page 21?, found on the Breslov research institute site. maybe at
breslov.org/torah/pdf/Advice.PDF
49
Agnon pg 52.
50
Rosh Hashanah – Its Significance, Laws, and Prayers, footnote on pg 110.
51
Psalm 65:2.

“Three things are fitting for [a true Jew], upright kneeling, silent screaming, motionless
dance.”53
“If [the cry of the shofar] were accompanied by words, it would imply that we are
somehow able to initiate our return to HaShem. But when we resort to the sound of the
shofar, which is really Jewry’s collective inner cry, we demonstrate our total and absolute
reliance on HaShem to bring us back to Him.54
“One priest asked [Rebbe Yavyones],55 ‘Look, tell me why when you come in our church
it’s so quiet, you hear every word, everybody’s quiet, and you come in your shul
everybody’s making noise? You pray so loud.’ So the Rebbe answered him. ‘You asked a
very good question, but I have a very good answer. You see, your God is a young man.
He has good ears, so you don’t have to scream. We have an old, old God. So He should
hear us, we have to scream to Him.”56
Kabir Says…57
I don’t know what sort of God we have been talking about.
The caller calls in a loud voice to the Holy One at dusk.

Why? Surely the Holy One is not deaf.
He hears the delicate anklets that ring on the feet of an insect as it walks.
Go over and over your beads, paint weird designs on your forehead,
wear your hair matted, long and ostentatious,
but when deep inside you there is a loaded gun, how can you have God?
Torah Says…58
Shall He who implants the ear not hear?
52
Kunres Minhag Tov quoted in Agnon, pg 56. Chanting “To you, silence is praise” (Psalms 65:2) or the
Hebrew original can be a very effective “mantra” for cultivating an inner quite for meditation and as a
prelude to sounding shofar.
53
Rabbi Menaham Mendel of Vorki, quoted in Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Book 2, pg 302)
54
Stern, Days of Awe, pg. 134.
55
Rabbi Yehoynisen Eybeschütz, German Talmudist, ca. 1690-1764.
56
Jerome R. Minsk, Legends of the Hasidim, University of Chicago Press, 1968, pp 401-402. Collected
from a 22 year old teacher in the court of the Bobover Hasidim.
57
Robert Bly, The Kabir Book, 1971, Poem 2. Kabir was a 15th Century Hindu-Sufi mystic poet; his
writings provide another window into realm of the soul.
58
Psalms 94:9.

Chapter 3-3 – Sometimes a Shofar is Just a Shofar
“We must finally make up our minds to adopt the hypothesis that the psychical
precipitates of the primeval period became inherited property which, in each
fresh generation, called not for acquisition but only for awakening.”59
A Freudian Interpretation
Theodor Reik, Freud’s protégé, uses psychoanalytic techniques to decipher the origin and
meaning of religious ritual in the same way that he would study neurosis. By putting the
Torah “on the couch,” he looks for meaning in the discrepancies and ambiguities of what
the patient says. For example, he interprets Exodus 19, the events at Mount Sinai, as
follows:
“We will now consider some questions, contradictions and disparities in this
description. A horn is to sound, but who is to blow it? The sound of the horn
becomes louder and louder, Moses speaks and God answers loudly. Why the
accompanying noise? The people see the smoking mountain, hear the sound
of the horn and are terrified and afraid. This very same people assert that
they have heard God’s voice; but they have only heard the sound of the
trumpet. I think that the conclusion cannot be rejected that all these
contradictions can be solved at once if we assume that the sound of the horn
is God’s voice.”60
In the Torah, Reik sees other evidence that Judaism evolved from a cult of the
Ram. Exodus 34:29, for example, says that when Moses descended from Mount
Sinai, his face “keren ohr “Keren” can mean either “radiant with horns” or
“radiated light.” (See Meditation for 11th Day of Elul in Volume One.) While
modern translators usually interpret the verse as “shined with light,” the editors of
the Vulgate61 translate it to mean that Moses was “horned.” Reik believes,
“The Vulgate…is right. Moses is horned; he bears the symbol of the animal-god
feared and admired of old in the primitive period, a symbol which only gave way
to the more sublime attribute of light in the course of the centuries.”62
But to the psychoanalyst, even these observations do not explain why Jews continue to
cling “obsessively” to the rite of shofar blowing; there must be something very primal
that continues to compel us. Reik advances a theory for this “neurotic” behavior by
expanding on Freud’s theory63 that, in the “primitive horde” of early humans, the
archetypical adolescent male killed his all-powerful father, a theme that resonates in
59
Freud, Moses and Monotheism quoted in Freud, Works, ed. Strachey, Vol. 23, pp. 132.
60
Reik, pg 250
61
Latin translation of the Bible completed in 405 CE and long used as the basic text of the Bible by the
Roman Catholic Church.
62
Reik, pg 310
63
Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, 1913

Oedipus and other ancient myths. Many religious rituals derived from the son’s efforts to
expiate guilt resulting from this action while, simultaneously, taking on the symbols of
the father (horns, for example, representing the father’s sexual powers).
As culture advanced, this patricide was transferred into a sacrifice of a totem animal that
represented the power of the father-figure. Reik suggests that the bull or calf was the
original totem of the Hebrews. The events at Sinai, with shofar blowing and the
destruction of the golden calf, amounted to a rebellion against the bull father-figure by
the son, Moses who substituted a new totem, the ram, in place of the father.
Jubal shown in relief by Giotto and Andrea Pisano on entry to Duomo Campanile in Florence. (14th Cent.)
With this in mind, his exegesis continues with a close reading of Genesis 4:21, the verse
that identifies Jubal, a descendent of Cain, “as the father of all who play the harp or flute”
and, by extension, the discoverer of all forms of music:
“In the Bible, the invention of music is ascribed to an ordinary mortal whose
name only is known to us… We have found it striking that the name Jubal
coincides with the word jôbel, which means ram’s horn. We learn, however,
from the dictionary64 that the word jôbel in Ashkenazic Hebrew or jovel in
Sephardic Hebrew in itself really signifies ram, and only ram’s horn in a
transferred sense. If we have the courage to take the statement in the Bible
literally we can then translate it: the ram which is the father of all those who
play the flute and zither… The Oriental method of expression, ‘the father,’
may be taken literally, for it was the sons who imitated the roaring of the
father in the primitive society. We must not forget that in spite of this the text
of the Biblical passage has come down to us censored and mutilated–the
common noun, ram, has been changed into a proper noun in order to conceal
64
“The Talmud states that ‫ יובל‬is the Arabic expression for ram (Rosh Hashanah 3:26). Rabbi Akiba says
he heard when he came to Arabia that the ram was there called jôbel.” Reik, pg 277 ##VERIFY RH PAGE

the derivation from totemism. Two kinds of instruments, one of which, the
flute, undeniably originated from the bones of an animal, have appeared
instead of the horn of the shofar in a way that recalls obsessional neurotic
displacement. We may even suppose that the name of the original totem
animal, the bull, was replaced by the later one, the ram. This process would
correspond to the prohibition against using a bull’s horn as shofar and to the
introduction of a ram’s horn into the ritual… We have recognized that the
hidden meaning of this tale lies in the fact that the tribe had imitated the
sounds of its totem animal in the holy songs which made up an essential part
of its religious ritual… It seems probable that the sons imitated the voice of
their slain father after the conflict in the primal horde. We find this father, or
rather a later father-figure, the totem animal, in the Biblical saga–the ram is
the father of those making music… The sons who had taken possession of the
father’s dead body and believed they had gained possession of the paternal
characteristics had great-grandsons who identified themselves with the
paternal totem animal by…imitation of its voice…”65
A Reaction
One does not have to accept this theory to appreciate that it addresses a fundamental
question: What is it about the shofar’s sounds that has enabled the ritual to remain so rich
in meaning after thousands of years?
There need not be an argument between religious and “scientific” attempts to explain
human activities. They are parallel paths that have different, non-intersecting criteria for
measurement.
Reik says, “The believers…who endow the shofar-blowing with such strong effects
behave unconsciously.”66 But consciousness does not have to be the enemy of belief.
Instead, consciously understanding and embracing the shofar’s origin as the totem of our
ancient cult can make our shofar experience even more awesome. Whether the ritual
originated in divine revelation or as the manifestation of a repressed memory, the shofar
still echoes in an ancient, primal place in our soul and psyche.
More, we must remember that Reik’s work was based on theoretical constructs that are
now more than 100 years old; while Freud’s work continues to inform psychology, it was
not the last word on the subject. For example, orthodox Freudian theory was shaped
without more recent advances in anthropology, leading one reviewer of Reik’s book to
say, “much of the anthropological work of Freud (and Reik) may be as much myth as
anthropology.”67
More recent psychoanalysts have followed new paths into the unconscious. For example,
Slavoj Zizek, exploring the meaning of language and sound, cites shofar to illustrate
65
Reik, pp 276 – 280
66
Reik pg 275.
67
Milton Himmelfarb, “Freud and Judaism,” Commentary VERIFY DATE, page 293.

some of his beliefs. Referring to the theophany at Sinai, he says, “...at the very moment
when the reign of (symbolic) Law was being instituted (in what Moses was able to
discern as the articulated Commandments), the crowd waiting below Mount Sinai
apprehended only the continuous, non-articulated sound of the shofar: the voice of the
shofar is an irreducible supplement of the (written) Law.” He explains shofar is, “a kind
of ‘vanishing mediator’ between the mythical direct vocal expression of the pre-symbolic
life-substance and articulated speech...this strange sound...is strictly analogous to the
unconscious act of establishing the difference between the unconscious vortex of drives
and the field of Logos…”68
Jungian Interpretation.
The followers of Carl Jung offer another psychological perspective on shofar. In Jung’s
view, the unconscious is more than just a repository of repressed emotions and desires; it
also has creative capacity and provides a door to understanding the psyche through
dreams, art, mythology and religion. Archetypes in the collective unconsciousness are
shared by all cultures and individuals and shape the way we experiences the symbols and
shaping the symbolic dramas we enact. And, “symbols,” according to Jung, “are never
simple – only signs and allegories are simple. The symbol always covers a complicated
situation which is so far beyond the grasp of language that it cannot be expressed at all in
any unambiguous manner.”69
The prevalence of the ram in Hebrew history and the associated rituals of the shofar are
just such symbols, and we are left to interpret the contemporary meaning of the ram
sacrificed in the Akedah. According to Jung, “The animal sacrifice, where it has lost its
original meaning as an offered gift and has taken on a higher religious significance, has
an inner relationship to the hero or god. The animal represents the god himself; thus the
bull represents Dionysus, Zagreus and Mithra; the lamb Christ, etc.”70
In the view of Gustav Dreifuss, one of the first Jungian psychologists in Israel, the shofar,
“…traces the motif of the horn back to an early form of a nature-God, namely a
ram-God… The ram of the Akedah represents God himself, or more accurately, an
aspect of God or a pre-jahwistic godhead (Babylonia and Egypt). From this point
of view, God, at the beginning of the Akedah, is shown in his ram-aspect or as a
pre-biblical godhead, demanding a human sacrifice of the first born son, Isaac. In
the course of Abraham’s preparations (the three days) and his obedience, God
becomes conscious of his impulsive, natural and animal side, and sacrificed this
68
Slavoj Zizek, The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters (NY: Verso, 1996),
p. 149-155,
http://books.google.com/books?id=K77t2XTpSeMC&dq=Zizek,+The+Indivisible+Remainder&printsec=fr
ontcover&source=bl&ots=wABSNFt5W9&sig=waT5jNDvPEmp6foLYczt61xx97w&hl=en&ei=6MoqSun
4OoGGNYmM3egJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PRA2-PA149,M1, June 6, 2009. See
also Jacques Lacan, On Anxiety (1963) and Mladen Dolar, A Voice and Nothing More (2006).
69
Jung 1954 pg. 254
70
Jung 1952 pg. 423.

side of himself in the ram, saving Isaac, Abraham, himself and his creation from
destruction. The Akedah therefore portrays the transformation of the godhead.”71
He explains this further,
“This has to do with the change in the God-image in post-biblical times, where
there is a tendency to see evil no longer within God himself but in the figure of
Satan. The prayers relate that God, in his justice, wrath and anger demanded the
sacrifice of Isaac, but changed from wrath to mercy… The pious man hopes for
the same change in the godhead with regard to his own sins and possible
punishment… God is asked to remember his own capacity for compassion.
Abraham’s readiness for the sacrifice brought the change in the godhead. The
pious man, by his readiness for sacrifice, (which is no longer an animal, but
penitence, prayer and charity,) can avert the evil decree. With growing
consciousness the psychic content is no longer projected into the animal, but
experienced within; the sacrifice is then a change of one’s own attitude.”72
The shofar is a primitive legacy that survives because of its unconscious associations. As
Jung writes, “the world of primitive feeling is not entirely lost to us; it lives on in the
unconscious.”73 Jung cautioned that contemporary people rely too heavily on science and
logic and would benefit from better integration with spirituality and an appreciation of
the unconscious realm, saying, “The very fact that we in our age come to speak of the
unconscious at all is proof that everything is not in order.”74 The Jew, for example, “is
badly at a loss for that quality in man which roots him to the earth and draws new
strength from below.”75 If this is true, perhaps it explain why the earthiness of the shofar
has such a powerful attraction to us as it provides a ritualized way to recharge our
chthonic energy.
From this perspective, the shofar ritual also keeps Jews in touch with the symbolism of
the animal. Jung wrote, “when the animal within us is split off from consciousness by
being repressed, it may easily burst out in full force, quite unregulated and uncontrolled.
An outburst of this sort always ends in catastrophe – the animal destroys itself.”76 We see
this in the incident at the golden calf, where – relieved of the strictures of slavery – we
gave into our animal nature without the regulation of a code of law, leading to the
destruction of the idol and its worshippers. He continues, “If every individual had a better
relation to the animal within him, he would also set a higher value on life.”77 This can
71
Dreifuss, Gustav, “The Significance of the Shofar in the Rite of the Jewish High Holydays” The Israel
Annals of Psychiatry and Related Disciplines, Vol. 11, No 2, 1973, page 123.
72
Dreifuss, pg. 126.
73
Jung, Carl Gustav, “The Role of the Unconscious” (1918), Civilization in Transition, 2nd Ed., Bollingen
Series XX, Princeton University Press, 1970 pp 3-28,
http://members.shaw.ca/competitivenessofnations/Anno%20Jung%20Role%20of%20the%20Unconscious.
htm May 22, 2006, paragraph 44.
74
Jung, paragraph 21.
75
Jung, paragraph 18.
76
Jung, paragraph 31.
77
Jung, paragraph 32.

explains why we use the intercession of an animal’s voice, as represented by shofar, as
we undergo the symbolic death and rebirth of the New Year.
The shofar blasts also commemorate, according to Dreifuss,
“…the annual recreation of the universe by the Eternal who reigns over it. The
annual creation alludes to the archetypal motif of death and rebirth, which in the
rite is experienced as the inner renewal of man, identifying with Isaac, who was,
so to speak at the last moment, saved from death and reborn… The ram appeared
at the critical moment, between life and death of Isaac; the blowing of the shofar
recalls this crucial numinous moment.”78
Dreifuss also point to the magical power of the shofar.
“This has to do with an early concept, that the rising of the sun is dependent on
the forces of light (sun, day) overcoming the dark forces (moon, night). Man has,
so to speak, to help the forces of light to overcome darkness. This archetypal idea
is formulated religiously as ‘God needing man’ or psychologically as the need of
the self to be considered by the ego.”
This helps to explain the many midrashim that prescribe blowing the shofar to cancel the
power of Satan, the personification of darkness. It also relates to the observance of Rosh
Hashanah during the dark of the new moon, unlike most Jewish festivals that are
celebrated on the full moon.
With regards to the self and sexual identities, he comments,
“The shofar, containing the opposites of nature and spirit, represents the
paradoxical God-image… The term “self” corresponds to the God-image; it is the
central archetype and its symbols are numinous… The shofar, as a symbol of the
self, unites…the masculine-feminine opposites; masculine in its phallic form,
alluding to the strength and vigour of the ram and feminine in its form as a vessel,
container, a horn of plenty, a cornucopia.”79
While blowing the shofar is a symbol, its magical power is none-the-less real.
“The magical effect of the rite is factual enough, and in no sense illusory… The
magic rite, like all magic and indeed every higher intention, including that of
religion, acts upon the subject who practices the magic or the religion by altering
and enhancing his own ability to act… An effect that proceeds from an alteration
in the subject is objective and real.”80
Dreifuss similarly states,
78
Dreifuss, pages 124f.
79
Dreifuss, page 125.
80
Neumann 1954, pg 209, quoted by Dreifuss pg 124.

“The blowing of the shofar transforms the happening of the Akedah from an
historical to an actual, symbolic level, to be experienced anew every year. The
‘Chazan’ (prayer-leader) and the blower of the horn fulfill the priestly function,
actualizing psychologically a historical event… During the blowing of the horn
on New Year, God is actually felt present in time and space; in his destructive
aspect as in his life-saving, redeeming aspect, renouncing the sacrifice.”
The Power of a Symbol

Without its many unconscious meanings, would the shofar be such a powerful
symbol? Jung writes,
“One is reminded of the story of the young rabbi who was a pupil of Kant’s.
One day an old rabbi came to guide him back to the faith of his fathers, but all
arguments were in vain. At last the old rabbi drew forth the ominous shofar, the
horn that is blown at the cursing of heretics (as happened to Spinoza), and
asked the young man if he knew what it was. “Of course I know,” answered the
young man coolly, “it is the horn of a ram.” At that the old rabbi reeled back
and fell to the ground in horror.
“What is the shofar? It is also only the horn of a ram. Sometimes a symbol can
be no more than that, but only when it is dead. The symbol is killed when we
succeed in reducing the shofar to a ram’s horn. But again, through
symbolization a ram’s horn can become the shofar.”81
Over time, our understanding, conscious and unconscious, of the shofar symbolism can change. It
is in this way that the symbol has remained very much alive for several millennia and continues
to thrive in our generation.
Dream Analysis
“Here are some dreams containing symbols of wholeness and of the spirit:
“A woman in her thirties, who was living a life in conflict with her true nature and
instincts, dreamt: ‘The Shofar was blown, and its ancient sound cast a spell over me. My
heart said: even today the ram's horn is still blown.’
“The dreamer is moved by the sound of the Shofar and overpowered by her irrational,
unconscious being. When the Shofar is blown in the synagogue, God is present in time
and space. It is a numinous, mystical experience. But the dream also contains the motive
of atonement. By blowing the horn and by praying, the believers hope to move God to
absolve them on the Day of Judgment. And God, so to speak, renounces his destructive
side and forgives. The dream gave her a feeling of a new beginning, a rebirth.”82
81
Jung, paragraphs 27-28.
82
Dreifuss, 1973 as cited in Dreifuss, “Reflections on the Bible from a Jungian Perspective,”
http://www.israjung.co.il/dreifuss/reflecbible.htm, November 17, 2007.


Chapter 3-4 – The Shaman’s Shofar
“Jewish shamanism is about a way of consciousness that perceives magic in the
ordinary, miracle in the “natural course of events." Where most people will be
awestruck at the sight of a passing comet, the Jewish shaman will be awestruck at
the sight of a fallen leaf. It is about engaging the Creator Spirit in clear and open
relationship in the course of which the veil between spirit and matter grows
thinner and thinner and we no longer experience ourselves as observers of this
wondrous planet, but as integral components of it.”83
Excavate through layer upon layer of civilizations and the influences of many cultures,
and one finally arrives at the origins of Judaism as an aboriginal Semitic people. Living
in the hills and deserts of the Fertile Crescent, our ancestors were acutely aware of and
connected to all the wonders of creation. This awareness is captured in Torah when,
“God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” The plural pronouns
imply, “that the Creator addressed all of creation before making the human, meaning that
in creating the human, the Infinite One incorporated all of the attributes of all the animals
and plants and minerals and so on that had been created up to this point. In each of us,
then, are the powers of all the creatures of the earth.”84
Shamans from every ancient earth-based wisdom tradition understand this concept. They
can sense the energies and intelligence – some would say the spirits – of the earth and the
plants and animals that flow around and through us. By aligning themselves with these
spirits, shamans can use their energy for healing. This may be the mastery that Torah
refers to when we are told to “fill the earth and master it.”85 Shamanism is “being so
present in the known world that the unknown becomes second nature.”86
The sacred texts of Judaism are full of shamanism. Our ancestors “knew the language of
the trees and the grasses, the songs of the frogs and the cicadas, the thoughts of horses
and sheep. They followed rivers to discover truths, and climbed mountains to liberate
their spirits. They journeyed beyond their bodily limitations, brought people back from
the dead, healed the incurable, talked raging rivers into holding back their rapids, turned
pints into gallons, brought down the rains in times of drought, walked through fire, even
suspended the orbit of the earth around the sun.”87 It was, of course, God acting when
Moses turned his staff into a serpent or parted the Red Sea, but it was God acting through
His shaman.
83
Rabbi Gershon Winkler, “What is Jewish Shamanism?,” http://home.earthlink.net/~ecorebbe/id15.html ,
July 29, 2006.
84
Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Shi'ur HaKomah Torah, Chapter 4, cited by Rabbi Gershon Winkler, “What is
Jewish Shamanism?,” http://home.earthlink.net/~ecorebbe/id15.html July 29, 2006.
85
Genesis 1:29.
86
Rabbi Gershon Winkler, Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism, cited at
http://shamansdrum.org/Pages/ReviewsMagicOrdinary.html, August 5, 2006.
87
Ibid.

Traces of shamanism still abound in Judaism. We need look no further than the practice
of waving the lulav and etrog in the six cardinal directions in a ritual for a good harvest,
or the kaparot ritual, still practiced by many, of waving a live chicken over our heads on
Rosh Hashanah in a gesture of sympathetic magic for a good new year.
The growing awareness of the damage being done to Earth’s ecosystem by industrialized
society is causing many Jews to reassess our relationship to the planet.88 Is it enough, for
example, to slaughter an animal in a kosher manner but overlook that it was raised on an
mechanized feedlot that creates polluting runoff from its manure, abuse antibiotics to
control diseases spread by overcrowding, and feeds its herd grains dosed with chemicals
derived from fossil fuels that were extracted in a country that uses petro-dollars to finance
war and repression? Or must we now look for a new standard of eco-kosher?
When we start asking questions like this, we discover that the shofar can be powerful
medicine. “At times, the horn of a ram, or shofar, is employed for the healing ceremony,
sometimes as a conduit for directing herbal smoke as in smudging89, and sometimes as a
way of shifting the breath, as with other shamanic traditions where the shaman blows
healing breath into the patient. The shofar is believed to wield the power of shattering any
factors of resistance to healing that might be present90.”91
Time and again, I have witnessed the shofar’s power to heal the spiritual and emotional
wounds that afflict so many people. When I taught my friend Pam, to blow shofar, for
example, she gave a long and stirring blast, and then started shaking and crying. Calming,
after a few minutes, she explained that she had felt a wave of relief in which she was able
to commune with her dead mother and complete the mourning process. What had not
happened in years of therapy happened in a single breath.92 As a personal example, I was
experiencing a deep depression and had not responded to the medications that had been
prescribed. My wife prescribed a vacation and brought me to Big Sur, one of the most
beautiful beaches in the world. Yet I could feel no joy or delight. In a funk, I picked up a
piece of kelp that had dried into a natural hose-like tube on the beach and without
88
The rediscovery of this ancient tradition may have to do with the discovery of texts and the re-emergence
of scholarship that have been in hiding since pogroms in the Middle Ages, the Inquisition, and the
Holocaust. Rabbi Gershom Winkler writes, “Other fragments of ancient Jewish mystery wisdom remain at
this writing fossilized under glass throughout Europe, including in the archives of the Vatican and the
libraries of Munich, Paris, Rome, Oxford, and Moscow. Some of these manuscripts have finally been
photographed by Jewish scholars and restored secondhand to the Jewish peoplehood, albeit very little of it
is accessible beyond the Jewish academic libraries in New York and Israel that now house them in the form
of duplicated versions and microfilm… What these texts most importantly demonstrate is that in its
aboriginal form religious dogma and practice are given a back seat to the more immediate emphasis on
divine experience through the magic of living, of breathing, and of conscious relating with all the elements
of existence in both their spiritual and physical manifestations.” From “Judaism and Shamanism: The
Mystery Of Its History,” Pumbedissa Journal, Vol. 8; No #6, 2003.
89
Midrash Thilim 22:14.
90
Likutei HaMaHaRaN 22:5-7.
91
Rabbi Gershon Winkler, Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism, cited at
http://shamansdrum.org/Pages/ReviewsMagicOrdinary.html, August 5, 2006.
92
To be fair, the therapy brought her to the place where she was able to complete her healing with the
shofar.

forethought, brought it to my lips and sounded it like a shofar. Instantly, the beach around
me transformed from a silent, black and white film noir to a surround-sound, Technicolor
spectacular and I started laughing and playing in the waves. While it was not a ram’s
horn, the tekiah blast restored me to the wholeness I experience blowing shofar.
A congregational rabbi describes her experience of the shofar’s power to heal this way:
“Towards the end of Yom Kippur, there are always some people who look and
feel dejected: they tried hard, but just aren’t sure they ‘got it’ that year. They feel
the weight of unfinished business; they wonder if all the introspection and prayers
can really change anything. And then the final shofar blast comes, and it actually
seems to blast away the remnants of doubt and sin. The haunting sound of the
shofar somehow – through its vibration and its history – bestows grace. I have
seen the physical transformation, the relief. And I have heard it described by
people who experience the final, grand blast as…a mystery.”93
Will such personal healings help heal the ailments of the planet? You bet they will!
Because without wholeness within the individual, there can be no wholeness in the world.
Our daily prayers say, “May the one who creates wholeness in the heavens create
wholeness on earth.”94 This understanding is expressed in other traditions as “As above,
so below.” Hearing the shaman’s shofar call awakens us to tzadakah, teshuvah and
tefillah, a three-step program for tikkun olam, the healing of the world and ourselves.
The Four Elements

Many ancient wisdom traditions invoke the concept of the four elements – earth, air, fire
and water – as a system for understanding the world around them. The concept informs
Judaism as well. For example, Abraham Ibn Ezra, who lived in Spain in the 11th and 12th
centuries, wrote:
“Everything under the sun is composed of four elements, from which all things
come forth, and to which all return. These elements are fire, air, water, and earth.
The four elements are naturally stationary, and in case of having been set in
motion they return to the state they were in before. They (that is, “matter”) are
indestructible. At the time of the beginning95 earth was covered with water; over
the water was air; and over the air, fire.”96
These views influenced Maimonides who wrote:
“There are four bodies (gufim ), and they are fire (aish ), air (ruach ), water
(mayim ), and earth (afar ). They are the foundation of all that is created beneath
the firmament. All that comes from human or beast or bird or creeping thing or
fish or plant or metal or precious stones or pearls or other building stones or
93
Rabbi Deborah Orenstein, personal correspondence, July 30, 2006.
94
A free translation of the Oseh Shalom prayer in the Kaddish prayer, based on Job 25:2.
95
Genesis 1:1.
96
The Commentaries Of Ibn Ezra, www.sacred-texts.com/jud/mhl/mhl18.htm, February 4, 2006

mountains or the substance of earth, the form (golem ) of all things is composed
from these four foundations… They do not travel through knowledge or will, but
rather according to the plan (minhag ) that has been set for them.”97
When used in ritual, shofar has the versatility to represent any of the elements:
Earth: The horn itself represents earth, growing as it does on an animal that inhabits the
earth. Horn imagery, such as the cornucopia, testifies to the bounty of the earth.
Air: Our breath, flowing through shofar, is an integral part of the unitary mass of air
called the atmosphere.98
Fire: We have several metaphors that link fire to shofar. Fire is usually used during the
fabrication of shofar, softening horn so it can be shaped. Shofar’s sound, like fire, is a
manifestation of energy. Air can be blown through a tube to stoke a fire; shofar is a tube,
and its call stokes the embers of teshuvah to ignite us into actions of tzadakah. More,
prayers expressed through shofar are an expression of the fire in our souls, the equivalent
of the flames on the altar.
Water: Even with openings at both ends, shofar is an effective vessel to hold water and
was used in ages past for drinking and ritual imbibing (see Chapter 3-6 – The Ram’s
Horn of Passover). More, our sages permit us to pour liquids through the shofar before
blowing. 99 While this act is allowed, ostensibly, to make shofar easier to sound, it may
also be a nod toward creating union between the four elements.
This may explain why shofar is often more effective than words for expressing prayer:
“The Zohar teaches that the voice is comprised of three elements: fire or warmth from the
heart, wind or air drawn into the lungs, and water, the natural moisture in the lungs.
These combine in the throat region to create the spoken word.”100 Without the horn to add
the earth element, speech is an incomplete medium.
I experience this union of all four elements when I blow shofar. I wash the shofar in a
ritual of purification, reciting a blessing similar to that used in hand washing: al nitiyat
shofar – Bless God, the sovereign of the universe, who has commanded us to lift the
shofar. I stand without shoes for intimate contact with earth and grasp the horn, a product
of the earth, firmly in my hands. I inhale consciously, and remain aware of the air within
me and around me as I exhale. And I listen to the spiritual fire in the voice of shofar.
97
Cited at Rabbi Jill Hammer, “The Four Elements and the Four Seasons,”
http://telshemesh.org/earth/the_four_elements_and_the_four_seasons_jill_hammer.html February 4, 2006.
Hammer says, “Maimonides sees the four elements as the foundation of all substance, though he makes
clear that he does not see them as conscious forces. Maimonides almost certainly got his conception of the
four elements from other philosophers of his time, but the idea of the four elements as a sacred foursome is
very ancient.”
98
The element of air can also be funneled through shofar by using it in smudging rituals.
99
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Shofar, Sukkah, V’Lulav, Chapter 1, Halachah 4.
100
Zohar III, 235b, cited in Lukutey Moharan volume 5, teaching 42, note 9, page 326.

Earth. Air. Fire. Water.
God.
Other Voices
The Shaman Blows the Shofar
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi101
The Hasidic approach to the religious experience aims at empirical realization. I use
empirical in its classic meaning basing my knowledge of the religious experience on
direct observation and experiment. As an empiricist, I recognize the validity of non-
Jewish religious experience, so over the years I've explored other religions, as well as
other methods for enhancing spiritual growth. These forays have provided me with
validation for my own religion.
A few years ago, in Calgary, Canada, I participated in a symposium on mysticism, with

spokesmen for several other traditions. Among us was a medicine man from the Blood
Indian Reservation, Brother Rufus Good Striker. We were all put up at a modern plastic
motel, a place which didn't seem to hold much promise for a group of mystics. But the
setting was glorious – to the east, the Canadian prairie stretched for miles; and to the
west, the Canadian Rockies soared into the sky.
When I woke up the first morning and began preparing to say my prayers, I remembered
where I was and decided to go up to the roof. So I took my tallit (prayer shawl), tefillin
(phylacteries-small black boxes, containing prayer parchments that are worn on the arm
and forehead during morning prayers), and a shofar and rode the elevator up to the top
floor. I found the door to the roof and pushed against it slowly in case it made a lot of
noise or touched off an alarm. But it made just a slight noise; I closed it softly behind me.
The sky was still dark in the west, but in the east there were streaks of light. The roof was
a forest of air conditioners, vent pipes, and chimneys, but I found myself a corner facing
the east and began to get into my prayers.
After a few minutes, I heard the door open again and Brother Rufus stepped out onto the
roof. He too had a small bundle under his arm. We acknowledged each other's presence
with wordless nods. He also took up a position facing east and began to perform his
morning ritual.
First he took out a prayer blanket which reminded me of my tallit. Then he lit a small
charcoal fire, offered some incense, and made a burnt offering of a pinch of meal or flour.
Facing the east with his arms raised in the air, he swayed back and forth, chanting in a
101
www.havurahshirhadash.org/rebzalmanarticle5.html, August 17, 2004 ##Bibliography at
www.yesodfoundation.org/rebzalmanarticles.html says its from THE FIRST STEP. Possibly First Steps to
a New Jewish Spirit: Reb Zalman's Guide to Recapturing the Intimacy and Ecstasy in your
Relationship with God ##

language I did not understand. But I did not have to understand the language to know that
he was calling to God. At the moment of sunrise, he placed a small whist to his lips and
blew a sharp note in every direction.
I continued my own prayers and concluded by blowing my shofar. Then I wrapped up my

things and saw that Brother Rufus was doing the same. He approached me and asked in a
gentle, direct way, “May I please see your instruments? If I were at home I would have
had a sweat lodge this morning to be ritually clean before I touch them. Here at this place
all I could have was a shower. Is that all right?”
I told him it was and unwrapped my things. He looked at the tefillin. “Ah, rawhide,” he
said. Then he handled them and noticed they were sewn together with natural gut, not
with machine-made thread. He nodded to let me know he understood the significance of
using gut, a natural material with an animal's power, instead of cotton or nylon.
Then he carefully examined the knots in the tefillin, ran his fingertips over them, and said
with respect, “Noble knots.” Next he shook the tefillin and heard something move. “What
is inside the black box?” he asked. I told him there was a piece of parchment on which
was written God's name and other holy words. He nodded and I saw respect on his face. I
knew that he understood my prayer instruments and my prayers.
Then he looked at my brightly striped tallit and thought it was beautiful. He loved the
colors, which bore some resemblance to the colors of his own prayer blanket. He
examined the tzitzit (the knotted fringes at the corners of tallit) and saw the five double
knots and the windings of blue thread that create a very specific design. “What's the
message?” he asked, revealing to me that he also understood that such designs are not
random, but deliberate.
After a few moments, he picked up the shofar and looked it over. “Ram's horn,” he
commented. “We use a whistle made from an eagle bone. May I blow it?”
He blew a few loud notes through the ram's horn, handed it back, and simply said, “Of
course, it's much better than cow.”
For a moment I thought, “Better for what?” But Brother Rufus was a medicine man. He
knew that you blow animal bones to blow the demons away, to clear the air, to connect
with God, to bring about change, to say to the sleeping soul, “Hey, there, wake up! Pay
attention!”
At every step of his examination of my sacred prayer tools, Brother Rufus asked the right
questions. He was in tune with the technology of religious artifacts and he understood
them. He, coming from a very different world, approached my religious instruments as if
they were not so different from his own, and he affirmed each one.
My response reminded me of the common element of all religion, the inner experience
which transcends external variations and differences. As Reb Nachman of Breslov said,
“The Holy Spirit shouts forth from the tales of the gentiles, too.”

I do not believe that anyone has the exclusive franchise on the Truth. What we have is a
good approximation, for Jews, of how to get there. Ultimately, each person creates a way
that fits his own situation. While there are differences between Jewish and non-Jewish
approaches to mysticism in specific methods, observances, and rituals, there are no
differences in the impact of the experiences themselves. When it comes to what I call the
“heart stuff,” all approaches overlap.
Shofar Therapy102
Rabbi Ayla Grafstein
The Native Americans use smudging with sage and sweet grass to clear and heal. My
father did the same thing with the shofar.
As a child, after shul, I followed him through the streets of Toronto as he visited
homebound people. An Orthodox Jew, he blew the shofar for the confined, so they could
perform the mitzvah of listening to it. When he lifted the curved ram’s horn to his lips,
thunder rolled out of its long spiral shape. A true master “ba’al tekiah” (master of the
shattering), he could blast 100 notes without coming up for a breath. For brief amazing
moments, the cramped bedrooms of the sick and the frail reverberated with sounds from
heaven. The healing effect was palpable.
Although I was raised in the male-dominated Orthodox world, my father’s passion for the
shofar was so great that he decided to teach me. By the time I was nine years old, my
father had great nachas (joy) in experiencing my emerging skill as a “ba’alat shofar”
(master of the shofar).
Deeply imprinted by the shofar’s power in my childhood, I have been inspired to enable
others to experience it on a deeper level. “Shofar Therapy” came to me as a gift from
Above, guiding me to share a unique way to hear shofar blasts.
Shofar Therapy happens after the traditional Rosh Hashanah shofar service. Congregants
stand or sit quietly. Many cover their heads with their tallitot, creating a private holy
space in the communal setting. Together with me, a trained crew moves through the
congregation, shofaring each person individually. We spontaneously blow around heads,
arms, legs, into heart chakras – wherever we are guided by the holy Shechinah.
Whatever their level of observance, no matter what their background, all are blessed
through the sounds permeating their bodies and souls. The deafening and chaotic blasts
create a space for holiness through sound. Sometimes people laugh, creating even more
of an opening for the shofar to work its magic.
Shofar Therapy has become a highly anticipated, much loved annual minhag (custom) at
Ruach Hamidbar.103 The power of this ritual opens the gates of teshuvah (return) and
102
www.ruach.org/shofarline.php, November 17, 2007.
103
Rabbi Grafstein’s congregation in Arizona; its name means “Spirit of the Desert.” See www.ruach.org.

healing for all who are present. Shofar Therapy has also proven transformative for
spiritual counseling sessions as well as in prison and hospital settings.
A direct unbroken line exists between my childhood visits to the sick with my father and
today’s practice of Shofar Therapy. The punctuated sounds of the shofar are really one
long eternal blast, uniting generations over time, binding Heaven and Earth.
From “Rosh Hashanah: The Environment is a Broken Window”

by Rabbi Zoë Klein
We are the shaman of the world,

We are the window,
Because we stand,
Our alphabet stands as the point
Between
Animistic and machine
Abracadabra is ancient Hebrew,
I create as I speak
Oral, magic
I cast a spell as I spell
And we’ve forgotten this,
Hebrew word for Spirit and Wind is the same Ruach
The Hebrew word for soul is neshama
Like the Navajo expression for soul “the wind within one,”
Some say that the reason the Hebrew alphabet
Has no written vowels
Is because vowels are sounded breath,
Which is sounded soul
And you cannot make a visible likeness of the Divine
The Sages write that the vowels are to consonants
As the spirit is to the body
And that to speak
is to breathe life into a lumps of clay
Abara C’Dibra
To breath words, worlds, to life.
The Hasidim employ
Breathing techniques
In prayer,104
Yehudah HaLevi would begin his prayer sessions
by calling upon the winds to come
from all four directions
and fill his breath
104
Footnote by Klein: “It was God’s breath that brought Adam to life, midrash says that by learning and
practicing the secrets in the breath, Solomon could lift nature’s physical veil from created things and see
the spirit within.”

and instructs his companions
to circulate the air inhaled
from all four directions
interchangeably with their bodies.
One Hasidic reads:
If prayer is pure and untainted
Surely that holy breath
That rises from your lips
Will join with the breath of heaven
That is always flowing
Into you from above
Thus that part of God
Which is within you
Is reunited with its source.
Kol Hanshema tehallel ya
Let every breath praise you,
What are we,
After all,
But intensified sky?
Ecologist David Abram wrote:
“Given the importance
placed upon the wind and the breath
within the Hebrew tradition,
we may be tempted to wonder
whether…
the monotheism of Abraham
and his descendants
was borne by a new way of
experiencing the invisible air,
a new sense of the unity
of this unseen presence
that flows not just within us
but between all things,
granting us life and speech
even as it moves
the swaying grasses
and the gathering clouds.
Is it possible that a volatile power
once propitiated as a local storm god
came to be generalized by one tribe
of nomadic herders
into the capricious power
of the encompassing atmosphere itself?
We know that the singular mystery
revered by the children of Abraham
was an ineffable power
that could not be localized

in any visible phenomenon,
could not be imaged in any idol.”105
The name of God
Which all Jews refuse to say,
Choosing to replace it with the word Adonai,
Probably reads something more like
YHWH
Some kabbalists say the forgotten pronunciation
may have been YH
on the whispered inbreath and WH
on the whispered outbreath,
the whole name of God thus
formed by a single cycle of the breath.
The awesome mystery
of God’s name not separate
from the mystery of breathing.
The Shofar on our holiest day
Is a grand celebration of breath,
Soul, God, air.106
105
David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous, Vintage Books, New York.
106
Rabbi Zoë Klein, Rosh Hashanah 5764 / September 2003, www.coejl.org/celebrate/rh_klein.php
January 26, 2006.

Chapter 3-5 – Beyond the Days of Awe
“When you enter a town, follow its customs.”107
We learn from the above teaching that customs vary from place to place. Traditions also
change over time to meet different circumstances, as demonstrated by the following
legacy from our past:
“Unlike all other mitzvot, which we do as early in the day as possible, the mitzvah
of shofar blowing is delayed until after the Torah reading. Why? In the days of
the Roman rule in Eretz Yisrael, the authorities outlawed shofar blowing. To
enforce their decree, they placed guards in all shuls to make sure that the shofar
was not sounded. Expecting the Jews to blow the shofar early in the morning, the
guards waited till noon. When no shofar blowing took place, they left. It was then
that the shofar was sounded. This practice, rooted in distress, became an
established custom. We likewise postpone the shofar blowing until after the Torah
reading.”108
If we accept that traditions change, we no longer have to limit shofaring to the High Holy
Days. Indeed, there are a myriad of mostly abandoned shofar traditions waiting to be
dusted off and put back into the fabric of our lives. More, we can incorporate shofar into
what Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi calls “davvenology” – the exploration of new
forms of prayer and worship that can adopt tradition to contemporary circumstances. And
as Jews reconnect with the shofar as an important cultic symbol, shofar is finding its way
into music and other cultural expressions.
Announcing Shabbat
Talmud describes how the shofar was used to call laborers from the field in time to
prepare for Shabbat.
This manuscript, now in the British Museum, shows a horn blower (on left) signaling workers in the field.
107
Genesis Rabbah 49:14 quoted at 642:10 of The Book of Legends.
108
Beis Yosef 585, quoted in Meisel, pg 94. See also,
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=653&letter=S, September 1, 2007.

“Six blasts were blown on the eve of the Sabbath. The first, for people to cease
work in the fields; the second, for the city and shops to cease [work]; the third, for
the lights to be kindled… Then there was an interval for as long as it takes to bake
a small fish, or to put a loaf in the oven, and then a tekiah, teruah, and a tekiah
were blown and one commenced the Sabbath.”109
“In the Temple, they never blew the trumpet less than twenty-one times a day, nor
oftener than forty-eight times… On the eve of the Sabbath, they blew six times
more: thrice to interdict the people from doing work, and thrice to separate the
holy day from the work day.”110
This Hebrew instruction, found in excavations outside the outer walls of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,
directs us, “to the place of trumpeting.” (1st BCE)111
It is still used to announce Shabbat at some Jewish summer camps, and can be adapted
for use domestically:
“I have found these practices to greatly enhance the joy-oneg of Shabbat.

Following the Talmud in Shabbat, I brought a shofar which we blew six times
prior to candle lighting… Blowing the shofar is a dramatic 'havdalah,’
differentiation from the week of work and stress. It signifies renewal and links up
Shabbat with Rosh Hashanah. I have also learned that Jews never tire of hearing
the shofar and that it has very positive associations. One suggestion: Let a kid
blow the shofar. It helps him or her feel that Shabbat is special.”112
Other Holidays
Beyond Elul and the High Holy Days, the call of the shofar can be employed to mark
many Jewish rituals and festivals:
109
Tractate Shabbat, 35b, www.come-and-hear.com/shabbath/shabbath_35.html, September 14, 2005.
110
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Succah, Rodkinson translation, Book 4: Chapter V, www.sacred-
texts.com/jud/t04/suc07.htm, February 17, 2006.
111
Location: Israel Museum, Photo Credit: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY,
www.artres.com/c/htm/CSearchZ.aspx?o=&Total=243&FP=599954&E=22SIJMY9NQR6L&SID=JMGEJ
NTMAZLTG&Pic=25&SubE=2UNTWAGJBBTT, August 12, 2005
112
Rabbi Dov Gartenberg http://www.rabbiblog.org/2006/05/some_shabbat_at.html, May 7, 2006.

Rosh Hodesh: While a silver trumpet was blown in the Temple at the new moon, a
shofar is a fitting accompaniment to contemporary observances.
Sukkot: The Biblical injunction to sound the horn on the new moon festivals applies to
Sukkot.113 In the Second Temple, the shofar was sounded every day of the Festival.114 In
some Sephardic communities, the practice continues on Hashanah Rabbah, the final day
of the Festival.115 The tonal sound of the shofar can be combined with the percussive
rhythm of shaking the lulav to create a sonic field appropriate to the holy days.116
Hanukah: References to “trumpets”117 in 1 Maccabees announce themes that underlie

the holiday. For example, we learn the importance of the faith that undergirded the
Hasmodean revolt:
“They fasted that day, put on sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on their heads, and
rent their clothes…and they cried aloud to Heaven, saying, "…How will we be
able to withstand them, if thou dost not help us?" Then they sounded the trumpets
and gave a loud shout.”118
We recall their struggle at arms:
“Then the men with Judas blew their trumpets and engaged in battle. The Gentiles
were crushed and fled into the plain, and all those in the rear fell by the sword.”119
And we are called to rededicate ourselves as they rededicated the Temple:
“Then said Judas and his brothers, ‘Behold, our enemies are crushed; let us go up
to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.’ …They fell face down on the ground,
and sounded the signal on the trumpets, and cried out to Heaven. Then Judas
detailed men to fight against those in the citadel until he had cleansed the
sanctuary.”120
The celebration after the Temple was restored lasted for eight days. Some historians
propose that theses days allowed the Jews to belatedly observe the eight days of Sukkah
113
Psalms 81:4. See Chapter 1-2 – Five Translation Challenges, for additional remarks.
114
Book of Legends, pg 182:82.
115
www.askmoses.com/qa_detail.html?h=100&o=150, January 10, 2006. See, also, Adler.
116
Mordehai Wosk, Vancouver, BC, personal conversation, September, 2007.
117
While the Book of Macabees was probably written in Hebrew, it is now known only from its translation
into Greek. We can only speculate, therefore, wether the original had referred to “trumpets” or “shofarot.”
Both metal trumpets and and horn shofarot were used in the Temple of the era. However the shofar seems
to have dominated as a cultural image as evidence by its widespread depiction in archeological remains
from the time. More, the use of the common ram’s horn would be more consistant with the equipment
available for the guerilla war fought by the Jews.
118
1 Maccabee 3:47-54 (exerpted). Translation from The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is
copyright © National Council of Churches of Christ in America
119
1 Maccabee 4:13-15.
120
1 Maccabee 4:36-41 (excerpted).

and Shemini Atzeret, holidays that could not be observed in the Temple during their
customary dates. The Book of Maccabees, for example, says, “They celebrated it…with
great joy, like they would have celebrated Sukkot…”121 As noted in the comments about
Sukkah (above), this would have occasioned shofar sounding on Hanukah.
More, Psalms say to blow shofar on the new moon, an event that coincides with the final
night of Hanukah, on Rosh Hodesh Tevet when the month of Tevet begins.
Shofar imagery in this glass menorah recalls the trumpet blasts of the Maccabean struggle.122
As you light you hanukiah - Hanukah candelabra, listen closely. In the quiet whisper of
the burning flames you may still hear the timeless blare of the ram's horn calling us to
dedicate ourselves to the cause of freedom. Better yet, blow the shofar to help, “retell the
things that befell us.”123
Tu B’shevat: In many communities, it is customary to eat the dried fruit pods from carob
trees on this holiday. Carob has an etymological link to shofar. The tree is called keratia
in Greek and ceratonia in Latin, both terms that mean “horn” and related to keren,
Hebrew for “horn” – clear references to the carob pod’s flat, curved shape and hard
texture. Midieval Germans call it bockshorn, meaning “a buck’s or ram’s horn,” and this
was corrupted into the Yiddish word, bokser.124 So as we enjoy eating the “ram’s horn”
of Tu B’shevat, the “New Year of the Trees,” we can reminisce on the ram’s horn of
Rosh Hashanah, the “New Year of Creation.”
Dried carob pod shows similarity to curved shape of shofar.125
121
II Maccabees 10:6.
122
Artist: Joel Bless and Candace Luke-Bless, Glasslight Studio (www.glasslightstudio.com) P.O. Box
310, St. Peters, PA 19470 610-469-9066, fax 610-469-0981
http://www.glasslightstudio.com/html/judaica.htm August 30, 2008
123
Lyrics from to popular Hanukah song.
124
Philologos, “A Brief on Bokser,” Forward, February 5, 2005, www.forward.com/articles/2887/,
February 1, 2009
125
Photo by Osvaldo Gago, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carobs.JPG August 4, 2009.

Purim: “That makes as much sense as reading the Megillah – the book of Esther – on
Rosh Hashanah and blowing the shofar on Purim.” The expression suggests that
something is meshuge – Yiddish for nonsense. While it is customary to make loud noises
during the reading of the Megillah – the Book of Esther, some might say that would be
meshuge to sound a shofar to drown out the name of Haman, the villain of the Purim
story. From a historical perspective, however, and with a deeper understanding of the
issues, shofar blasts may be the most appropriate noisemaker to use on Purim.
For example, midrash tells us that during Esther’s fast,
“Mordechai gathered around him the Jewish…children from all the Jewish
schools. Sitting in sackcloth and ashes, in the manner of mourners, the children
raised their voices in weeping and prayer to God day and night… Heartbroken,
the mothers rushed to their children, bringing them food and water. But the brave
little children swore that they would rather perish in the fast. ‘We shall remain
here with our dear Mordechai until we are torn from him by force,’ they declared.
At that moment, twelve thousand Jewish kohanim, priests, each one holding a
scroll of the Torah in one hand and a shofar in the other, raised their voices with
prayers and supplications to the Almighty: ‘0 God of Israel!’ they cried, ‘If Your
chosen people perish, who will study Your Torah? Who will praise Your holy
name? Answer us, 0 God, answer us!’"126
Haman’s edict to exterminate Jews throughout the Persian Empire was a crisis of the
highest order. During times of crisis, we are mandated by Torah to sound trumpets, a
practice further elaborated upon by the laws of fasting (See Chapter 3-5 – Beyond the
Days of Awe). From this perspective, sounding shofar Purim reminds us that our
salvation from Haman’s scheme was dependent upon the collective repentance and
prayer of the Jewish people. Even though God is not mentioned in the Book of Esther,
our sages make it clear that our fate was determined by the King of Kings; God heard our
cries, vocal and shofaric, and found merit in our teshuvah. A shofar blast in the midst our
Purim merry making reminds us that, even when God seems hidden, we must have faith.
As the events in the Persian court unfolded, the procession leading Haman to the gallows
was, “joined by the kohanim blowing trumpets to herald the condemned Haman.”127
Then, after Mordecai is appointed viceroy, “Palace pages with trumpets escorted him
through the streets of Shusan…”128 The trumpets in the former instance were almost
certainly the same shofarot the priests had blown during the fast, while the later were
probably silver trumpets suitable for use by the royal court, perhaps even the trumpets
taken by the Babylonians from when they sacked the Temple in Jerusalem. These
126
The Complete Story of Purim, Nissan Mindel, Kehot Publications Society, Brooklyn, NY,
www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article.asp?AID=1353, February 5, 2006. The midrash is also cited in Let
My Nation Live, Yosef Deutsch, Art Scroll, 2002, page 230. According to Rabbi Dovid Zak at chabad.org,
the story is based upon the midrash, Shalom Esther, on verse 4:17. It is also cited in Me’am Loez (Torah
Anthology) by Rabbi Yaakov Culi, 1750, see www.englishtorahtapes.com/esther_meamloez.htm and
personal correspondence with Rabbi Menachem Posner of chabad.org.
127
Deutsch, page 315.
128
Deutsch, page 330.

traditions reflect the spirit with which we make noise during the Megillah reading – to
blot out the memory of Haman and to laud our heroes.
Midrash tells us that we received the Written Torah of our own free will at Sinai, but that
God had to hold the mountain over us and threaten to crush us with it before we accepted
the Oral Torah. During our teshuvah in Persia, it is said that we finally accepted the Oral
Torah of our own volition.129 We heard shofar when we accepted the Written Torah at
Sinai, and we heard shofar when we accepted the Oral Torah in Shusan. Sounding shofar
on Purim commemorates this milestone in our heritage.
Mordechai being led through city, acclaimed by “trumpets”.130
The Hidden Shofar

While God is not mentioned in Esther, Jewish tradition says that the Holy One was
present, even if she was hidden. The shofar, too, is linked to the hidden; it is blown on
Rosh Hashanah to coronate the unseen God, and the psalmist instructs us to, “blow shofar
when the moon is hidden.”131 Perhaps shofar is also hidden in plain view in the Megilah.
Consider: At a feast given by King Ahasuerus in Chapter One of Esther, “Royal wine
was served in abundance, as befits a king, in golden beakers, beakers of varied
designs.”132 To advance the narrative, we only need to know that the revelers were
getting soused. Why, then, are we told about the beakers? And why, especially, are we
told that there are two types of beakers, golden ones and others of “varied designs?” Is
this just a literary device to provide color, or is there a deeper meaning?
129
Some might say, however, that the threat of annihilation was tantamount to being threatened with
crushing by a mountain.
130
Society for Promoting Christianity, c. 1900,
http://perso.orange.fr/image26/1T/Est0101_Events_portraits/source/16.htm, August 19, 2006.
131
Psalms 81:4.
132
Esther 1:7.

The Hebrew word translated here as “beaker” (and more frequently translated as
“vessel”) is “k’lee” or k’lee’m in the plural. K’lee has several meanings, and is most often
used in Torah in reference to ceremonial implements such as those used in the Temple in
Jerusalem. The archeological record suggests that the golden beakers used by the king
and his satraps were probably rhytons. As discussed in Chapter 3-6 – The Ram’s Horn of
Passover, rhytons are horn-shaped vessels that were used for libations throughout the
lands and times of the Old Testament.133 The gold rhyton shown here134 was excavated at
an Achaemenid Dynasty site in Ecbatana, Iran and dates from 500-450 BCE during the
reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes).135
We are told that the “high and low alike”136 from Shushan attended the banquet. While
the “highs” may have been served with “golden beakers” like this rhyton, it is unlikely
that the “lows” received similar treatment. Instead, they would have been served with
k’lee of “varied design,” including bowls and animal bladders. I believe, however, that at
least some of the varied designs were drinking horns. Horn was a common material that
enabled the common people to emulate the fashions of the court by drinking from a
rhyton-like vessel despite their lack of access to precious metals. It is ironic that, by
drinking from a horn, the hoi polloi imitated a design that imitated a horn.137
Linguistic clues support this hypothesis. For example, k’lee is also used in Torah to
describe domestic utensils. When the prophet Elisha tells a widow to “Go...and
borrow…empty k’lee’m, as many as you can…and poor [oil] into all those k’lee’m,”138
some of the borrowed vessels may have been earthenware or metal. However, we know
from other Torah verses that horns were also used as oilcans.139 From this, I surmise that
k’lee can refer to vessels made from horn.
More, k’lee also means “an instrument,” a definition that has given us the name for
“klezmer” music – a compound of k’lee (instrument) and zemer (song). Clearly, a shofar
is a type of k’lee.140
Perhaps the rabble, after draining the wine from their instruments, put their horns to their
lips and blew their shofarot – the original party noisemakers.
133
While drinking bowls were also used in the ancient world, their use does not appear common among
Israelites. For example, the prophet Amos cites drinking from wine bowls a form of licentiousness that will
lead to the downfall of Israel; see Amos 6:6.
134
www.livius.org/a/iran/hamadan/ecbatana.html, March 21, 2008, currently in Archaeological Museum of
Tehran. © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to
acknowledge Livius.
135
King Solomon also had k’lee of gold, according to 1 Kings 10:21. We are told this immediately after
description of his elaborate throne, suggesting that his k’lee would have been similarly elaborate – not
unlike the royal rhyton in the archeological record.
136
Esther 1:5.
137
King Solomon also drank from golden k’lee’m, see 1 Kings 10:21 and 2 Chronicles 9:20.
138
2 Kings 4:3-4..
139
1 Samuel 10:1, 16:1, 16:13 and 1 Kings 1:39.
140
It is interesting to speculate on the potential meaning of Torah verses containing the word k’lee if we
assume it refers to “shofar.” See, for example, Genesis 27:3, Numbers 31:6, Deuteronomy 1:41, etc.

Toward the end of the book,141 the Jews mount a self-defense against those trying to carry
out the annihilation planned by Haman. They probably used shofarot as Jews did
repeatedly throughout Torah, as a war cry. Then, when the, “village Jews, who live in
unwalled towns, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and make it a day of
merrymaking and feasting,”142 I suspect they said l’chaim while hoisting shofarot filled
with their local brew or vintage. As poor farmers and shepherds, they certainly didn’t
have golden beakers (and we are told that they took no spoils143), so they drank from their
ordinary implements. Finally, having wet their whistles, I am sure they went on to blow
their shofarot, creating the noise we still honor by making a ruckus on the anniversary of
their salvation.
Thus the book of Esther begins and ends with hidden allusions to shofarot. At the
beginning of the book, however, the blasts of the k’lee are hedonistic toasts to a secular
king. But at the end of the book, the blasts of shofar are shouts of joy and gratitude to the
hidden King of Kings.
I can’t prove this scenerio. But it is sound enough to justify my meshuge Purim practice: I
fill my shofar with schnapps, drink it down, and then toot until I don’t know if I am
trumpeting Haman or blasting Mordecai.
Passover: See Chapter 3-6 – The Ram’s Horn of Passover.
Counting the Omer: There is a parallel between the 49-day cycle of counting the Omer
(between the second day of Passover and Shavuot, the anniversary of receiving Torah )
and the 49-year cycle leading to the Yovel (Jubilee year). Torah was received amidst
blasts of shofar, and Yovel is announced by sounding shofar.
Shavuot: What could be more appropriate than sounding the shofar on the anniversary of
the sounding of shofar ßduring revelation at Sinai! A contemporary study guide for
Shavuot aims to recreate a sense of the awe experienced at Sinai. It suggests gathering in
a darkened and quiet room where, “a participant sounds the shofar, at first softly and then
louder and louder.” as a prelude to study.144
Revelation – Shavuot 5766

Following its custom, my congregation – Makom Ohr Shalom – stands in a circle on
Shavuot and unrolls the Torah so the spiral of the Scroll can be seen as an endless circle.
As Gabbai Mike Melnick reads lines from each of Her five books, I reflect on the sound
of shofar that blared as we received Torah at Sinai.145
141
Esther Chapter 9.
142
Esther 9:19.
143
Esther 9:15 and 9:16.
144
“Together at Sinai – A Study Program for the Night of Shavuot,” Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, 2002
145
Exodus 19:16.

That sound wave would have been – and still is – omnidirectional. The voice of a shofar
blown in the center of the Torah circle would travel into the world in a spherical wave.
The impinging energy would cause the band of parchment to ripple, jostling the
molecules to realign themselves according to the patterns contained in the shofar.
As I think of this, I see the Torah as a tangible imprint of the great shofar blast of
revelation, a way of “seeing the sound” as it is written in Exodus, “All the people
saw…the voice of the shofar.”146 The physicists say that energy and matter are the same,
and I understand that shofar’s voice = Torah, and to know one is to know the other.
Then, I realize that a sound originating from an all-surrounding acoustical field would
focus at a point in its center. What would it sound like if each of the 304,805 letters of
Torah were to become audible all at once? Surely it would create a mighty shout, a shout
that can still be heard in the roar of shofar.
I am holding the bet at the beginning of Torah, and I tell this to David Platus who is
standing next to me holding lamed at the end of Torah. David, a scientist whose work is
in vibrational energy, says, “It may be a roar, but I am sure some people can hear and
understand each individual letter as Torah speaks.”
This is key to hearing the shofar. It implies that, when we listen to shofar and hear each
of the letters of Torah, we can also hear the aleph – a silent letter – and the still small
voice of the Divine.
No sooner do I understand this, than Reb Moshe Halfon, standing within our circle, tells
us in the name of the Rimanover Rebbe:147 “When God spoke to us at Sinai, it was too
awesome for us to hear all the Commandments. We couldn’t even hear the entire first
sentence God spoke. All we were capable of hearing at Sinai was the first letter of the
first word God spoke, the silent aleph of ‘Anochi – I AM.’”148
To Announce a Death or Funeral: Some communities blow the shofar while preparing
a body for burial149, and others at funerals and burials.150 A precedent to blowing “Taps”
146
Exodus 20:15.
147
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rimanov (d 1815).
148
Exodus 20:2.
149
“Clearly great respect is paid to the body in Judaism after death. The body of the deceased is washed
with care and reverence. During the cleansing and purification of the body, not less than two persons are
present who are prohibited by ritual law from smoking, eating or drinking or idle conversation. While they
cleanse the body, prayers based on the Song of Songs are recited that speak of the beauty of the body. To
remind those who wash and dress the deceased of the respect due the deceased, a candle is placed at the
head of the deceased. In the Sephardic tradition a Shofar, ram's horn is sounded during the ritual
purification.” Harold M. Schulweis, “Reflections on Dying, Death and the Hereafter,” 1998,
www.vbs.org/rabbi/hshulw/uniqfour.htm, August 15, 2007.
150
Horodetz (Belarus): History of a Town, 1142 – 1942, “The Death of the ‘Old Rabbi,’” Alter Ellman,
www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/gorodets/gor024.html February 26, 2006, describes an instance at the funeral of
the Rabbi of Horodetz, Belarus in 1902. Kabbala Online.org in “The Demise of Death’s Dance” by Isaiah
Horowitz downloaded 8/15/05 (url incomplete) says, “There is an ancient custom to try to confuse the
Angel of Death by blowing the shofar…when somebody dies or during a funeral.” In about 400 CE in

on a bugle serves the same function as the modern rendition – to focus the attention of
those within earshot, express the feelings of the community, and accompany the spirit’s
transition to another realm.
It also expresses the image of the resurrection of the dead when the Messiah comes,
accompanied by the sounding of “the great horn,” and pleads for God to judge the
deceased and the community with mercy and not strictness.
Hand Washing: Jewish hand washing rituals typically use a pitcher with two handles so
that water can be poured on each hand without an already washed hand having to grasp a
handle that has been dirtied by the other hand. The same effect can be achieved with a
shofar. This potential was brought to my attention by an innovative and elegant ritual
“washing cup”; the cup is a glass cylinder that is bent in a distinctly hornlike curve and
open at both ends like a shofar.
Other Occasions: Shofar is blown to seal an excommunication, has been blown in the
mikvah during conversion rituals,151 and I have heard it blown at a “creative” Jewish
wedding after the breaking of the glass.
“September 1 is a happy day in Israel. After a long, hot summer, which hosts the
troublesome combo of vacationing children and working parents, kids go back to school.
As my children excitedly described their first day back to school, they noted ‘and then he
blew the shofar.’ Jewish experiences like hearing the shofar on the first day of school tie
our religious and cultural heritage to our secular 21st century lives. These Jewish
experiences add depth to our lives and wholeness to our identities.”152
Exorcism
The use of loud noises as a tool to free a soul from demonic possession is surely an
ancient practice, and the shofar is the tool of choice in the ritual to remove a dybbuk. The
term “dybbuk” comes from the Hebrew verb “ledavek” – to cling. It refers to a wandering
or restless soul of a dead person that inhabits or clings to the body of another living
person.
Today, we would most likely diagnose a person exhibiting a dybbuk as having mental
illness. Medical science recognizes that physical manifestations of disease can have
psychological or emotional origins; perhaps someday we will again recognize that illness
can also be spiritual in origin. If so, then perhaps exorcism will once again become an
accepted part of the healing arts. Chapter 3-4 – The Shaman’s Shofar, describes several
uses of shofar to cure spiritual malaise.
Babylonia, shofar was sounded to announce a death, according to Encyclopedia Judaica, v. 14, pg. 1146.
See also Mo’ed Katan 27b.
151
Jewish Journal, September 17, 2004, pg 25.
152
“Shofars in Schools,” About.com Judaism Blog, September 1, 2008,
http://judaism.about.com/b/2008/09/01/what-are-the-jewish-high-holidays.htm December 16, 2008.

“One day he told us a story that is found in one of the holy books. If I am not mistaken,
the author of that book is Rabbi Eliyahu Graidiker, or one of the other Graideker sages.
The story was about a girl possessed by four demons. It was said that they could actually
be seen crawling around in her intestines, blowing up her belly, wandering form one part
of her body to another, slithering up her legs, The Rabbi of Graidik had exorcised the evil
spirits with the blowing of the ram's horn, with incantations, and the incense of magic
herbs.”153
According to one contemporary rabbi who has conducted exorcisms, “We blow the ram’s
horn in a certain way, with certain notes, in effect to shatter the body, so to speak. So that
the soul who is possessing will be shaken loose. After is has been shaken loose, we can
begin to communicate with it and ask it what it is here for. We can pray for it and do a
ceremony for it to enable it to feel safe and finished so that it can leave the person’s
body.”154
“According to [R. Hayyim] Vital, in stubborn cases, it is necessary to combine the

meditations with a blast from a shofar…in the possessed’s ear. The notion that a blast of
the shofar is capable of putting demons to flight is evident in the earliest strata of rabbinic
literature… The trumpet of a ram’s horn can easily be understood as having played a
cathartic role in the healing of the possessed, a purging that, in the Aristoltelian sense,
had religious as well as medical connotations. Levi-Strauss explained the power of
dramatic performances to heal as stemming from ‘the efficacity of symbols.’”155
Fast Days
Just as loud noises have been used throughout the ages to free the individual gripped in
crisis, so too has the shofar been used to as a tool to confront calamities that befall a
community. Torah tells us to make trumpets to summon the community, and it is through
collective action that most trials can be overcome. She also tells us, “When you are at war
in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound…the trumpets that
you may be remembered before the Lord your God and be delivered from your
enemies.”156
While the text implies that God should remember us, the sounding shofar also has the
effect of awaking us so we remember who we are, for it is through teshuvah – returning
to our true purpose, that we are able to take the steps necessary to overcome adversity.
Maimonides wrote,
153
Isaac Beshevis Singer’s autobiography, In My Father’s Court, 1966, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New
York, page 11.
154
Gershon Winkler quoted in “Dybbuk – Spiritual Possession and Jewish Folklore” by Jeff Belanger, Nov.
28, 2003, www.ghostvillage.com/legends/2003/legends32_11292003.shtml January 1, 2006
155
Jeffrey Howard Chajes, Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism, University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2003, page 82.
156
Numbers 10:2 and 10:9.

“It is a positive mitzvah – holy commandment – from the Torah to sound and
announce with trumpets any time tragedy besets [the community]… This is a
method of doing teshuvah. When adversity occurs and we cry out and announce
it, everyone will know that it is because of our bad deeds . . . and this will cause
the suffering to depart from them. However, if we do not trumpet and announce it
and instead say that this is just a coincidence, just something natural that is
happening to us; this is insensitivity and cruelty. It causes them to remain
steadfast in their evil deeds and other tragedies will be added to their
suffering.”157
In the past, disasters calling for trumpeting included war, plant disease, drought, famine,
and locust as examples calling for trumpeting. For example,
“…in antiquity a locust plague and other noxious insects were widely regarded as
divine punishment meted out on the sinful. In such cases nothing could be done
except to submit meekly in penitence, offer up prayers, offerings or other rituals
as prescribed by the respective religions… In the Jewish tradition, in Biblical
times, reliance was placed chiefly on the mercy of the Lord by praying and
proclaiming a fast and a solemn assembly.158 In the Talmudic literature locusts are
included among the disasters for which the alarm of the shofar was sounded and a
public fast held.”159
Today we have sirens and emergency broadcast systems to notify people of physical
danger. Yet the shofar remains a powerful tool for alerting the community to spiritual
dangers, including the dangers of unjust wars and of plagues and droughts caused by poor
stewardship of the planet.
Fasting with Joy

“Once, when the Jews were passing through a period of great stress, the rabbi of Apt who
was then the eldest of his generation issued a command for a universal fast in order to
call down God’s mercy. But Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn summoned his musicians, whom he
carefully selected from a number of different towns, and night after night he had them
play their most beautiful melodies on the balcony of his house. Whenever the sound of
the clarinet and the delicate tinkle of little bells floated down from above, the hasidim
began to gather in the garden, until there was a whole crowd of them. The music would
soon triumph over their dejection and they would dance, stamping their feet and clapping
their hands.
“People who were indignant at these doings reported to the rabbi of Apt that the day of
fasting he had ordered had been turned into a day of rejoicing. He answered: ‘It is not up
157
Laws of Fasting (Hilchos Taanis) 1:1-3,
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5762/DVR62orschnbrg3.htm, May 10, 2006.
158
Joel 2:15.
159
David Nevo, “The Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria, and Its Control in the Land of Israel and the
Near East in Antiquity, with Some Reflections on Its Appearance in Israel in Modern Times,”
Phytoparasitica 24:1, 1996, at www.phytoparasitica.org/phyto/pdfs/nov95/dnevo.pdf, August 28, 2006.

to me to call him to account who has kept the memory of the command in the Scriptures
green in his heart: “And when ye go to war in your land against the adversary that
oppresseth you, then ye shall sound an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be
remembered before the Lord your God.”160’”161
Creative Contemporary Ritual

In the ancient world, the shofar was our basic telecommunications technology. If a
shepherd needed help in the field, for example, he or she would blow a horn to summon
anyone within earshot. It has been blown in times of war to call the charge and will, I
hope, be blown to announce the peace. Because it is no longer used for such secular
service, its voice is more available for our use in a wider range of spiritual and ritual
applications.
In the broader community, I have blown shofar in conclaves such as:

• A ceremony marking the completion of a yearlong course of spiritual study.
• While dancing around a campfire on retreat with a men’s drumming circle.
• At a ritual of forgiveness during a workshop connected to a Twelve Step program.
• As a spiritual alternative to blowing candles at a birthday party.
Invariably, when I blow shofar in a venue such as these, someone comes up to me later to
tell me that he or she had been estranged from their faith, but that something inside them
was stirred when they heard the shofar. This is an example of how deeply seated the
shofar is in the Jewish soul and how it can be like the shepherd’s horn calling the flock to
return. Many non-Jews have similar responses to the call of shofar.
I also use shofar in more personal ways. For example, I have blown shofar:
• When I have moved out of or into a house as part of my personal ritual of spiritually
cleansing the house; the shofar blast acting as a sonic mikvah for the premises.
• In moments of private prayer when I had no words with which to call or acknowledge
God.
• In the spirit of the Jubilee, to mark the satisfaction of a debt or the beginning of a
sabbatical.
• To wake myself up when I have found myself in places of spiritual darkness. And,
• At moments of great joy to trumpet my gratitude.
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb uses the shofar in intercultural workshops. At an intercultural

encampment in Southern California, traditional land of the Chumash nation, for example,
“we blew shofar and conch shell together, Chumash and Jewish sounds – and talked
about each of our traditions relating to the instruments. I am doing a lot of teaching about
a concept I call Shomer Shalom [guardian of peace]. I always use the shofar to create a
meditation for peace, talking about the blasts as a reconciliation process.”162
160
Numbers 10:9.
161
Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Book 2, pg 55. Compare Jerome R. Mintz, Legends of the Hasidim,
University of Chicago Press, 1968, page 260.
162
Personal correspondence, September 7, 2005. See http://shomershalom.org/.

Shofar and Music
Scholars argue whether the shofar is a “musical instrument” or merely a “noise
maker.”163 The distinction turns on the kavanah – the context in and intention with which
it is blown. To call workers from the field in preparation for the Sabbath, it is a noise
maker. To inspire feelings and ideas, however, it is musical.
British composer Malcolm Miller has used shofar in many of his compositions, and
says:164
“The shofar has generated a rich nexus of metaphorical tropes, those of

supernatural power, joy, freedom, victory, deliverance, national identity, moral
virtue, repentance, social justice, and many other topics… At the heart of the
matter is the appreciation of the shofar as not merely a functional instrument, as
often believed, but a ‘musical’ one, whose propensity to evoke a profound
aesthetic response has led to multiple interpretations of its symbolism.
Particularly in the twentieth/twenty-first centuries, composers have drawn on the
shofar as a powerfully eloquent musical resource in their works… This symbolic
capacity, a potential for evoking ideas, is integral to a ‘musical’ performance.”
“The extent to which the shofar in the Psalms is a medium for expression of
moods also highlights its musicality, placing it alongside the more conventional
musical instruments, such as strings, winds, and percussion.
“The symbolism of the shofar has become attuned to the aesthetics of modernism
and post-modernism, a confrontation and reconciliation of regional and global
tendencies, of folk and art, of individual and community.” Pg 98
“The rich symbolism of the shofar is an expression of its essentially musical role,
its ability to generate aesthetic experience. It has been, in that sense, an artistic
instrument since its biblical beginnings, expressed first in its capacity to evoke
memory, zichron, on the New Year particularly, and as a celebratory instrument.
Its ancient symbolism of the earthly as well as the transcendental…underline a
capacity to ilicit spiritual experience. It is an experience permeated at a profound
level with ideas deriving from military or ceremonial usage, and which reinterpret
ancient notions of national identity, destruction, loss, hope, and redemption within
the communal and personal context of Jewish history. Reaching back to Biblical
and post-biblical sources, generations of composers have transformed the shofar’s
traditional meanings in new contexts… Whether in the concert hall or synagogue,
the shofar retains its power to remind one of the constancy of the natural world in
the context of ever changing technology. Its sound resonates with the strength of
the human spirit, its individual sound representing an individual being, heard and
163
“…the shofar, was not so much an instrument of music as one of “teruah” (noise), that is, of alarm and
for signaling.” Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906 pg 268.
164
Malcolm Miller, “The Shofar and its Symbolism,” Historic Brass Society Journal, Volume 14, 2002,
quotations taken from pages 83-84, 92, 98, and 107. The article explores the history and meaning of shofar
through the ages and cites many compositions using shofar.

witnessed by the whole community. In contemporary music and liturgy it remains
a potent symbol…to express faith in a new dawn for humanity.”
Indeed, the primal quality of the ram’s horn has found its way into many compositions.
Sir Edward Elgar “was inspired by the mystical vision of the shofar sounding to
announce the daybreak over the temple in Jerusalem in his oratorio ‘The Apostles.’”165
The opening chords of West Side Story’s score by Jewish composer Leonard Bernstein
are the tekiah alarm of the shofar played on contemporary brass instruments.166 More
recently, Argentine-Jewish composer Osvaldo Golijov created “Tekyah” for a Holocaust
memorial concert. It is, “a ritualistic piece to be performed outdoors by klezmer solo
clarinet, brass, a special type of accordion and 12 shofars.” He describes, “The shofars
are many things, but I hear in them a primal howl of pain and at the same time the
affirmation of Hitler's defeat."167 He was also commissioned by the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra (CSO), where he is resident composer, to create “Rose of the Winds.” The
piece has been described as a “bold yet seamless melding of musical resonances from
Christian, Arabic and Jewish traditions and ear-catching instrumental sounds and colors
representing numerous points of the compass.” The 20-minute piece includes “a Christian
Arab Easter song, a Mexican prayer to the holy mother, a protest song from feudal
Sardinia and an incantation capped off by the mighty wail of 10 shofars…played by the
bulk of the CSO brass section.”168
The shofar’s “world beat” has also found a place in popular and experimental music. I
have sounded a shofar fanfare in a nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles,
California to open a show “The Makkabees,” an earnest group of musicians who perform
Jewish sacred music and Hebrew folksongs with a blasting heavy metal beat.169 A group
called “Full Spectrum” issued a CD called “Kol Shofar” that features “An innovative and
eclectic blend of Jazz, Reggae, Ska, Judaica, and Afro-Cuban music.”170 Rabbi Bob
Gluck is on the Judaic Studies faculty at University of Albany where he is also a
composer and directs the school’s Electronic Music Studies; his works feature, among
other sound sources, an “electronically expanded eShofar” that is amplified and played
with a sensor glove and digital interface.171 And musician/comedian David Zasloff
entertains audiences with his ability to play almost any melody on a shofar.172
The musical versatility of the shofar is suggested by program notes accompanying a piece
commissioned for a 2006 concert at Jewish Music Institute in London:
165
Raphael Motel, “When the Ram’s Horn Sounds,” Forward, 9-6-2002,
www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.09.06/arts2.html, January 8, 2006
166
“West Side Story was originally set in a Jewish neighborhood in New York.” Miller, page 101.
167
www.bbc.co.uk/music/classicaltv/holocaust/holocaustmusic.shtml, August 27, 2006.
168
John von Rhein, “Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, CSO Rock the World,” Chicago Tribune, April 13,
2007, http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/reviews/critics/mmx-ovn_0414silkapr13,1,3197729.story, April
17, 2007.
169
www.makkabees.com, August 27, 2006. My career as a nightclub performer was cut short when I taught
the band members to blow shofar for themselves.
170
Copyright 2003, Full Spectrum Music.
171
www.electricsongs.com, February 14, 2006.
172
www.davidzasloff.com, August 27, 2006.

Anniversary Fanfare for Solo Shofar, Shofar Chorus and Instrumental Ensemble
Malcolm Miller, composer
Prologue - Fanfare
I Persecution, II Immigration, III Struggle, IV Tradition, V Emancipation, VI
Assimilation – Cadenza, VII Celebration
Epilogue - Fanfare
“The shofar… seems appropriate to mark the 350th Anniversary of Jews in

Britain with its powerful, distinctive sound. I have aimed to reflect both the lyrical
as well as signaling aspects of this instrument in this concertino-like work. The
framing Fanfares are drawn from the traditional calls: Tekiah, Shevarim, and
Teruah… The seven titled sections attempt to characterize aspects of Anglo-
Jewish history to mark its sevenfold fifty-year Jubilee. Each varied mood is
evoked though the shofar’s lyrical capability and the transformation of the
traditional motifs in a variety of contemporary idioms, chromatic, atonal –
textural. There are allusions to Ladino and Klezmer styles as well as to some
familiar British themes.”173
The contemporary trend towards using shofar in musical ensembles is a revival of an

ancient tradition. For example, the Levites – the Temple musicians – would combine
shofar with trumpets;174 vocals, timbrel, lyre, and harp;175 and with lute, pipe, and
cymbals.176
A Toot Too Many?

Do we run the risk that overexposure to shofar will reduce its primal power to move us
during the Days of Awe? I doubt it. I hear the voice of the chazzan – cantor or prayer
leader – sing every week. Yet that does not diminish the soul-stirring impact of hearing
the Kol Nidre prayer sung on the eve of Yom Kippur.
My experience indicates that the reverse is true; blowing my shofar at significant

moments and rituals throughout the year fills the horn full of prayers, supercharges the
shofar, and adds spiritual resonance to my Rosh Hashanah blasts. What’s more, hearing
the shofar throughout the year helps me retune myself to the intentions set during the
Days of Awe. I am reminded of the story:
“Some time ago, a sheep herder in the hills of Idaho sent a letter to one of the
national radio programs in which he made a strange request. He explained that he
listened to the program every week and that the radio was his sole companion in
his lonely occupation. His old violin that he used to play was now so badly out of
173
www.jmi.org.uk/performance/jcd06_songs.html January 8, 2007
174
Psalms 98.
175
Psalms 81.
176
Psalms 150.

tune as to be worthless. “I wonder if you would be kind enough," he went on, “to
pause on your ten o'clock program on Tuesday morning to strike an “A" so that I
might tune my violin and enjoy its music again." The Shepherd's request was
honored. On the ten o'clock program the following Tuesday, the announcer read
his unusual request to his nationwide audience and then an “A" was sounded so
that the shepherd might tune his violin and play it again. On Rosh Hashanah God
bids us to sound an “A" on the shofar so that each of us might tune up the
instrument of our lives and proceed to play beautiful music.”177
Some of us can stay in tune longer than others. I need, however, to hear an “A” now and
then so I don’t get completely out of tune.
Context and kavanah – intention – determine the meaning of the shofar blasts, so the
tekiah my wife sounded in celebration of her 50th birthday was nothing like her tekiah
during Elul. And beyond tekiah, shevarim, and teruah – the prescribed blast for Rosh
Hashanah, there is an entire Morse code of shofar calls, each with the potential to
transmit a unique message. On Hanukah, I blow three tekiot to recall the three references
to trumpets in Macabees. On Shavout, I start with a very soft blast and then increase the
volume of each subsequent blast to honor the blasts at Sinai that grew louder and louder.
And even though I am no Zasloff, I can still make shofar laugh and cry, waver between
quiet and loud blasts, cup my hand over the end as a mute or whaa-whaa “pedal,” emulate
the da-da-da-daaaam! theme of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, or spontaneously allow
shofar to amplify and modulate the spiritual vibration emanating from within.
177
Sidney Greenberg, "High Holiday Bible Themes,” www.uscj.net/Emor_57615542.html, 11/20/05.

Chapter 3-6 – The Ram’s Horn of Passover
“Out of the narrow place I called upon God, who answered me in
spaciousness.”178
This Psalm, part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, can be understood as a reference to the
shape of the shofar that begins narrow and becomes wide. It is also descriptive of the
process of teshuvah, moving from the constricted space of the hardened heart to a place
of redemption. Moreover, the Hebrew for “narrow place” is related to Mitzrayim – the
Hebrew name for Egypt. Each year, the seder – ritual Passover meal – provides us an
opportunity to liberate ourselves from the tight places in which we are constrained.
Perhaps these are clues that can lead us to a finding new links between shofar and
Passover.
In many traditions around the world, the new year is celebrated with noisemaking. And
why not? The arrival of a new year, with all its potential and unknowns, is like the birth
of a child that is announced with loud cries. The Jewish calendar has four new years.179
Rosh Hashanah, literally the “head of the year,” occurs on the first of Tishrei – the
seventh month of the year. Balancing Rosh Hashanah’s autumnal occurrence, we reckon
the months starting with Nissan in the springtime. This imbues Passover, starting on the
15th of Nissan, with a New Year’s type of energy that is also expressed by the Pascal
celebration of the vernal rebirth of life and the telling of the Exodus – the emergence of
the Hebrew nation from slavery to freedom.
While the sounding of the shofar is most closely associated with Rosh Hashanah, we are
told to sound the ram’s horn on other festivals as well. Scripture says,
“Blow shofar…on the full moon for our feast day.”180
Passover begins on a full moon and, indeed, the shofar was sounded in the Temple in
Jerusalem every day of Passover.181 We are told, “The Israelites who were in Jerusalem
kept the Feast of Unleaven Bread seven days, with great rejoicing, the Levites and the
priests praising the Lord daily with loud instruments for the Lord.”182
More, the memory of the ram, the carrier of the shofar, is deeply tied to our exodus. As
the Psalmist says,
“When Israel went forth from Egypt…
178
Psalms 118:5.
179
Two other new years are used to reckon the age of agricultural products with regards to tithing: Tu
B’shevat, on the 15th of Shevat, is the new years for trees and the 1st of Elul is the new year for animals.
180
Psalms 81:4. See Chapter 1-2 – Five Translation Challenges for additional discussion about this Psalm.
181
Book of Legends, pg 175:69.
182
II Chronicles 30:21. The words translated as “instruments” is k’lee, a word that is associated with
shofar; see description of “The Hidden Shofar” in Chapter 3-5.

…mountains skipped,
hills like sheep.”183
The ram motif ripples throughout Jewish history and religion. Our tradition say the ram
of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, was formed at twilight at the end of the Sixth Day of
Creation, one of its horns sounded at Sinai, and the other will be blown with the coming
of the Messiah. (See Chapter 3-1 – Shepherd Nation.) The significance of the ram as
totem is reinforced each year at Passover when we recount how the blood of a young
ram, “a yearling male,”184 painted on the doorposts and lintels of our houses, saved our
lives on the eve of our liberation from slavery. We have to understand this as meaning
not our fore parents lives, but our lives.
This Egyptian statue shows a ram - the Egyption god Amun (Ammon), protecting Pharaoh Kawa. From
Sudan, 25th Dynasty, 7th Cent. BCE.185
The use of the ram as the Pascal sacrifice is significant in another profound way:
“On the 10th of Nissan, which was a Shabbat, the Jews were commanded to take a
lamb and keep it for the 14th day of Nissan. Then they were told to slaughter the
lamb as a sacrifice to God and to place its blood on the outer doorpost of their
homes… This was the Paschal Lamb. That the Jews were able to do this was itself
a miracle; for the Egyptians also worshipped the sheep (the zodiac sign of the
month of Nissan), yet now, the Jews were free to do with the Egyptian deity as
they pleased.”186
Our first act as a nation was to slay the god of our oppressor.
183
Psalms 114:1 and 4.
184
Exodus 12:5.
185
Now in British Museum,
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/g/granite_statue_of_amun_in_the.a
spx, July 29, 2009.
186
The Breslov Haggadah, 1989 Breslov Research Institute, commentary by Chaim Kramer, pg 23

Other Connections
Honoring Humanity of Oppressors: Talmud explains that the shofar blasts of Rosh
Hashanah should sound like the cries of Sisera’s mother as she fretted over her fate and
that of her son, General Sisera who lead Canaanite army in attacks against the Israelites.
We are told that she cried 101 times in her anguish. And while we blow shofar 100 times
on Rosh Hashanah to drown out the tears of this woman who had no remorse for the evil
done by her son, we must not negate the 101st cry, the cry of a mother intuiting that her
son had been killed. (See Book One, Chapter 1-7 – The Ewe’s Horn.)
This same respect for the humanity of even our worst enemy is part of the Passover story.
We are told that, when Pharaoh’s army drowned as they pursued the children of Israel,
the angels started to rejoice. God admonished them by saying, “Are they not my children,
too?” Thus, we spill drops of wine during the seder to diminish our joy as we remember
the suffering of others.
On Seder Table: As a vegetarian, I do not use a lamb shank on my Pesash plate; instead,
I use my shofar as the symbol of the Pascal lamb. Since antiquity, horns have been used
as vessels; the flasks of oil used to anoint Kings Saul, David and Solomon187 are but one
example. The Talmud and Misneh Berurah discuss and permit the use of shofar for
drinking water,188 and the use of shofarot for drinking is hinted at the story of how
Gideon selected troops for battle (See Chapter 3-1 – Shepherd Nation). Extrapolating
from this, we can imagine that a shofar could be used as a kiddush cup for use during
blessings over wine. This would be especially symbolic to use as the Cup of Elijah at the
Passover seder table; in addition to the horn’s reference to the Pascal lamb, the vessel
makes reference to the horn Elijah will blow at the coming of the Messiah, one of the
themes of we recall during the seder.
Elijah blowing shofar to announce the coming of the Messiah. From an illuminated Machzor in the town
hall of Frankfort-on-the-Main.189
187
1 Samuel 10:1, 16:1, 16:13 and 1 Kings 1:39.
188
Shabbat 36. Also, Mishneh Berurah Volume 6, Section 658, Note 4 states: “A shofar is a utensil and is
fit for some use such as for drawing water and the like.” (Aviel Orenstein, ed.; Pisgeh Foundation, 1999,
http://books.google.com/books?id=P117Lc2t41sC&source=gbs_navlinks_s August 15, 2009)
189
www.jewishencyclopedia.com/images.jsp?artid=245&letter=E&imgid=769

More, a vessel called a “rhyton” was used throughout the ancient Mediterranean and
Fertile Crescent for drinking wine. Instead of drinking from the top like from a modern
cup, wine was imbibed from an opening at the narrow (bottom) tip of a rhyton. While
often made of precious metal, the horn-shaped configuration of the rhyton reveals its
origins.190 Indeed, in Aramaic, the languge Jews used for secular speech during the
Babylonian captivity, the word for “drinking horn” is … a cognate of “shofar.”191
Additional speculations on the connections between shofar and rhyton are in Chapter 3-5
– Beyond the Days of Awe with regard to Purim.
It should not be hard to imagine that, in the simple material culture of a pastoral or
nomadic tribe, the same horn that was used for signaling was also used for drinking, and
that the original Cup of Elijah was a shofar.
In the ancient world, the “Cup of Elijah” could well have been the “Horn of Elijah.” A rhyton is a type of
vessel used for libations and rituals from ancient Persia to Greece. While no ancient rhyton made of horn is
known to exist, animal horns were clearly the inspiration for the many horn-shaped rhyta fabricated in
metal, ceramic, or glass. More, the Talmud describes the suitability of a shofar for drinking purposes.192
“Rhyton” is from a Greek word that means, “to run through,” because the tip of the horn (or the bottom of
the rhyton) was open, allow wine or other drink to run through the horn. When not imbibing, the person
holding the rhyton would stop the hole with a finger. The relationship of the rhyton to a horned animal is
further manifested in the frequent use of horned animal protome to adorn the spout of the vessel.
190
“The oldest and original form of this drinking-horn was probably the horn of the ox…” William Smith,
ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1870, http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-
dgra/index.html, July 29, 2009.
191
Reuben Alcalay, The Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary (Massadah Publishing Co. 1965), pg. 2571.
192
Shabbat 35b, www.come-and-hear.com/shabbath/shabbath_35.html, September 14, 2005

The Haggadah instructs us to recline while drinking wine at the seder. Reclining is a symbol of freedom
because, in the past, only the wealthy or powerful could recline while eating, as depicted in this 4th century
BCE Greek sculpture. It shows a noble person holding a horn-shaped rhyton for drinking wine. The bas
relief comes from the frieze of the Nereid Monument in Southwestern Turkey.193
A Story: “As Rabbi Levi Yitzhak saw women cleaning and making their homes and
utensils kosher through scraping and scrubbing, he would say (as is said when the Shofar
is blown on Rosh Hashanah): ‘May it be God's will that the angels arising from the letters
K-SH-R-K (which normally stand for the Shofar notes [teKiah – SHevarim – teRuah –
teKiah] but can also stand for kof = kritza = scrubbing; shin = shtifa = pouring; resh =
rehitza = washing; kof = kirud = sanding) should arise before His holy seat and
recommend us before Him.’”194
The Jericho Connection: The exodus that began with the Children of Isarel going out of
Egypt ended forty years later with their going into Canaan where Passover was celebrated
outside the walls of Jericho.195 The city’s very name is inextricably linked to the sound of
shofar as our capture of Jericho was marked by seven days of marching around the city
blowing seven shofarot.196
According to tradition, the attack on Jericho began on the 22 day of the Hebrew month of
Nisan.197 In the Land of Israel, where Passover is observed for seven days, this was the
day after Passover. In the diaspora, however, this means that the anniversary of the attack
is on the eighth day of Passover. With this in mind, the presence of a shofar on the Seder
table can help stimulate discussion about the enduring meaning of Passover.
Why, for example, do we pour wine out of our cup to recall the suffering of the Egyptians
due to the Ten Plagues, but do not pour out wine, the symbol of joy, to memorialize the
suffering of Jericho’s inhabitants?
Shavuot: On the fiftieth day after the start of Passover, in our path from slavery to
revelation, we received Torah at Sinai while a shofar blast grew louder and louder.198
This journey is marked by the annual counting of the Omer, beginning on the second
193
Now in British Museum.
www.bmimages.com/resultsframe.asp?pixperpage=12&lstorients=All+Orientations&txtkeysprev=&cat=&
searchwithin=&x=0&y=0&txtkeys1=neried, January 5, 2008
194
R. Arie Strikovsky, http://pardes.org.il/online_learning/holidays/pesach, March 2, 2006. See Chapter 3-
15 – Shofar, So Good for a discussion of the angels arising from the shofar blasts.
195
Joshua 5:10
196
Joshua
197
www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day_cdo/aid/496538/jewish/Encirclement-of-Jericho.htm, September
10, 2008.
198
While I have not taken on the practice, it could be an interesting experiment to sound shofar daily during
the counting of the Omer. This is a ritual that is observed during the 49 days between the second day of
Pesach and Shavuot. Shofar themes relate to both holidays, and sounding the horn could help bridge the
two holidays. The kabbalists understand this period as a time of spiritual renewal that follows a spiral path
through the sefirot on the Tree of Life. The shofar could enhance this process and help us anticipate and
prepare for renewing our sense of awe on Shavuot.

night of Passover. Bringing the ram’s horn to the seder bookends the Omer and gives us a
preview of what awaits us at the end of the journey.
Etymology: Shifrah was one of the Egyptian midwifes to the ancient Hebrews who left
Egypt during the Exodus. Her name means, “to make beautiful,” and comes from the
same Hebrew root as “shofar.”
Tekiah Gedolah: “The long blast of the tekiah gedolah awakens HaShem’s mercy. The
Torah tells us that at the Giving of the Torah, “there was a sound of a shofar, increasing
in volume to a great degree.”199 The sages comment that the longer the sound went on,
the stronger it became. This was unlike the sound produced by man: the longer he blows,
the weaker the sound becomes. We blow a long tekiah with diminishing strength. What
message are we sending with the diminishing sound of the shofar? After 210 years of
Egyptian bondage, the Children of Israel did not listen to Moses, ‘because of shortness of
breath and hard work.’200 All the more so is it hard for us, after two thousand years of
exile and oppression, to obey HaShem. The steadily weakening sound of the tekiah
gedolah conveys this plea for HaShem’s compassion.”201
Shofar Celebrates Freedom: Shofar is blown to announce Yovel, the time when slaves
are released from bondage. More, the Mishnah Berurah says, “Someone who is partially
a slave and partially a freeman man may not make his shofar blowing serve even for
himself to fulfill his obligation to hear shofar on Rosh Hashanah. It is necessary for a free
person to blow for him to enable him to fulfil his obligation.”202 On Passover, however,
we are all free persons. Blowing shofar at the seder announces this in a dramatic way. In
the words of the tenth Amidah blessing, “Sound the great shofar for our freedom.”
The Haggadah instructs us to remember the Passover story as though we ourselves had
slaves in Egypt. On Rosh Hashanah, we are told to hear the shofar to remember the
Binding of Issac, as though we ourselves had been bound on the altar. If the shofar can
help us remember the one, perhaps it can help us remember the other.
Rabbi Abbahu said we should sound shofar on Rosh Hashanah because, “The Holy
One praised be He said, ‘sound before Me the horn of a ram, that I might be
reminded of the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and thus consider your
fulfillment of this commandment [of sounding a horn] as though you had bound
yourselves upon an altar before Me.’”203
A New Song
If we sound shofar as part of our Passover, what would be the appropriate blasts? Would
we want to use the same tekiah shevarim-teruah tekiah pattern of Rosh Hashanah, or
199
Exodus 19:19.
200
Exodus 6:9.
201
D’var Hameluchah, quoted by Meisels, pg 98. Note that “shortness of breath” can also be translated as
“broken spirit.”
202
Mishnah Berurah 589:4.
203
Rosh Hashanah 16a, translation from Judaism, Arthur Hertzberg, George Braziller, Inc., 1961.

reserve that motif for the Days of Awe? Should we, instead, try to emulate our cries
under the burdens of slavery? The bleat of the Pascal lamb as it was slaughtered? The
terror of waiting indoor as we heard the shrieks of our neighbors stricken by the Angel of
Death? The tumult of 600,000 refugees standing on the shore of the sea? The roar of the
sea parting and then flooding back on Pharaoh’s army? Or the still small voice of the first
sprout of spring reaching towards the sun? Whatever call the shofar makes, however,
remember that we will only hear it if we listen. On Passover, it is not enough to tell our
story, we also have to hear it.
In the Venice Haggadah printed in 1609, Elijah the prophet is shown blowing shofar as he leads the
Messiah to the gates of Jerusalem as foretold in Malachi 3:24.204
204
www.library.yale.edu/judaica/exhibits/haggadah/VeniceHaggadah.html, image at
www.library.yale.edu/judaica/images/Venice/HVenice21.jpg. August 15, 2007.

Chapter 3-7 – The Silent Shofar
“You shall not insult the deaf…”205
Traditional Jewish halachah – law – exempts the deaf from the obligation to hear the
shofar. This is an ethical teaching in line with the Biblical injunction to not place
stumbling blocks before the blind.206 But the exemption itself can become a stumbling
block when it is used to block the deaf from participation in the ritual of shofar to the
extent that they are both willing and able.
For example, Talmud says, “A deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor cannot fulfill an
obligation on behalf of the many.”207 This means that a person who hears shofar blown
by a deaf person is not considered to have fulfilled the mitzvah of hearing shofar. After
all, how will the deaf shofar blower know if the blasts have been done correctly?
But there are many ways to hear shofar that are accessible to many of the deaf. For
example, we are commanded to “shema” shofar, and “shema…means not only “hear,”
but also “understand”208 If a deaf person can recognize and understand the blasts –
through whatever modality – then should not that person be able to sound shofar for
others?
There are many ways to understand shofar and to know its voice. For example, one can
touch the horn and feel it vibrate, or touch another surface that is vibrating in resonance
with the shofar blast.209 The Deaf Jewish Community Center in Southern California, for
example, describes how its members, “actually felt the sound of the Shofar by holding
balloons in our hands.” and “had a big drum for the deaf members to feel when the shofar
is blown.”210
Experiencing shofar in this way can be especially profound for a deaf person who cannot
participate in so many other aspects of communal Jewish life.
Another approach is to understand shofar through sign language. The eloquence – a

dance, really – expressed in the following description by an American Sign Language
interpreter makes it clear that he can express as many nuances of emotion and spirit as are
heard in the acoustical experience of shofar:
205
Leviticus 19:14.
206
Ibid.
207
Rosh Hashanah 3:8. Talmud goes on to say, “This is the general rule: whoever is not liable to an
obligation cannot fulfill that obligation on behalf of the many.”
208
Bonnie L. Gracer, “What the Rabbis Heard: Deafness in the Mishnah,” Disability Studies Quarterly,
Spring 2003, Vol. 23, No. 2, pg 212 at www.cds.hawaii.edu/dsq.
209
Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), page 95 note 3, finds that, “Even profoundly deaf
people may have innate musicality. Deaf people often love music and are very responsive to rhythm, which
they feel as vibration, not as sound.”
210
www.jdcc.org/1998/nov-dec/tidbits.htm. May 28, 2006.

“The way I represent the sounding of the shofar is to first fingerspell the type of
shofar blast that is called out by the sh'lach tzibbur, then sign SHOFAR, that is
the two S hands are held at the mouth with the dominant hand in front of the
nondominant hand, then the dominant hand moves away and opens to show the
twist of the shofar and how it flares open. The hands are held in place, and for the
tekiah, I bow my head at the beginning of the blast and raise it again as the blast
ends. For shevarim, which is three shorter blasts, I raise and lower my head with
the same duration and repetition of the blasts. For teruah, approximately 10 very
rapid blasts, I lower my head and vibrate the imaginary shofar by moving the
hands back and forth in small tremulous movements, again always with the same
duration and number of repetitions that I am hearing at the moment, and then raise
my head when all of the blasts are through.”211
At Sinai, we are told that ALL the people could not only hear shofar, they could see its
voice. The miracle that happened then is still possible, even for the deaf.
Listening Through Shofar

Before electrical amplification, horns were used as hearing aids. It may help refine the
spiritual practice of listening to the ram’s horn if we realize the horn can also be a hearing
aid through which we can hear. “Ear trumpets” like this 19th Century Swiss brass
instrument212 amplified and directed sound into the middle ear. And before brass, natural
horns were used to assist in hearing.
Use of horns as hearing aids were not limited to the deaf. For example, ancient mariners
used horns for signaling and navigation. During darkness or fog, they would blow a horn
and then place the mouthpiece into their ear to listen for an echo that would indicate a
shore. Metaphorically, we still listen to the shofar to help us navigate the shoals of our
lives.
211
David Bar-Tzur, http://theinterpretersfriend.com/jushscrpts/rh/shofar.html, May 28, 2006
212
Photo:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.phisick.com/pic/ent/ear_horn_convoluted_segmented
_101x.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.phisick.com/zent.htm&h=45&w=60&sz=2&hl=en&start=84&tbnid=M7
JrTXuN7ULNMM:&tbnh=45&tbnw=60&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhearing%2Bhorn%26start%3D63%26n
dsp%3D21%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN December 10, 2006.

Chapter 3-8 – Iconography and Iconolatry
“ICONOGRAPHY, art of pictorial representation, specifically, that branch of the
history of art that concerns itself with subject matter rather than form.”213
“ICONOLATRY: The use of images in the worship of God.”214
If the ram totem was the image of Judaism we presented to ourselves (See Chapter 3-1 –
Shepherd Nation), then perhaps the shofar iconography was the image we presented (or
were labeled with) by the outside world. The shofar was one of the principal visual icons
of the Jewish people. Along with the menorah, lulav and etrog, the shofar “is one of the
most common Jewish symbols found from the first centuries of the Common Era,”215
Whether shown as an elegant lituus curve or a squiggly representation of a helix, the
shofar appeared in mosaics on synagogue floors, on souvenirs from the Holy Land, and in
burial markets both in the Land of Israel and through out the diaspora in the Roman and
Byzantine Empires.
A Roman or Byzantine glass medallion decorated with gold was probably a souvenir from the Levant. The
central image of the Temple are flanked with cult paraphernalia including menorah, lulav, etrog, and
shofar.216
The shofar is now used as a graphic motif for the High Holy Days, but is no longer in
widespread use as a brand for the Tribe. I offer the following conjectures to explain this
iconographic change.
First, the decline in iconographic use of shofar was part of Judaism’s shift from a
Temple-centered nation-state to a more modern form of religion. While the Temple
stood, the ritual use of a ram’s horn occurred primarily in its precincts, and the
implements of Temple-worship were national symbols. After the destruction of the
213
Jewish Encyclopedia, 8:1215.
214
Jewish Encyclopedia, 8:1227, edited for format.
215
Jewish Encyclopedia, 13:906.
216
Now in Metropolitan Museum, New York, www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/05/eust/hob_18.145.1ab.htm
September 18, 2007.

Temple, these symbols lingered in our memory and were used as a memorial to our loss.
Over time, however, the shofar became integrated into synagogue practice and seen as a
ritual object on par with kiddush cups, candlesticks, and havdalah spice boxes. Shofar
became a familiar object, available in every community and associated more with a
particular holiday than with national identity.
Horns were used as a symbol of authority and divinity, as shown on this coin of Alexander the Great.217
The second change occurred in the medieval era when horns were transformed from a
symbol of honor to one of ignominy. Throughout the ancient world, horns were
associated with power and respect and it was not uncommon for leaders to be designated
with horned headdresses. Through magical association, leaders were even imagined as
being horned.
Within this context, it should not surprise us that many people interpret Exodus 34:29-30
as meaning that Moses had horns on his head after his second descent from Mt. Sinai;
keren translates as either “rays of light” or “horns.
“And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact,
Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant [keren], since he had
spoken with Him. Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face
was radiant [keren]; and they shrank from coming near him.”
When the Vulgate Latin translation of the Bible was written, it was translated the keren as
cornutam, horned.
“The interpretation given in the Vulgate is to be found in the midrashim too, and
it may well represent the original sense better than the English Bible does. It is
217
Photo: Reinhard Saczewski. Location: Muenzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Photo Credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY,

more than likely that the horns of Moses came straight from a symbolism that was
already ancient when Moses was alive.”218
14th Century manuscript from England shows a horned Moses receiving 10 Commandments
As Europe descended into the Dark Ages, however, the honorific and symbolic
significance of Moses’ horns gave way to a stigmatization that tainted all European Jews.
The new meanings of horns,
“…were borrowed directly from the demons of medieval Christianity, and those
in turn were descended directly from the horned beings who had played so large a
part in earlier world pictures. More specifically, medieval demons are the horned
gods and spirits of Roman religion, rejected and converted into evil monsters…
And just as Pan had headed the train of goat like nature spirits, so now the hordes
of demons had their king and captain in the Devil, Satan….”219
This interpretation was promoted by the Church and written into law. For example,
“In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council decreed that…all Jews must wear a
distinguishing mark on their clothing… the distinguishing mark was usually a
wheel of yellow felt sewn on the front and back of the robe, sometimes it took the
form of horns. Thus an ecclesiastical synod meeting at Vienna in 1267 ordered
Jews to wear a horned hat… In France too, for a generation before their expulsion
in 1206, Jews had to wear a horn, in this case fixed to the middle of the yellow
wheel itself.”220
218
Norman Cohn, “The Horns of Moses: Old Symbols and New Meanings,” Commentary, Vol. 26 No. 3,
September 1958, pg 221, www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V26I3P42-1.htm July 17, 2006.
219
Cohn, pg 226.
220
Cohn, pg 220.

While the horn of the shofar recalled the majesty of the One King, the horn on the hat was a stigma
imposed by temporal lords. From a 14th century Rheims machzor.221.
With the rebirth of Humanism following the Renaissance, the horns of Moses were once
again restored as a symbol of spiritual connection. This is seen most dramatically in
Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses executed in 1513. Moses is seated on a majestic
throne, fully human but with a radiant gaze transformed by his encounter with God. The
horns are not those of a demon or animal, but restored as the crown of authority and halo
of holiness that comes from a fully activated crown chakra.
Moses with horns as sculpted by Michelangelo.
A century later, an English scholar put it this way:
“…an horn is the Hieroglyphick of authority, power and dignity, and in this
Metaphor is often used in Scripture.”222
221
Vienna, Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek, as reproduced from Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 3, pg. 834
222
Sir Thomas Browne, “Of the Picture of Moses with Horns,” Chapter IX, Pseudodoxia Epidemica,
(1646; 6th ed., 1672), V.ix (pp. 286-288), http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo59.html#9, July
20, 2006.

In our time, the shofar is still a much-loved symbol – consider the shofar-shaped cookie
cutter that is a favorite for making holiday treats. But with increasing distance from the
centrality of the Temple in our culture, its dislocation caused by the Middle Ages, and the
relatively modern embrace of the Seal of Solomon/Star of David as the Jewish symbol of
national identity, it is clear that the shine is off the horn as an icon of national identity.
My Shofar Shoes
“When my dear father, may he live and be well, showed me his new “shofar shoes," I
was reminded of how uniquely Jews steeped in Jewish tradition look at the world…
“Before he showed me the shoes, he recounted how his old cloth “Yom Kippur shoes" –
leather footwear is forbidden on the Jewish Day of Atonement – had grown
uncomfortable. These new “shofar shoes," however, he explained, were much better.
“He is someone, without question, who can appreciate a good shoe. As a child in a Polish
shtetl, the only shoes he ever had were those first worn and outgrown by older siblings…
And during the years of World War II, when he and his yeshiva-colleagues found
themselves unwilling guests of Josef Stalin in a Siberian labor camp, the frigid
temperatures made foot-covering a matter not of comfort but of life or death… When he
says the morning blessing “Who has provided me all my needs," which Jewish tradition
teaches refers to shoes, he surely relates to it better than most of us…
“I didn't understand at first what a “shofar shoe" was, though, and told him. He smiled
and responded patiently, “Why, each one has a shofar on it." When I expressed
skepticism, he went to his bedroom and emerged triumphantly with the footwear. And
when he held them up for me to see, his Jewish eyes taught mine a lesson.
“I don't think I'll ever look at the Nike “swoosh" quite the same way again.”223
Paraphrasing the Nike, Inc. advertising slogan: When it comes to shofar, “Just Jew It!”.
Icon – Yes. Idol – No.

Since Abraham and Sarah walked out of the primeval Semitic sands, our tribe has
honored the ram as a totem and used the shofar as an icon, but has not made either an idol
or the subject of iconolatry. We sacrificed sheep to God, not as a god. And we strained to
hear the still small voice of God in the call of the shofar, but knew that the hollow tube of
the shofar was naught but a conduit for communication with God.
223
Rabbi Avi Shafran, “My Shofar Shoes”

A short internet animation parodied American Idol, a popular television show, with a competition between
shofar blowers. Contestants blowing shofar in individualistic styles were eliminated from the competition.
Yet a bearded man with a yarmulke who sounded traditional tekiah, shevarim, and teruah calls won the
plaudits of the judges. That shofar could be the topic of such light-hearted humor among Jews underscores
that shofar is not a “holy cow.” The animation recognizes the kavanah of the shofar blower, not the
instrument.224
Our Rabbis teach in Talmud that: “Accessories of religious observances are to be thrown
away; accessories of holiness are to be stored away. The following are accessories of
religious observances: a sukkah, a lulav, a shofar, tzitzit. The following are accessories of
holiness: large sacks for keeping scrolls of the Scripture in, tefillin and mezuzot, a mantle
for a Sefer Torah, and a tefillin bag and tefillin straps.”225
About objects of holiness (tashimishei kedusha), it has been explained that, “The
common feature of the objects in the group is that they contain words, specifically the
name of God, but by extension any words divinely written or inspired, from which the
quality of holiness is derived. The nontextual objects all come into contact with the texts,
and in so doing acquire some of the same quality of holiness. The transmission is not
indefinite, however, extending a maximum of two layers. For example, curtains located
outside of the ark curtain itself are not affected.”226 When these articles are no longer fit
for use, they must be “put away” by burial in a cemetery or interned in a genizah.
A contemporary use of shofar as a graphic icon is well suited for the logo for this Jewish-content television
network; both TV and shofar call to Jews dispersed over large distances.
224
Dan Meth, www.danmeth.com/shofaridol.htm, August 30, 2007.)
225
Megillah 26b-27a.
226
Virginia Greene, “‘Accessories of Holiness’: Defining Jewish Sacred Objects,” Journal of the American
Institute for Conservation, 1992, Vol. 31, No. 1, Article 5 (pp.31-39) http://aic.stanford.edu/jaic/articles/31-
01-005.html may 25, 06.

Articles of religious observance (tashmishei mitzvah), on the other hand, are “objects
which make it possible to perform a commandment”227 and include: wine cups, the
Hanukah menorah, seder plates, candlesticks, wedding canopies, and most of the other
ritual objects of Jewish life. Shofar is not an object of holiness; it is an accessory to
religious observance that makes it possible to perform the commandment of hearing
shofar. As such, it is permitted to discard a broken shofar as trash.
227
Ibid.

Chapter 3-9 – More Teachings from the Ram
“Than what is this bleating of sheep in my ears…?”228
Sheep or Goat?
Throughout this book, I cite scriptures and teachings about goats and goat horns in
addition to those that relate to sheep. This is not because I get the two confused; it is
because the differences between the two species are confusing.
In modern classification systems, both the goat (genus capra) and sheep (genus ovis) are
bovids belonging to the family bovidae. They are cloven-hoofed ruminants with four-
chambered stomachs, chew cud, have slit pupils in their eyes, and have horns. The
fundamental difference between the genera relates to dentition, something that might be
overlooked from a cursory inspection. It has been said that two genera are similar, “to the
point of causing occasional taxonomic confusion.”229 In fact, the differences between two
breeds within each genus can be greater than the differences between the genera.
Our sages, too, had their own confusions about the ritualistic differences between sheep
and goats. In Talmud, for example, we are first told that the horn of a sheep is the
preferred shofar,230 then that “the shofar of Rosh Hashanah should be a wild goat”231, and
then that “On Rosh Hashanah we blow with the horn of male [sheep] and on the Yovel
Year with the horns of wild goats.”232
“The rabbi asks his student: ‘How do you know that time in the dawn when night ends
and day begins?” The student replies: “Is it when you can tell the difference between a
goat and a sheep from a distance?’ The rabbi: ‘No, it is when you can look into the faces
of other human beings who are different from you and recognize them as your brothers
and sisters. Until then it is night.’”233
The point is that our ancestors – who undoubtably understood the nuances of animal
breeds – did not necessarily differentiate between sheep and goats – the small horned
animals in their flocks234 – as carriers of our tribal identity and spiritual connection.
228
I Samuel 15:14
229
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capra_%28genus%29#Similarity_to_sheep, July 26 06.
230
Rosh Hashanah 16a: “R’ Abahu said, ‘Why do we blow with a shofar of a ram? The Holy One, Blessed
is He, said: “Blow before Me using a shofar of a ram so that I will remember for your sake the binding of
Isaac the son of Abraham and I will consider it for you as if you had bound yourselves before Me.”’”
231
Rosh Hashanah 26b.
232
Ibid.
233
The Hindu, July 25, 2006, www.hinduonnet.com/2001/06/07/stories/08070006.htm, June 07, 2001.
234
Sheep and goats were often kept together in a flock. In Hebrew, sheep and goats both belong to the
category of small cattle called tzon. The word “seh,” used for example in Exodus 12:3, can mean either
“sheep” or “goat.”

Consider:
• The flesh, skin, and smell of a goat kid was instrumental in Jacob receiving his
father’s blessing instead of his brother Esau, shaping forever the tribe that later
became the children of Israel. Jacob had to become like a goat to receive the
patrimony.235
• Goats were employed again by Jacob to build his wealth. As it is written, “Note well
all the he-goats…”236
• Jacob, renamed as Israel, became victim of his own goatish cons when the blood of a
kid was used to convince him that his son Joseph had been killed by a wild animal,
another step towards manifesting the destiny of the tribe.237
• The Pesach sacrifice was either a yearling male sheep or goat.238
• Sheep and goats were interchangeable in some sacrifices. For example, either male
sheep or goats are acceptable as a burnt offering.239
• The tent and drape in front of the Mishkon were goat hair.240
• On Yom Kippur in the Temple, a lottery between two goats selected one to be
sacrificed and the other to be sent to Azazel.241
The Only Kid, by Eliezer Lissitzky. Russia, 1919.
In the middle ages, the Chad Gadya (Aramaic for “an only kid”) became a popular song
for the Passover seder. The metaphors in the song have had many interpretations. The
one interpretation that remains consistent, however, is that the “Only Kid” refers to the
Jewish people. While the origins of the song are obscure, the memory of a horned animal
as the tribal totem remains.
235
Genesis 27:9,14, 16, 22-23, 27. While the Text says Isaac smelled Jacob’s “clothes,” it is likely he also
smelled the odor of the goats.
236
Genesis 30:31 – 31:16.
237
Genesis 37:31.
238
Exodus 12:3, 5.
239
Leviticus 1:10.
240
Exodus 26:7 and 35:26.
241
Leviticus 16:10 et seq. See Chapter 16 – Azazel and the Goat that is Set Free for discussion.

Blessed by Goats
“He who dreams of a goat, his year will be blessed; he who dreams about goats, his years
shall be blessed, as it is written: 'The goats’ milk will suffice for your food.’242”243
Change Occurs on the Cusp of a Shofar

Accepting, at least for the sake of discussion, that the distinction in our mythology
between sheep and goats is blurred, we can see a pattern that may have otherwise been
missed: A horned shofar-bearing animal or its horn was present at each of the epochal
transitions from one generation of tribal leadership to the next:
• From Abraham to his son Isaac: The ram sheep of the Akedah.
• From Isaac to Jacob: The goat kids used by Jacob to secure his father’s blessing.
• From Jacob/Israel to Joseph: The goat kid whose blood was use to stain Joseph’s
coat.
• From the Patriarchs to Moses: The yearling sheep or goat used to mark our doors so
the Angel of Death would pass over our homes.
• From Moses to Priests (Spiritual Leadership): Aaron and and his sons were ordained
as priests with the blood of the ram.
• From Moses to Joshua (Political Leadership): The shofarot used at Jericho.
• From Joshua to the Judges: Shofarot are incorporated into the stories of Ehud and
Gideon and linked by midrash to Deborah.
• From the Judges to the Kings: Saul, David, and Solomon were anointed with oil from
a horn flask and Kings from Solomon on were announced by the blast of shofarot.
The memory of these transitions is contained in the shofar blasts. If we listen to it, the
call can empower us to make important transitions in our own lives during the Days of
Awe.
The Sacrifice
“The Gemara244 relates that once a king and queen…were discussing which meat is
tastier, lamb or goat. They decided to ask the Cohen Gadol, who would most probably
know since he was offering sacrifices continuously… The High Priest… gestured
contemptuously with his hand as if to say, ‘If goat is better, why isn't it used for the daily
sacrifice?’
242
Proverbs 27:27.
243
Rav Yosef, Berakhot 57a, early fourth century, Babylon.
244
Pesachim 57a.

“The explanation may be the following… In the Gemara, Rava says that a goat has very
long ears and as his head emerges the ears are seen first… When a lamb is born, its lips
are seen first…245
“When HaShem offered the Jewish people the Torah they immediately responded… ‘We
will do and we will listen’… The pasuk connects the continual-offering of a lamb with
Mount Sinai to indicate that since the lamb's lips emerge before its ears… it has been
selected as the daily continual-offering to emphasize the praise of the Jewish people, who
at Mount Sinai put their mouth before their ears.”246
The Seven Voices Of The Sheep

“While alive, a sheep has but one voice.
After it dies, its voice is multiplied sevenfold.
“How is its voice multiplied sevenfold?

Its two horns are made into trumpets;
its two leg bones into two flutes;
its hide into a drum;
its entrails are used for lyres, and
its chitterlings for harps.”247
From Whence the Ram Cometh

“Rabbi Eliezer said: The ram came from the mountains where he had been grazing. Rabbi
Joshua differed: An angel brought him from the Garden of Eden, where he had been
grazing beneath the tree of life and drinking out of the waters that passed under it, and the
fragrance of that ram went forth throughout the world. When was the ram placed in the
Garden? During twilight at the end of the six days of creation.”248
Creature of Habit
“Throughout the day, Abraham saw the ram [of the Akedah become entangled in a tree,
break loose, and go free; become entangled in a bush, break loose, and go free; then again
become entangled in a thicket, break loose, and go free. The Holy One said, “Abraham,
even so will your children be entangled in many kinds of sin and trapped with successive
kingdoms – from Babylon to Media, from Media to Greece, from Greece to [Rome].”
245
Bechorot 35a.
246
Rabbi Moshe Bogomilsky, ”Vedibarta Bam – And You Shall Speak of Them” Volume IV – Bamidbar,
Pinchas, www.sichosinenglish.org/books/vedibarta-bam/41.htm, August 5, 2006.
247
The Book of Legends, 781:211, from Kinnim 3:6. To be fair, the living animal also creates sounds
through at least seven modalities: vocal, nasal, chewing, internal digestive sounds, flatulence and other
sounds from elimination, walking/running, and impact from head butting.
248
The Book of Legends, 42:45.

Abraham asked, “Master of the universe, will it be forever thus?” God replied, “In the
end they will be redeemed [at the sound of] the horns of this ram.”249
The Human Animal

“This is a fundamental point of teshuvah. By admitting that one has become animal-like
as a result of his behavior and is incapable of speaking, that he can offer no justification
for what he has done, God takes pity on him and brings him to ever-higher levels. One
can even become worthy of that silence which is even greater than speech… This is why
we blow the shofar - a wordless cry. From the depths of our hearts we must summon the
proper voice - a cry, a sigh, a growl or a roar. We have no answers for accusers, no
excuses to offer God. We only have our voices.”250
The Human Animal – Part 2

“The Bible teaches: “And the Lord said, ‘Let us make the human being in our image and
after our likeness.’” The question plaguing all of the commentaries is, who is the “us” in
that verse? To whom is God speaking?
“The Ramban gives the best interpretation: After all, he says, the Almighty has just
created on this sixth day the animals and beasts. God is speaking to those very brute
creatures, who are limited in time and strength and who require nutrition, rest, sexual
reproduction, and excretion of waste. “Let us make the human being in our joint image,”
says God to these beasts.
“The human being will have two aspects, the animal as well as the divine. The human
being will be limited, unable to rise above himself, unable to change or perfect himself;
on the other hand, he will contain a spark of the divine, which will give him precisely that
ability to sanctify and ennoble the physical aspects of his being and — in effect — to
recreate himself as a partner of the Divine.
“Sin emanates from the animal aspect of the human personality unrefined and
undeveloped by the divine soul. If the human being is passive, he will be guided by
instinct alone and will fall prey to all his weaker desires. Only if the human being
activates his divine soul and works on repairing himself and the world around him will he
express that divine image that makes him different from all other creations. Then he will
succeed in the ultimate vision of Rosh Hashanah, “perfecting the world in the kingship of
the divine.”
“The commandment of the shofar is that we listen to the shofar so that our passive animal
personality becomes aroused by our creative image of God. The blessing [to listen] is
249
The Book of Legends, 42:45.
250
Nachman of Breslov, excerpted from Likutey MoHaran and Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom,
www.breslov.org/dvar/zmanim/rosh3_5758.htm March 2 2006.

directed toward the animal part of the human being; only if this aspect is aroused is
repentance possible.”251
Human Animal – Part 3

“Why is the shofar the vehicle for bringing us to repentance? What is there about the horn
of an animal that may be linked to spiritual rebirth? The horn is one of four major causes
of damage produced by animals. We, too, at times, may at times allow ourselves to be
possessed by our animalistic nature, but the shofar tells us to take the potentially
destructive horn and transform it, thereby to become holy.”252
A Horn of Plenty
“Greek legend has it that the horn of plenty, “cornucopia,” was one of the horns of the
goat, Amaltheia, who nursed Zeus when he was a child sent into hiding to escape his
father, who wanted to kill him…253 After Amaltheia died, Zeus…conferred upon this
horn the marvelous power to refill itself inexhaustibly with whatever food or drink was
desired… I was struck by an image of the shofar as a kind of ‘horn of plenty,’ with the
cornucopia as a symbol of abundant life. But the image grew for me in another way as
well: the shofar took on so many new meanings that I kept seeing it as a horn of plentiful
meanings, of life-giving sustenance of all sorts.” 254
Mosaic from synagogue in “House of Leontius in Beit She’an (in Jordan Valley) shows a horn apparently
filled with fruit like a cornucopia. Built in the Byzantine period, it suggests the diffusion of cultural
ideas.255
251
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, “How to Repent” http://njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/2004/91604/torah.html, July
11, 2006.
252
Benjamin Blech, Understanding Judaism, Jason Aronson, 1991, pg. 118f.
253
The parallel to the Binding of Isaac – a conflict between father and son and a horned animal as protector
of the son – suggests the depth of these archetypes across cultures.
254
Lisa A. Edwards, A Horn of Plenty; A Re-Vision of the Shofar Service for Rosh Hashanah, Unpublished
Thesis, Hebrew Union College, New York, 1994, page 7. She cites The New Larousse Encyclopedia of
Mythology, 1959, pg. 91 as the source for the myth of the cornucopia.
255
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/Beitshean.html, August 15, 2009.

The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy
“The sheep is spiritually rooted in the attribute of mercy, and its voice testifies to this,
since it evokes mercy and compassion with its bleats. Therefore we are commanded to
blow a ram’s horn, to evoke the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.”256
Changing Practices
“Let us learn from a passage of Talmud257 that cautions against raising goats and sheep in
the Land of Israel. Since our Biblical forebears did precisely that, how could the Talmud
have the chutzpah to oppose it? The Rabbis knew that since great and growing numbers
of humans were raising goats and sheep there, these flocks would denude and ruin the
Land. The world had changed, and so did Jewish holy practice.”258
A Bobbe-Myseh259
Just in case you think the Talmud doesn’t provide comic relief, here is proof to the
contrary:
“R. Zera found R. Judah standing by the door of his father-in-law’s house and noticed
that he was in such a cheerful mood that if he asked him about the secret processes of the
universe, he would tell them to him. So he asked him: ‘Why do the dark-colored goats
walk at the head of the flock, while the [light-colored] sheep follow after?’ R. Judah: ‘It
is in keeping with the order of creation – darkness first and light afterward.’
“‘Why is the rear end of sheep covered with a fat-tail, while goats are uncovered?’
‘Those whose wool we cover ourselves with are themselves covered, while those whose
fur we do not cover ourselves with are uncovered.’”260
So now you know the secret processes of the universe!

256
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Siddur Im Dach, pg 470 cited in Days of Awe, Days of Joy, pg. 37. The
Thirteen Attributes of God’s mercy are part of the liturgy for the High Holy Days.
257
Baba Kama 79b
258
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, “Same-Sex Marriage: The Evolving Bible,” e-mailed bulletin from The Shalom
Center, December 16, 2008.
259
Yiddish for “grandmother tale” and meaning nonsense or something patently silly and untrue.
260
Shabbat 77b, cited in The Book of Legends,” Part 6, Chapter 1, Section 213, page 781.

Chapter 3-10 – Shalshelet and Shofar
“Churchlady asked me, ‘Are you washed in the blood,
In the pore cleansing blood of that sacrificial lamb?’
Hell no! I'm washed in the blood of the ram.”261
The melodic motifs used in chanting Torah are called trope (ta-amey hanegina in
Hebrew). In a printed version of Torah with masoretic notations of vowels and
punctuation, trope are noted with subscripts and superscripts that prompt the traditional
cantillation. Like the musical soundtrack to a movie, trope often provides clues to help us
understand the emotional context of the narrative.
Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music262 uses this stylized shalshelet symbol as its
logo. It bears a striking similarity to the zig-zag notation for the teruah shofar blast as shown in the
medieval manuscripts (see Chapter 1-5 – Break, Blast, Shatter, Blast).
Most of the trope markings occur with high frequency throughout Torah. The shalshelet,
however, is a trope that is used only four times in the Five Books of Moses. Its dramatic
sound – tremulous, drawn out, and wavering – and infrequent use are signposts to draw
our attention to the significance of the word so marked.
While shalshelet is not used in conjunction with shofar-related words like “blow,”
shalshelet is linked to shofar through similarities in the emotional impact of their sounds,
and by a mutual connection to the role of the ram in our tradition.
261
The Gourds, The Blood of the Ram (audio recording), 2004,
http://thegourds.com/lyrics/bloodtrack_12.html, September 4, 2007.
262
http://www.shalshelet.org/

The Sonic Path to the Psyche
Shalshelet is always applied to a verb and is understood to denote a clash of deep
emotions, hesitation and anxiety about taking an action.263 For example,
• Lot “lingers” when told to leave Sodom,264 torn, we can speculate, about parting with
his material possessions.
• Eliezer, the servant Abraham sent to find a wife for Isaac, “said” a prayer asking to
know God’s will265 because he had the conflicting impulses of wanting to do his
employer’s bidding yet hoping his own daughter would be the bride.266
• Joseph “refused” the advances of Potiphar’s wife267 despite his bodily desires.
Musical notation of shalshelt shows its rapid and dramatic wave of sound. 268
The fourth use of shalshelet can also be understood as expressing hesitation or inner
turmoil. In Exodus 29, Moses receives instructions for initiating Aaron and his sons into
the priesthood. Then, in Leviticus 8, in front of the gathered community, the initiates are
washed, girded with priestly robes and appurtenances, and anointed. After the altar and
its utensils are anointed, three animals are sacrificed: a bull as a sin offering, a ram as a
burnt offering, and a ram of ordination. There are other sin and burnt offerings in Torah,
but only this sacrifice is identified in conjunction with an ordination. Leviticus 8:22-23
records:
“He (Moses) brought forward the second ram, the ram of ordination. Aaron and his
sons laid their hands upon the ram’s head, and it was slaughtered.”
The word “slaughtered” (vayishichat) is marked with shalshelet.
According to Rashi,269 Moses was struggling with the thought of sharing his authority;
Moses had held both temporal and spiritual authority over the tribes until the ordination
of his brother. Another commentator explains that Moses had experienced spiritual
exaltation while performing tasks that would hereafter be reserved for priests and was
dismayed by the thought that he will have to abandon this role.270 And another finds that,
263
See, for example, Yossi Morgenstern, “The Shalshelet as Interpretive Cantillation,” www.netivot-
shalom.org.il/parshaeng/tzav5764.php, July 13, 2006.
264
Genesis 19:16.
265
Genesis 24:12.
266
Rashi on Genesis 24:39.
267
Genesis 39:8.
268
Notation from www.ellietorah.com/rare.html, January 29, 2006. The site also contains an audio clip of
shalshelet.
269
Rashi to Exodus 4:14.
270
Goren Zechariyah, Ta'amei Ha'Mikra Ke'Parshanut, Ha'Kibbutz Ha'Meuhad, 5755, pp. 75-6 cited in
Morgenstern.

because this was Moses' final ritual act before handing over the priestly role to Aaron, he
was asking himself, “‘Have I taught flawlessly? Perhaps I have failed in my preparation
of Aaron for his role?’ That is why the word vayishichat is marked with a shalshelet. The
great teacher is subjecting himself to merciless self-criticism.”271
We find that,
“What unites these four episodes is the appearance of the shalshelet - each time
above a pivotal verb: a verb that describes a moment of personal crisis, of deep
soul-searching. Each of these four individuals is filled with doubt, confused over
what decision to make, which path to follow… There are times when each of us
hears the shalshelet ringing in our ears. Like Lot, we oscillate between our
material and spiritual values. Like Eliezer, we doubt our own abilities. Like
Moshe Rabbenu, we weigh…our own self interest against HaShem’s plan. And
like Yosef, we constantly struggle to do what we know is right, and not what we
know is wrong… The Torah teaches us that struggling, soul searching is a
necessary, productive process: it is often what enables us to do the right thing.”272
These are the types of questions and emotions we experience when we hear shofar during
the Days of Awe. Through the instrument of the ram’s horn, we are reconnected to our
ancestors as they grappled with their choices in life. We are told that we, “shall be to Me
a kingdom priests.”273 It is as if, since the destruction of the Temple, we use the shofar to
invoke the sacrifice of the ram of ordination to take upon ourselves the duties of being
priestly in each of our lives.
The connection between shalshelet and shofar has also been expressed as follows:
“The shalshelet is, I would suggest, a uniquely Jewish note. It reminds me of the
shevarim of the shofar blowing. It represents life at its most uncertain. Life is filled with
such moments, moments of hesitation - critical moments when we realize that we are at a
juncture – when the decisions that we make will forever change the course of our future.
And Jewish tradition affirms that it is not unusual at such moments to hesitate – like the
shalshelet - we waver, and we quiver. Jewish tradition insists that this, shalshelet, this
hesitation, this unsureness, is not only an acceptable response to life’s transitional
moments - it is the appropriate one.”274
271
Morgenstern.
272
Rabbi Mordechai Friedfertig, www.utj.org/Torah/mfriedfertig/09Vayeshev5759.html, July 12, 2006
273
Exodus 19:6.
274
Rabbi Alan B. Lucas, “Things I understand....Things I do not understand: Comments on the Terry
Schiavo Dilemma” March 26, 2005,
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:K5f6R83gSW8J:bethsholom.com/clergy/DisplaySermon.asp%3FID%
3D68+shalshelet+shofar+OR+shofarot+OR+ram+OR+shevarim+OR+teruah&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=
1, July 12, 2006.

The Chain of Tradition
In Chapter 1-6 – The Ram’s Midrash, I suggest that we may have much to learn by
shifting our focus from the human actors in the Bible to a consideration of the animal
participants. This is a useful conceit to apply to the ram of ordination whose slaughter is
marked with the zigzag lightning bolt that designates shalshelet.
At least one Torah chanter understands this as the bolt of energy marking the flight of the
ram’s soul to return to its Source.275 The zigzag is the path of Divine energy moving
through the kabalistic sefirot on the Tree of Life, the bridge between the lower and higher
worlds.
Moses took the blood of the ram and put it on the initiates’ right ears, right thumbs, and
right toes, symbolically calling on them to hear God, carry out God’s commandments,
and walk in the path of God. Marking their bodies with sheep blood recalls the marking
of their doors, only a short time earlier, with the blood of the Pascal lamb.
Shalshelet means “chain” and is often used in the phrase, “shalshelet ha-kabbalah,” the
chain of tradition that links the Jewish people from generation to generation. By
memorializing the slaughter of the ram of ordination at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the
establishment of the priesthood forges another link in the chain of tradition that joins the
ram of the Akedah to the lamb of the exodus from Egypt to the ram’s horns heralding
Revelation at Sinai and the coming of the Messiah. Each year, when we sound shofar
during the Yamim Noraim – Days of Awe, we forge another link in that chain.
Two “Shofar” Tropes

Besides shalshelet, two other tropes have a different type of connection with shofar.
Munach has the shape of a horn lying on its side. It is sometimes called shofar holech,
horn going forward. Mahpach, written in manuscripts like a “U” on its side or printed in a
“V” shape on its side, is sometimes called shofar mehuppach, "reversed horn,” because it
faces the other way from shofar holech.276
275
Personal conversation related by my friend, Ellen Fleishman.
276
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantillation, November 8, 2007.

Chapter 3-11 – After Jericho, Shevarim
“Go blow them ram horns, Joshua cried
'Cause the battle is in my hands.”277
The Book of Joshua describes in dramatic detail how shofarot were used in the Israelite
army’s arsenal during the attack against Jericho. This story, told in Chapter 6 of Joshua,
illustrates many significant aspects of shofar in Jewish tradition, including its military
use, tribal symbolism, and magical import. It is one of just a few tales from Torah that
has worked its way into broad public awareness; who among us, for example, does not
know that, “Joshua fit de battle of Jericho, and de walls came a tumblin’ down,” as a
popular folk song relates? The blasts of rams’ horns in Chapter 6 is so loud, however, that
it has obscured a much quieter reference to shofar in Chapter 7 of Joshua.
Chapter 7 describes the Israelite’s foray against Ai – the next town on the road from
Jordan River to Canaan’s interior – and the immediate aftermath of the incident. Spies,
sent by Joshua, returned from Ai to report that the settlement had few defenders and
required only two or three thousand Israelite troops to conquer. The attackers, however,
were routed and, “the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them, pursuing them from
outside the gate as far as Shevarim,278 and cutting them down along the descent.”279
The place name, “Shevarim,” is related to the Hebrew word for “broken,” This leads
some commentators to suggest the pursuit ended in a quarry where rocks were broken, or
perhaps at the site of a broken ruin. Others understand it as a metaphor for the shattered
confidence of the invaders who probably assumed that taking Ai would be as easy as
taking Jericho. However, one of the shofar calls on Rosh Hashanah is also called,
“shevarim.” It is said that, “coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous,”280 so
perhaps we can learn something about the shevarim of Rosh Hashanah from the events
surrounding Ai.
Shocked by the defeat, Joshua and the elders of Israel rent their clothes, prostrated
themselves, and covered their heads with dirt. Joshua challenged God, “Did You bring us
across the Jordan just to see us defeated?” God replied that Israel had sinned and its
campaign would not succeed until the Nation was purified. The infraction was that
someone had taken booty from Jericho in contradiction to God’s instruction that the city
and all of its contents were to be completely destroyed. The culprit, a man named Achan,
was identified and put to death by stoning and fire. Thus purged of its offense, Israel was
able to vanquish all the tribes that rose against Joshua.
At Ai, an individual’s failing lead to the Nation’s downfall. A similar theme of collective
guilt is ingrained in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy where the Al Chayt, the confessional
277
Folksong.
278
Many translations transliterate this as “Shebarim” even though the Hebrew letter “bet” lacks a dogesh
and would typically be pronounced as a “v.”
279
Joshua 7:5.
280
Attributed to Albert Einstein.

prayer, is said in the first person plural – “For the sin we have sinned…” The suffering of
the many for the crime of the individual seems unfair, until we realize that the same urges
that lead Achan to loot Jericho exists inside each of us. Even small character defects can
lead us, individually and collectively, to ruin if we do not guard against them.
On Rosh Hashanah, we first hear tekiah, the strong shofar blast that is like the
triumphant, self-confident blasts that barraged Jericho. Shevarim, on the other hand,
invites us to examine the parts of ourselves that are not whole. It triggers us to ask
questions such as, “Have I done something that caused injury to others? Has an attitude
or behavior of mine caused me to suffer? Am I culpable because I looked the other way
when I saw someone else in need or committing an error?”
Is it just another coincidence that the name of the city where we met defeat is pronounced
the same as the English first-person singular pronoun, “I.” If we really hear the shofar
blasts, shevarim can help shatter the ego that distorts our self-image. It is the antidote to
the arrogance we might feel if we heard only the triumphant shofar blasts of Jericho.
After getting a dose of attitude adjustment at Shevarim, Joshua returned to prayer and
took action to consign the booty from Jericho to the flames as God had instructed. These
were acts of teshuvah, the return to purity that we all seek during Rosh Hashanah.
Sometimes it takes a good trouncing, like the one we got at Shevarim, to help us return to
the right track. We are blessed, however, that hearing shevarim can also help us find at-
one-ment.

Chapter 3-12 – Would a Shofar by any Other Name Smell
so Sweet?
“And the man gave names…to all the wild beasts.”281
Just as the origins of the shofar itself goes back into the mists of time, so too do our
names for the instrument and the horn from which it comes. For example, in India, “the
word used is shringa or its modifications in the Indo-Aryan languages and kombu or its
variants in the Dravidian; both mean horn.”282 These two terms have a resemblance to the
words shofar and keren that have generally the same meaning in Hebrew and suggest a
common paleolinguistic ancestry.
Say the word “shofar” aloud and you will experience a rush or flow of air on both the
vowels and consonants. Say “keren” and you will experience a word with a sudden attack
and an abrupt ending. It is clear from their sounds which word signifies an aerophone and
which an object with percussive potential.
‫ – רָפֹוׁש‬shofar, ram’s horn, horn; (Talmudical) horn-shaped box

‫ – ארפּוׁש‬beauty, splendor, grace; best portion
‫( – אָזָרפֹוׁש‬Aramaic) drinking horn
‫ – רָפֹׁש‬variant spelling of shofar from Exodus 19:16.
‫ – רֵפִׁש‬to improve; to beautify, embellish, adorn
‫ – רֶפֶׁש‬grace, beauty, loveliness
‫ – הָרפִׁש אָרפּוׁש אָרפֻׁש‬beauty, grace; clearness; Shifrah (name, f.)283
Animal Terms
Scholars have linked the word “shofar” to the names of horned animals in various
Semitic languages. For example:
• Sippura, sippur or sapparu: Assyrian for a goat or wild sheep.284
• Tsafir: Biblical Hebrew for a male goat.285
• A compound of two Hebrew words: shor (ox) and par (bull).286
281
Genesis 2:20.
282
B. Chaitanya Deva,
www.4to40.com/discoverindia/index.asp?article=discoverindia_windinstruments#Wind%20Instruments,
February 10, 2006.
283
Reuben Alcalay, The Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary (Massadah Publishing Co. 1965) except for
the variant spelling from Exodus.
284
Adlar, pg 297 and Encyclopedia Judaica v. 14.
285
“Shofar Sheep” by Philologos, Forward, September 17, 2004,
www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=200409151123, February 5, 2006.
286
www.jewisheart.com/tefillin.html, June 19, 2006. Compare Psalm 69:31-32, “I will extol God’s name
with song, and exalt Him with Praise. That will please the Lord more than oxen, than bulls with horns and
hooves.” See also Gemara of Rosh Hashanah 26a.

Hollow Words
Other possible derivations of the word “shofar” are instructive about the horn’s spiritual
implications. For example:
“The word shofar itself comes from the root sh-p-r which has the basic meaning
of hollowness. The shofar is an empty instrument that becomes important only
when a man’s breath enters it. Then it becomes supremely important, able even to
move worlds. Thus man should see himself, especially on Rosh Hashanah, as a
shofar – an empty vessel that is worthless by itself, but potentially capable of
divinity.”287
This sense of hollowness is also evident from the Hebrew word “shefoferet" that means
tube288 or mouthpiece289, both apt terms for describing a shofar.
It is not a coincidence that the words “hollowness” and “holyness” are related. The
Kabbalists described how God filled the entire universe; for there to be room for creation,
God had to contract to create room for the world to exist. As Rebbe Zalman says, “The
whole cosmos became hollow to contain You.”290
Bright, Beautiful Words of Improvement

It has been said that,
“Hearing the shofar makes a Jew aware of the enormous spiritual potential latent
inside him, the “extra soul” with which HaShem has favored him… This is
suggested by the very word shofar (seemingly derived from the same root as Shin,
Vav Pay Resh Aleph, “beauty”), intimating that listening to shofar strengthens and
solidifies the sublimely beautiful Divine Soul within us.”291
The same root has been used to express other ideas about shofar:
• It is used to say shofar arouses Israel to repent and beautify its ways.292
• It suggests the improvement that is the goal of teshuvah.293
• Gensenius links shofar to shafer – to be bright, clear, and beautiful – possibly on
account of its clear sound.294
287
The Jewish Catalog pg 70.
288
Rosh Hashanah – Its Significance, Laws and Prayers, pg 67. Also, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi,
Shulhan Aruch (Orach Chayim) 586:1, translated by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger and Uri Kaploun, Kehot
Publication Society, 2004.
289
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, www.jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=568
290
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, “Shofrot,” Hashir V’hashevah – The Song and the Praise, undated booklet,
B’nai Or Fellowship, Philadelphia, page 21.
291
Stern, Days of Awe, pg 121.
292
“Sheper,” meaning beauty, Rosh Hashanah – Its Significance, Laws and Prayers, pg 113. cf Vayikra
Rabbah 29:6 as cited in Likutey Moharan 60:9.
293
See Rosh Hashanah – Its Significance, Laws and Prayers, pg 126 and Meisel, pg 94.
294
Adler pg 297 citing Wilhelm Gensenius (1786 – 1842) who compiled one of the first Hebrew grammars.

• Shifrah was one of the midwives of the ancient Hebrews in Egypt.295 Her name
means, “to make beautiful,” and she helped birth babies the same way shofar
midwifes us into the new year.
We are also told that,
“The Holy One said to Israel: ‘If you will amend (shippartem) your deeds I shall
become unto you like a horn (shofar). As the horn takes in [the breath] at one end
and sends [it] out at the other, so will I rise from the Throne of Judgment and sit
upon the Throne of Mercy and will change for you the Attribute of Justice into the
Attribute of Mercy.’”296
In a variation of this theme, we learn,
“Just as with the shofar one blows in from one side and the sound comes from the
other side, so too do all of the accusers of the world stand before Me and accuse
you. But I hear their accusations from one side and remove them from the other
side.”297
From the Alter Rebbe

“In Jewish mysticism, ‘pleasure’ or ‘delight’…symbolizes one of the very highest levels
we can refer to about God (although in truth, since God is infinite, there can be no
‘highest’ level of Godliness). This is so because, whereas all other human faculties (all
considered symbolic of particular levels of Divine manifestation) have their unique
functions and are associated with particular parts of the body, ‘pleasure’ is viewed as a
supreme and transcendent sensation which is superior even to ‘wisdom’ – the highest
human faculty. The association of ‘shofar’ with ‘make pleasing’ is because the shofar
elicits from above the revelation of that degree of spirituality which makes pleasing, i.e.
that level of Godliness which is itself the source of the level we allegorically identify
with ‘pleasure’.”298
Telling Words
Finally this, a teaching shared with me by a stranger, an old man – to my mind, Elijah –
as I browsed in a Jewish book store: The root letters of shofar, Sh-P-R, can be rearranged
to spell P-R-Sh and mean, “to explain or clarify.”299 The Talmud invalidates the calls of a
shofar that has been turned inside-out, but perhaps the shofar’s blasts can turn our
consciousness inside-out so we can better understand shofar’s call.
295
Exodus 1:15.
296
Leviticus Rabbah, Emor29:6, quoted from Edwards, note 43, page 27.
297
Abudraham quotes R. Berachyah who taught in the name of Abba, Excerpted from: The Book of Our
Heritage, Feldheim Publications, www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template.asp?AID=4389,
August 7, 2007.
298
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi,
www.kabbalaonline.org/WeeklyTorah/ChabadDiscourses/Seeing_Thunder.asp, August 15, 2005, copyright
Yitzchok D. Wagshul, 2001.
299
The letters P-R-Sh also spell ‫ – שֶרֶפ‬excrement or dung, so one must be cautious about how much
clarity comes from rearranging letters.

English Words with Hebrew Roots
Several Hebrew or Semitic words related to shofar have evolved into English terms:
“Cornet,” “crown,” and “cornucopia” derive from the Latin’s “cornu” meaning horn, a
word itself related to Hebrew’s keren. “Corner” has the same derivation, and the corners
on the altar in the Temples were keren. (See Meditation for Eleventh Day of Elul in
Volume One.)
The English word “jubilee” comes from yovel, another Hebrew term for shofar. Yovel
occurred at the end of the seventh seven-year sabbatical cycle when slaves were freed and
land redistributed, an event marked by sounding the shofar.

Chapter 3-13 – Spirituality and “Spirality”
“I have curved back in a spiral, where I can see where I’ve been from a
vantage point that is on a different plane – and yet is part of the same
curve.”300
Jewish law and tradition provides guidance for what makes a horn ritually acceptable for
use as a shofar. For example, the horn of a cow is not acceptable for a shofar. Why?
Because the cow is associated with the golden calf. While we are listening for the shofar
to call us back to the revelation at Sinai, we should avoid temptations from the symbol of
our idolatry, the representative of whatever it is that turns us away from the Divine. It is
asked of the cow in this regard, “Can a prosecutor become a defender?” Other strictures
prohibit using a shofar which is cracked, that has a separate mouthpiece attached to it, or
that has somehow been turned inside-out. It is an instructive exercise to consider the
spiritual lessons to be learned from each of the laws governing shofar.
The geometry of the beautiful helical horns of this goat inspires wonder for the mathematics underlying
natural systems.301
One stricture in particular has caught my interest; the strong recommendation that a
shofar should be curved.302 We are told that “a rounded horn is a sign of submission to
the Almighty,” like bowing in prayer.303 Were it not for its curvature, the ram of the
Akedah would not have been trapped in a bush. The curvature is also a reminder that even
the shofar blower has to listen to the shofar; more of the sound emanating from a curved
300
Waskow, Arthur; Godwrestling – Round Two: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths, pg 15, 1996
301
Photo by Patrick Gruban, used under Creative Commons license,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goat_with_spiral_horns.jpg August 1, 2009.
302
Rosh Hashanah has a debate about this for those who are interested, with counter arguments that a
straight horn better represent arms out in supplication. The sages compromise by taking the position that a
straight horn is acceptable but a curved horn is preferred.
303
Rabbi Judah, Tractate Rosh Hashanah 26b.

horn will radiate towards the blower, while most of the sound from a straight horn will be
directed away from the blower.
Three views of a mathematical model of an idealized ram’s horn based on a logarithmic spiral. The outer
wall is part of a cone whose profile is an equilateral triangle, the inner wall is from a cone whose profile is
an isosceles triangle the same height but half the width of the equilateral triangle.
The horn doubles in diameter every 180 degrees.304
A closer look at the geometry of horns, however, reveals further lessons that can inform
our relationship with shofar. Like seashells, the curvature of most horns is spiral.305
Spirals appear every scale of existence, from the molecular double helix of DNA to the
swirling arms of galaxies. Recently, some physicists have even described the shape of the
universe as “shofarable”306. More, “It may be said that with very few exceptions the
spiral formation is intimately connected with the phenomena of life and growth.”307
This, and the visual beauty of spirals, has inspired many to regard them as a sort of sacred
geometry. Least we attribute too much significance to the shape of horns, we should
consider the caution issued nearly 100 years ago by Theodore Andrea Cook in his classic
study of spirals in living systems, The Curves of Life:
“In some cases there have been zealous inquirers so overwhelmed with the
significance and ubiquity of this formation that their contributions to knowledge
304
Model and photos by Hollister (Hop) David, www.clowder.net/hop/ramshorn/ramshorn.html August 15,
2009.
305
It is interesting that both mollusks and horns can serve as blowing instruments.
306
According to Alexey Stakhov and Boris Rozin, “The Golden Section, Fibonacci Series and New
Hyperbolic Models of Nature, www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/stakhov/index.html, May 5, 2007, “Based on
experimental data obtained in 2003 by the NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), a
new hypothesis about the structure of the Universe was developed. According to Aurich, Lusting, Steiner
and Then, “Hyperbolic Universes with a Horned Topology and the CMB Anistropy,”
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403597, May 20, 2007, the geometry of the Universe is similar in shape to a
horn or a pipe with an extended bell [Bodar]. As a result of this disclosure we make the following claim:
The Universe has a "shofarable" topology….” Additional information is in Stakhov and Rozin, “The
Golden Shofar,” Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 2005, 26(3); 677-684; Bodnar O.Y. The Golden Section and
non-Euclidean geometry in Nature and Art. Lvov: Svit 1994 [in Russian]; Aurich R., Lusting S., Steiner F.,
Then H. Hyperbolic Universes with a Horned Topology and the CMB Anisotropy. Classical Quantum
Gravity 2004, No. 21: 4901-4926.
307
Cook, Theodore Andrea; The Curves of Life, first published in London in 1914, pg viii. Page citations
are from Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1979.

have been seriously weakened by their mystical or spiritual extravagances.
…this is one of the subjects very apt to carry away the amateur investigator and
lead him to assert more than he can prove. There is no need for that. The facts
are wonderful enough without addition.”308
Still, I invoke the concept of “spirality” in our study of spirituality because the
mathematics expressed by the curve of a horn can serve us as a diagram than can help us
visualize the nature of teshuvah. Even Cook would, I believe, would find this acceptable
as he says:
“…the spiral is an abstract idea in our minds which we can put on paper for the
sake of greater clearness; and we evoke that idea in order to help us to
understand …life and growth by means of conclusions originally drawn from
mathematics.”309
Physicists have identified a “Golden Shofar” curve, described by hyperbolic Fibonacci and Lucas
functions, to create a model of a “shofarable” universe.
The Spiral in Judaism

The spiral is deeply connected with Jewish tradition and spirituality. For example, other
spiralar examples of Jewish ritual items and practices include:
• The windings of tefillin on the arm.
• The turning of knots in tzitzit.
• The braids of a Shabbat challah and the spiral of a New Year’s loaf.
• Intertwined havdalah candles.
• The coils of the rolled Torah scroll. And, according to some,
• The helical “Solomonic” columns that are said to have stood in front of the Temple in
Jerusalem.310
308
Ibid, pp 16-17
309
Ibid, pg 24
310
I Kings 7:21, Jeremiah 52:17 and II Chronicles 3:15-17 discuss the large pillars Solomon erected in
front of the Temple. The accounts give the dimensions of the columns and a description of their capitals but
not a description of the columns themselves. While I have not located a description a description of the
columns from Jewish sources, European architectural history describes the columns as having had a
sculptural helical design. For example, Richard Durman, “Spiral Columns in Salisbury Cathedral,”
Ecclesiology Today, Issue 29, September 2002, pp 26-34 says, “There is a long tradition that the spiral
shape derives from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem and that Constantine brought a number of columns
back from the Temple for incorporation in the original altar and presbytery of the ‘old’ St. Peter’s in Rome
begun in about 333 AD. (Not an unreasonable proposition…in the light of the transfer to Rome of Jewish

The traditional challah loaf served during the Days of Awe is curved like a ram’s horn.
Even the letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet are derived, some believe, from helical shapes
or energy paths.311
My sister, Hanna Chusid, suggests that the use of wine, “the fruit of the vine,” in our
sacraments is associated with the curving tendrils of vines. She puns, “Like the grape
which grows on a curving vine, humans grow on a twisting umbilical chord. This reminds
us that we, too, are fruit of ‘deVine’.” She imagines the kabbalah’s Tree of Life in three-
dimensions and the “Lightning Path” – the zigzag path of energy through its ten sefirot –
in helical patterns. Her teacher, Elizabeth Cogburn, says, “Divine intelligence does not
move in straight lines.” This echoes the Zohar’s statement that, “The physical reality is
seen as but an intermediate phase in the ever-spiraling evolution of the fruition of the
Creator's imagination or will.”312
Shofaric Map of Behavior

The spiral of shofar can be understood as a map to the path of teshuvah. The Jewish
notion of “sin” is akin to “missing the mark.” To be human is to be constantly presented
with the opportunity to improve ourselves, and the High Holy Days provide us an
spoils at the destruction of the Temple as depicted on the Arch of Titus.)” While any columns Constantine
salvaged would have been from the Second Temple, the rubric “Solomonic” – from the First Temple –
stuck to them; who knows, the design of the Second Temple’s columns may have been influenced by a
memory, now lost, of the First Temple’s. When St. Peter’s was rebuilt in the 17th Century, the original
Solomonic columns of Constantine were relegated to a secondary location but served as Bernini’s
inspiration for a pair of Baroque helical columns in the baldacchino of the cathedral’s high altar. Durman
speculates that the helical form of Solomonic columns was derived from the “oak tree in the sacred precinct
of the Lord” (Joshua 24:26). Anyone who has seen a weathered tree with its bark removed can attest that
trees, like many other natural objects, grow in helical forms. This would reinforce my argument that the
spiral form of the shofar is not just an aesthetic conceit but an expression of a divine pattern of life, what
others call a “sacred geometry.” In an interesting digression, Durman says, “In view of the traditional
connection with the Temple of Solomon I had wondered if the spiral column had been retained as a
continuing feature of synagogues but this does not appear to be the case.” The one example he found of
Solomonic columns in a synagogue “probably owes more to Baroque church architecture… than to Judaic
tradition.” Perhaps it is time to reclaim the form as yet another example of the powerful expression of
nature in Judaism.
311
Stan Tenan, www.meru.org. In a phone conversation with the author, Mr. Tenen stated that any
application of his work to this treatise is unjustified and without his support.
312
Sefer Ha'Zohar, Vol. 3, folio 61b, http://home.earthlink.net/~ecorebbe/id15.html, July 29, 2006.

opportunity to correct our aim. Rather than praying to be completely free from sin, Rabbi
Mordecai Findley says that the work of teshuvah is “pursuing a better class of sin.”313
“Mightily He enlargeth deliverance for His king.”314
“Can ‘mightily He enlargeth’ be understood in any way except that deliverance for Israel
will gradually grow larger and larger? The children of Israel now live in the midst of
great troubles, and if deliverance were to come at once, they would be unable to bear
such great deliverance…. Hence, it will come little by little and will be enlarged
gradually for Israel.”315
Let me explain by sharing a personal example. Throughout my life, I have had a problem
with outbursts of rage. It would be a miracle if I could be reprogrammed and once and for
all be freed from anger, and I certainly pray for deliverance each year in my High Holy
Day prayers of atonement. But in reality, I formed my character defect a little at a time,
and I am most likely to be successful at overcoming the trait a step at a time. First I had
to learn to restrain myself from acts of violence, and to refrain from terrifying verbal
outbursts. Then I had to learn to recognize and avoid the types of situations that tend to
ignite my temper. And now I am working on learning how to remain present in difficult
situations without getting riled.
Visually, my recovery can be depicted in a spiral graph. I try to move forward, but force
of habit and moral weakness exert a force at cross purpose. The result is that my path
through life is the sum of vectors, and the trail I leave traces a spiral course (see
illustration above). The naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace says, “when growth is diverted
from the direct path it almost necessarily leads to the production of that most beautiful of
curves – the spiral.”316 While he was referring to physical growth, this Law of Spiral
Growth applies no less to moral and spiritual growth.
LEFT: While I may plot a straight ahead course through life (vertical vector), flaws in my character
(horizontal vector) take my actual path of course (diagonal vector). RIGHT: Repetition of the pattern yields
a spiral. If we assume a vertical axis is our movement through time, it produces a helical path similar to the
growth pattern of a ram’s horn.
313
Sermon at Makom Ohr Shalom High Holy Day service.
314
Psalms 18:51.
315
R. Yudan, Midrash Tehillim 18:36, from The Book of Legends 393:40. See also Encyclopedia Judaica
16:867.
316
Cook, page 4.

The graph illustrates that, though progress is thwarted, each cycle of my life shows
growth. And as the spiral grows, its curvature decreases and more closely approaches
epitome of a morally straight path.
At the Point of Growth

Like fingernails or hair, a horn is composed of non-living tissue. Only the tissue at the
base, where it is connected to the skull, is alive. The configuration of the visible horn
constitutes a record of an animal's past health and history, but it is the vigor of the living
tissues that determine the configuration of any further growth and curvature.
In a similar manner, we cannot change the shape of our past deeds, but the moral choices
we make and the actions we take now will affect our growth and the curvature of our
lives in the future. When I see the shofar, I am reminded that I can only make teshuvah
while I am still alive and able to grow. As I pray during the High Holy Days to be
inscribed for another year of life, the shape of the shofar reminds me that my
commitment to teshuvah can make the difference between a path that is miserably
“twisted” and one that is on a beautiful trajectory.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow understands the spiral as a metaphor for Jewish renewal. He
writes:
“I have learned to understand Jewish time and Jewish thought as a spiral:

Neither a straight line that must always go forward, even into a precipice, nor
a circle that must remain forever stuck in repeating past experience. Instead, a
spiral, which curves always backward in order to curve forward.
“What makes time and life into a circle instead of a straight line or an endless
circle is setting aside time for reflection, rest, renewal. That renewal-time –
Shabbat, the Sabbath – is the curve that moves the spiral onward. So is the
sabbatical year the Bible calls us toward. So is every moment when we pause
to catch our breath, to absorb what we have just done before we go forward to
do more. All these let us re-view where we have been, so that we can go
forward.”317
The Days of Awe provide another setting aside of time to make sure we are on the right
curve. During the Holy Days, we are commanded to hear the shofar rather than to see it.
Perhaps this is because people have eyelids but not ear lids; we can hear and awaken to
shofar’s call even if we are asleep. But the next time you hear the shofar, you may benefit
from opening your eyes and seeing it as well; it can be said about shofar as is said about
Torah:
“Turn it and turn it again, for all is contained in it.”318
317
Waskow, pp 14-15.
318
Ben Bag Bag. Pirke Avot 5:22.

“Rabbi Nachman taught that even when we repent, which of us can say that he has
become so pure that his repentance was complete? Because we can’t, we have to repent
again and again. And each time we do so, we realize that our previous conception of
God’s Greatness was inferior and of little worth when compared to what we now know.
This is Teshuvah, a returning to God; and Teshuvah upon Teshuvah.”319
319
Likutey Moharan I, 6 quoted in The Breslov Haggadah, pg 82

Chapter 3-14 – Blow it as it Grows
“All shofarot are made of keren, but not all keren can be shofarot.”320
In Talmudic deliberations, the distinction between a keren – an animal horn – and a

shofar – an acceptable implement of religious service – is based on the species of animal
from which the horn comes. (See Chapter 2-3 – Buying, Making and Caring for a Shofar)
In the spirit of that ancient yet ongoing debate, I pose and attempt to answer a question
about the permissible configurations of the shofar.
In modern musical categorizations, the typical shofar is an “end-blown” instrument that is

blown through a hole at the narrow end of the horn. Horns can also be fabricated as “side-
blown” instruments, with the blowhole in the sidewall of the horn.321 I have fabricated a
ram’s horn into a side-blown instrument that has a beautiful and stirring shofar-like voice.
But is it actually a shofar, or just a side-blown keren? That is to ask, is the prevalence of
end-blown shofar a matter of minhag – custom, or of halachah – Jewish Law?
In end-blown shofar, the horn tip would have

to be cut off or straightened.
Blow hole, located in side of horn and above

top of horn cavity.
Top of horn cavity.
How I Came to Make a Side-Blown Horn

When I started making shofarot, I had a few cursory written instructions and the legacy
of our written and oral Torah, but no teacher to show me how to fashion the horn. So I
drew upon my architectural training and “asked the horn what it wanted to be.”322
After several experiments and much examination of the topology of the full-curl ram’s
horn I had, I realized the hollow cavity in the horn (from which I had removed the bone
core), extended only about three-quarters of the length of the horn. More, the remaining,
320
Paraphrased from Tractate Rosh Hashanah.
321
In the Hornbostel-Sachs system for classifying musical instruments, shofar is an aerophone that
produces sound primarily by air vibration, not the vibration of the instrument itself or parts thereof. It is
classified under 423.1, a natural trumpet no means of changing pitch apart from the player's lips. The
category further divides into 423.111, end-blown (with or without mouthpieces),and 423.112 side-blown.
322
Louis Kahn, a Jew and a great architect of the 20th Century, sought to express the nature of the building
materials with which he work. He is quoted as having said, “I asked the brick what it wanted to be.”

tip, the solid part of the horn had too much curvature to allow me to drill a straight bore
from its extreme end into the hollow cavity. That left me with three design options for
making a blowhorn:
First, I could try to straighten the tip so I could drill a straight bore into the cavity. While
this method is used with most contemporary, commercially produced shofarot, it was not
a viable solution for me. The horner guilds that arose during the Middle Ages (and whose
legacy lives on among more skilled shofarot producers) refined their craft to an art.
Straightening or bending horns became a signature of their expertise. I lack their craft and
perhaps their patience. More, I wanted to discover what would have been a pragmatic
solution for a simple nomadic shepherd to use.
Second, I could saw off the tip of the horn just a short distance above the horn cavity.
From there, I could drill a short, straight bore into the cavity (Details B and D). This was,
in fact, the design I chose for the first shofar I fabricated. On the plus side, the broad cut
that resulted exposed a wide surface into which I could form a large and easy-to-blow
blowhole. But I lost too much length of the horn and what was left was visually awkward.
This led me to my third alternative – a side-blown horn (Detail A). My research revealed
that side blown horns were common in Africa. Since our first Biblical encounter with
shofarot, at Sinai, occurred just after leaving Africa, it is possible that African precedents
informed our original designs. More, archeological finds in the land of Israel have
included side-blown instruments made of ivory and suggest that side blown horns may
also have existed. Emboldened by this data, I selected a side-blown design for the next
shofar I fabricated.

This side-blown ivory trumpet, found at Bittir, Israel and from the 1st or 2nd Century, is over 32” long.323
The result is stunning. In addition to its rich tone, it can be grasped with two hands in a
manner that feels very secure and right for blowing shofar. I have not attempted to sand
or polish the horn; it retains the strength and integrity it had when it crowned the ram.
The horn balances on edge when stood on a table or when suspended by its tip, reminding
me that our destiny hangs in the balance when we stand in judgment on Rosh Hashanah.
And the spiral form is a visual map of the path of teshuvah. (See Chapter 3-13 –
Spirituality and “Spirality.”)
A full curl ram’s horn has an innate ability to balance, a reminder of how our deeds are weighed in the
balance during the High Holy Days.
323
www.barakatgallery.com/Store/Index.cfm/FuseAction/ItemDetails/UserID/0/ItemID/9309.htm,
September 17, 2007.

Demonstrated how a side blown horn can be held with two hands.
Accepting Side Blown Horns into the Shofar Canon

Shulchan Aruch324, the 16th Century codification of Jewish law compiled by Rabbi
Joeseph Caro, says:
“If one inverted the shofar and blew with it he will not have fulfilled his
oblication, irrespective of whether he inverted it in the manner that one inverts a
shirt, by turning the inside outwards, or whether he left it as it was, but widened
the narrow part and shortened the wide part.”
I understand a great spiritual truth in this teaching. If the shofar is to call us to an honest
self examination, it must also have an honest constitution. Our soul, our inner self, must
be in correct alignment with the outward appearance we would have. The shofar’s soul –
its voice – must similarly come from its inner essence.
I can not accept, with equal enthusiasm, the Mishneh Berurah’s elaboration on this.
Misneh Berurah, Volume 6325, the 1907 commentary on the Shulchan Aruch by Rabbi
Israel Meir Kagan, the “Chofetz Chaim”, expands the injunction as follows:
“The reason is that it is written, ‘Ve-ha’avarta (and you proclaim) with the sound
of a shofar’326, i.e., the proclamation is required to be made in the manner in
which the shofar is taken about [because the word ve-ha’avarta also denotes ‘and
you should take about’].”
Rams “take about” horns that are not straightened or truncated, but in a condition that
more closely resembles my side-blown shofar than does an end-blown horn.
The Chofetz Chaim continues:
324
Section 586, Rabbi Aviel Orenstein, editor, Pisgah Foundation, 1999.
325
Notes 60 and 61 to Shulchan Aruch 586, Rabbi Aviel Orenstein, editor, Pisgah Foundation, 1999.
326
Leviticus 25:9.

“This means that the shofar must be held in the manner that the ram takes about
the horn on its head when it is alive… The reason for this ruling is also that we
require it to be held as it grew, with the narrow side opposite the person’s mouth.”
A respected rabbi explained to me that a shofar can be compared to the lulav and etrog,
about which Maimonides said:
“He must take them as they grow – i.e., their roots below towards the earth, and
their heads upwards towards the sky… Once a person lifts up these four
species…he has fulfilled his obligation. [This applies] only when he lifts them up
as they grow. However, if he does not lift them up as they grow, he has not
fulfilled his obligation.”327
The principal of using something as it grows is stated in Sukkah 45b and derived from
Exodus 26:15: “You shall make the planks for the Tabernacle of acacia wood, upright.” A
commentator says, “Implied in this is that all mitzvot fulfilled with agricultural products
must be performed while they are in an upright position.”328
I argue that the application of the halachah about lulav and etrog do not apply to shofar:
• It is not clear that animal products are considered “agricultural products.” If they
were, we would have to orient leather tefillin straps, parchment used for the Torah,
and perhaps even the bone and egg on a seder tray right side up.
• The mitzvah of the lulav and etrog is the holding of them. The mitzvah of the shofar
is the hearing of its voice and is independent of the position in which it is held. The
difference between these two mitzvot is made clear in the laws about using stolen
goods: the obligation of holding a lulav and etrog cannot be fulfilled with a stolen
etrog.329 However one’s obligation to hear shofar can be fulfilled with a stolen horn
because, “the laws of theft do not apply to sound alone.”330
• It may seem obvious which position is upright when we look at an adult animal. But
if the animal is a mammal, would its “roots” require that parts taken from it be
oriented according to the position of its navel?
• If we were to hold a horn as it grew on an adult animal, we would blow shofar with
its wide end – the part that attaches to the top of a skull – towards the earth. But the
common practice is to blow it with the wide end upward.
Both Designs A and C are side blown. But in Design C, the air enters at a distance from
the top of the horn cavity. Design A, however, shows that a side-blown shofar can be
constructed so that air blown into the horn travels the entire length of the horn cavity. In
327
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Shofar, Sukkah, v’Lulav, 7:6 and 7:9.
328
Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, note on Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Shofar, Sukkah, v’Lulav, 7:6 in his translation,
1988, pg 166.
329
Maimonides, op cit 8:9. The prohibition applies on the first day of the festival only.
330
Ibid 1:3. Compare Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim) 586:4, “[The
shofar’s status] differs from that of a stolen lulav… because the mitzvah of the shofar involves hearing
alone.” Translated by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger and Uri Kaploun, Kehot Publication Society, Brooklyn, 2004.

this sense, such a side-blown horn satisfies the halachahic intent that a shofar be made
from a single, intact horn; it has not been turned inside out, manipulated so the wide end
became the narrow end and visa versa, patched together from several horns, perforated or
cracked, placed inside another horn, nor otherwise violated the written teachings about
maintaining the integrity of a shofar.331 If the distance from the blowhole to the wide end
exceeds the width of a hand,332 and one did not add material to nor alter the sound of the
shofar,333 I maintain that a side-blown shofar can comply with halachic requirements.
More, if one cut horn “A” as shown by the dashed line, the result would be an end-blown
horn. Based on this observation, the side-blown horn can be seen as a type of end-blown
horn with its tip retained as a type of natural ornamentation. This would conform to the
concept of hiddur mitzah, the beautification of ritual objects as a way to glorify God.
Finally, I return to my original analysis of the form and structure of a ram’s horn. The
nomads of our distant past, following their herds, lived simple lives with primitive tools.
The fastest, easiest way for them to convert a horn into a shofar would have been to grind
a hole in the side wall of the shofar. Accepting side-blown instruments into our legal
canon would be a way to reaffirm the ancient origins of the shofar and the antiquity of
our Tribal use of the horn to call to God.
Ironically, I also believe the side-blown shofar enables me to fulfill the principle of, “take
them as they grow.” Cutting off the tip of the would be like removing the pitam – the
small protrusion from which the etrog’s flower grows, something that renders an etrog
unfit for ritual use.334 By using the horn in the natural shape in which it grew, I show my
respect for the animal that provided the horn and my appreciation for the design of its
Creator rather than manipulating its shape to meet my will.335
Another Theory
To fashion a blowhole in an end-blown shofar requires the tip of the horn to be removed.
Is it possible that the tradition of using an end blown horn relates to the phallic
connotations of a horn, and the removal of the tip of the horn is a symbolic circumcision
to render the horn fit for sacred use? I will leave this to the students of Reik and Jung
(See Chapter 3-3 – Sometimes a Shofar is Just a Shofar) to consider.
331
Rosh Hashanah ##
332
Ibid 1:5.
333
Ibid 1:6.
334
Maimonides, op cit, 8:7.
335
The ideas herein expressed about side-blown shofarot are strictly those of the author. For the record,
however, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi inspected the author’s side-blown shofar on Rosh Hashanah
5766 (2005) and found it acceptable for use.

Chapter 3-15 – Shofar, So Good
“…both ears of anyone who hears about it will tingle.”336
Oversleeping an Appointment with God

“…on the morning when God was to reveal the Torah to them on Mount Sinai, the entire
people of Israel overslept! For three days they prepared for the great theophany, and
when the very special morning arrived, all the thunder and lightning and the blaring voice
of the shofar were present in order to awaken the sleeping masses who had almost missed
the entire event!”337
“In the medieval mystical book the Zohar, the tekiah blast is referred to as Kol
Lehitorerut, a call to be alert and awake.”338
“The shofar calls to each of us: Wake up! You have great things to do this year.”339
Shofar Chauffeur
This High Holiday advertisement casts a positive spin on similar-sounding words.340
336
1 Samuel 3:11, 2 Kings 21:12, Jeremiah 19:3.
337
Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, Yom Kippur Readings, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2005, pg 278, based on
Exodus 19:16 and Shir HaShirim Rabba 1:12.
338
Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, Yom Kippur Readings, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2005, pg 278
339
Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, Yom Kippur Readings, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2005, pg 282
340
Ad from www.jewishboulder.com/page.html?ArticleID=70999, November 17, 2007.

God’s Fingerprints in History
“I have always associated Spain with the infamous Inquisition of 1492 during which our
people were condemned to tortures more horrible than death... Given this background, it
was with mixed feelings that I arrived in Spain... Among the many stories that I heard in
Spain, the one that truly astounded me was the revelation that it was only in 1992 that
King Juan Carlos, under the influence of his Queen, Sophia, officially annulled the edict
of the Inquisition barring Jews to gather to worship in Spain.
“I was told that the local rabbi presented the king with a shofar in memory of that horrific
time of The Inquisition, and in doing so, recalled the story of Don Fernando Aguilar, who
was the conductor of the Royal Orchestra of Barcelona. He was among those who, under
torture, renounced his faith, but in his heart, he remained loyal to HaShem. As Rosh
Hashanah approached, Don Aguilar yearned to hear the sound of the shofar. He came up
with an amazing plan to present a concert on Rosh Hashanah featuring pieces by various
composers. Many Marranos attended...they too yearned to hear the sound of the shofar.
Various compositions were played, and than with tears in his eyes Don Aguilar lifted the
Shofar sounded the unmistakable sounds of “tekiah,” “shevarim, and “teruah” and all the
Marranos in the concert hall wept silently.
”Today, the shofar can be sounded once again in Spain, but this time, before sounding the
shofar, a loud and clear bracha – blessing – is made and the Jews respond ‘Amen’.”341
Tzadakah Boxes in the Temple

During appeals, many Jewish Federations and synagogue building funds will display a
placard in the shape of a thermometer. As the fundraising campaigns continue, the
“mercury” is colored to graphically show progress towards their monetary goals. The
fundraisers may be better served by making their scoreboards in the form of shofarot.
That’s because the tzadakah boxes – containers for charitable donations – in the Second
Temple in Jerusalem were shaped like giant shofarot – the plural of shofar.
Talmud342 reports that there were thirteen shofarot in the forecourt of the Temple;
truncated cones with their wide ends at the bottom and their narrow ends at the top with
an opening into which coins could be deposited. The coin of choice was the half shekel in
accordance with the ransom required of each Israelite.343 Each horn was marked for a
different tithe or as a symbolic offering instead of the sacrifices Torah stipulates for
various atonements.
It has been suggested that there were practical reasons for the horn shape of the container;
the wide bottom made the containers stable and the narrow opening at top made it
difficult for someone to reach inside to steal donations.
341
Excerpted from http://www.hineni.org/rcolumn_view.asp?id=231&category=1 January 7, 2006
Author: Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis.
342
Tractate Shekalim.
343
Exodus 30:12-16.

I believe there were other, equally practical reasons for the shape. Like the horns on the
altar (Meditation for Eleventh Day of Elul in Volume One), the primitive practice of
placating a horned deity with sacrifices lingered on in symbolic form. In their own iconic
way, the horns reminded people of the dangers that lurked if they did not redeem
themselves.
Perhaps a shofar-shaped tzadakah box or appeal would have the same effect to lubricate
our wallets and checkbooks. While horns may no longer conjure visceral images of a
dangerous godhead, it will remind people of the pledges they made during the High Holy
Days when the voice of the horn still calls us to tzadakah.
Then, once again, the shofar would be a cornucopia, a horn of plenty.
The Shofar’s Question344

“One of my colleagues had the custom of holding up his shofar to show that it was in the
shape of a question mark… If one strikes the keyboard of a piano, it produces a note. But
if one blows into the shofar – even though one has some skill and has blown successfully
on a dozen previous occasions – there is always a doubt. Responding to the atmosphere in
the synagogue, or the spirit of the service, or some hidden facet of the blower's state of
being, the shofar may simply refuse to produce any sound at all. There is always a
mystery, always a question…
“What is the shofar's question? There is an important clue in the story of Elijah, who
journeyed for 40 days to reach the mountain of the Lord and entered the very same cave
where God was revealed to Moses. There he heard the terrifying sounds of earthquakes,
fire, and thunder. But they left him unmoved; he remained in his cave. When, however,
he heard the voice of fine silence, he was struck by awe and understood that this was a
summons he had to answer. Covering his face with his mantle, he came out to confront
the ultimate question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?"
“That same sound of fine silence is likened in the liturgy to the voice of the shofar, as it
says: ‘The great shofar will be blown, and the voice of fine silence will be heard.’ So the
question of the shofar is simply: What are we doing here, you and I? It is addressed to
each of us and pursues us all our lives.”
Shofar Angels
As Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, describes,
“The word for angel in Hebrew, “malach” means also “messenger.” As its name
in Hebrew signifies, the nature of the angel is to be an envoy to a degree, thereby
constituting a permanent contact between worlds. An angel's missions transpire in
two directions: it may serve as an emissary of G-d toward the earthly…and/or it
344
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, The Eternal Journey: Meditations on the Jewish Year, Aviv Press, (c) 2004,
quoted at
www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Rosh_Hashana/Overview_Rosh_Hashanah_Community/Sounding_S
hofar/Jewish_Morse_Code/ShofarQuestion.htm, May 10, 2006.

may also serve as the one who carries heavenwards from below, from our world
to the higher worlds.”345
With respect to shofar, we can cite the angel that stayed Abraham’s execution of Isaac, an
event inextricably linked to shofar, as an example of an angel serving as an emissary of
God.
Other angels linked to shofar work in the opposite direction. The machzor – High Holy
Day prayer book – invokes angels to carry the shofar blasts heavenward. For example, an
orthodox machzor includes the following prayer for the shofar blower to recite silently
before sounding shofar, with instructions that, “The angelic names that appear in brackets
should be scanned with the eyes, but not spoken:” 346
“May it be Your will, HaShem…that You send me all the pure angels, the ministers who
are trusty in their mission and who desire to vindicate Your people, Israel. These angels
are: the great angel ]‫ [היצפצפ‬who is appointed to draw forth Israel’s merits at the time
when Your people Israel sounds the shofar; the great angel [‫ ]שבשת‬who is appointed to
make heard the merits of Israel to alarm the Satan when they are blown; the great angels
]‫לאינרדה‬, ‫ [ןפלדנס‬who are appointed over the shofar blast, who raise our shofar blasts
before The Throne of Your Glory; the angel [‫ ]לאישמש‬appointed over the teruah; and the
angel]‫ [לאטסרת‬appointed over the tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah. May they all be ready
for their mission, to raise our shofar blasts before the heavenly curtain and before the
Throne of Your Glory…”
According to the same machzor, some congregations recite the following after the tekiah-
shevarim-teruah-tekiah blasts:
“May it be Your will that the tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah blasts that we sound be

embroidered in the heavenly curtain by the appointed angel ]‫ [ל״איטרט‬and the
ministering angel]‫ [ט״טמ‬of the Inner Chamber…”347
Angels such as these, Steinsaltz says, “have existed from the very beginning of time, for
they are an unfaltering part of the Eternal Being and the fixed order of the universe.
These angels in a sense constitute the channels of plenty through which the divine grace
rises and descends in the worlds.”
345
Adin Steinsaltz, The Thirteen Petalled Rose, excerpted (possibly in edited form) at
www.kabbalaonline.org/MajorConcepts/creator/Angels_1_the_True_Story.asp,
October 20, 2007
346
“Prayer for the Tokea,” The Complete Artscroll Machzor – Rosh Hashanah (Nusach Askenaz), Mesorah
Publications, Ltd., 1985, pg. 433-434. “Tokea” is the individual who sounds shofar. According to a note in
the text, “This mystical supplication was composed by Arizal, the great sixteenth-century Kabbalist, to be
recited by the one who will blow the shofar.”
347
Ibid, page 437.

In the mystical teachings, Sandalfon is said to be the angel in charge of prayer and is
responsible for the effectiveness of shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah. As keeper of the
keys to the gates of heaven, Sandalfon can open the gates to allow prayers in and is the
translator of human requests to God. Sandalfon is said to be taller than the other angels
and to be associated with the prophet Elijah.348
Shofar blasts also manifest a different type of angel. According to Steinsaltz,
“…there are also angels that are continuously being created anew…where
thoughts, deeds, and experiences give rise to angels of different kinds.
Every mitzvah that a man does is not only an act of transformation in the material
world, it is also a spiritual act, sacred in itself. And this aspect of concentrated
spirituality and holiness in the mitzvah is the chief component of that which
becomes an angel. In other words, the emotion, the intention, and the essential
holiness of the act combine to become the essence of the mitzvah as an existence
in itself, as something that has objective reality…
“More precisely, the person who performs a mitzvah, who prays or directs his
mind toward the Divine, in so doing, creates an angel, which is a sort of reaching
out on the part of man to the higher worlds. ..the mitzvah acquires substance, and,
in turn, influences the worlds above. It is certainly a supreme act when what is
done below becomes detached from particular physical place, time, and person
and becomes an angel.”
It is in reference to this type of angel that the machzor says,
“(And so) may it be Your Will, HaShem, our God and the God of our forefathers,
that these angels that are evoked by the shofar…ascend before the Throne of Your
Glory and invoke goodness on our behalf, to pardon all our sins.”
Tkhine Invoking Angels of the Shoyfer349

(Tkhines – Yiddish for “prayers” or “supplications” – were Yiddish-language prayer
books intended for women who were not taught Hebrew. “Shoyfer” is Yiddish for
“shofar.” “Yehi rotsn” in Yiddish or “Yehi ratson” in Hebrew means, “may it be God’s
will.” “Eyliyohu” is the prophet Elijah.)
“The following…are said…between each set of shoyfer blowings. The first time the
shoyfer is blown: Yehi rotsn, God, my God, and God of my ancestors, that this blowing of
the shoyfer which we have done today be made into a crown by the angel who is
appointed to do so, and that the crown be brought up and set upon the head of my God.
348
Wilhelm Bacher and Ludwig Blau, “Sandalfon,” Jewish Encyclopedia,
www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=223&letter=Sm , August 31, 2006. Also,
Alan Unterman, Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend, Thames and Hudson, NY 1991, Pg 172.
349
Translation from Tracy Guren Klira, The Merit of Our Mothers, (Hebrew Union Press, 1992) pg 74.

May You show us a positive sign and may You feel compassion towards us. Praised by
You, merciful God.
“The second time the shoyfer is blown: Yehi rotsn, God, my God and God of my
ancestors, that this blowing of the shoyfer which we have done today be accepted by the
angel who is appointed to do so as You have accepted it through Eyliyohu and may You
be compassionate towards us. Praised be You, merciful God.
“The third time the shoyfer is blown: Yehi rotsn, God, my God and God of our ancestors,
that the angels who go forth from the shoyfer and from the various blowings may arise
before Your Throne of Glory and may they be our defenders so that we may be forgiven
all our sins.”
“According to the Zohar's author, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the sound of the shofar
rises to transcendental spiritual worlds via angels, as it says, ‘For the birds of heaven will
raise up the voice.’350 The numerical equivalent (gematria) of, ‘For the birds of heaven,’
(Ki off hashamayim) equals that of the word shofar.”351
A Reform
In the first German Reform Services held for the Jewish New Year in 1845, “the shofar
blast was not heard since its use was encrusted with kabbalistic notions and its raucous,
primitive sound was believed more likely to disturb devotion than to stimulate it.”352
"God blessed Abraham with Everything."353
“QUESTION: What was the ‘everything?’
“ANSWER: When the letters of the word “bakol” – “everything” – are spelled out the
way they are pronounced, i.e. beit, kaf, lamed, the total numerical value is 586. This is the
same numerical value as the word ‘shofar.’
“Yitzchak was originally destined to be brought up on the altar as a sacrifice. When the
angel intervened, he was spared, and instead Abraham sacrificed a ram which suddenly
appeared. From the horn of this ram, a shofar was made which was sounded when
HaShem gave the Torah to the Jewish people.354 This shofar will also be sounded to
announce the revelation of Mashiach.355 Thus Yitzchak plays an important role in the
giving of Torah and coming of Mashiach. To the Jewish people, Torah and Mashiach are
350
Ecclesiastes 10:20.
351
Tzvi Fishman , “Kabbalistic Understandings of The Shofar,”
www.jewishsexuality.com/content/view/71/67/, March 31, 2007.
352
Michael Meyer, Response to Modernity, New York, Oxford University Press, 1988, pg 129, quoted by
Edwards, note 72, pg 43f.
353
Genesis 24:1.
354
Pirke De'Rebbi Eliezer, 31
355
Isaiah 27:13.

‘everything,’ and Abraham was blessed with a son who will be involved in the delivery
of ‘everything’ to Klal Yisrael.”356
The Shofar Award
“The National Jewish Committee on Scouting established the Shofar Award to recognize
outstanding service by adults in the promotion of Scouting among Jewish youth. Just as
the Shofar (Ram's Horn) calls people to the service of God, so the Shofar Award is a
recognition of the individual who has answered the call to serve Jewish youth in
Scouting.”357
“I am the Walrus”
“The mishnah discusses the case of a walrus.358 Since it inhabits both sea and land, does
it have the laws of a fish or of an animal? The mishnah rules that since in time of great
danger it flees from the water and takes refuge on land, it is a land animal. Similarly,
even an estranged Jew remains Jewish, so long as he returns “home” when threatened.
The shofar is his homing signal. The cry from the Jewish heart that says, ‘I belong here,’
and the echoing cry from God’s heart that says, ‘Yes, the door is open.’ That is why there
was an intense shofar sound when the Torah was given and that is why the shofar will
sound again to herald the final redemption. It is the instrument that says that when no
words are possible, no words are needed.”359
A Survey
“550 respondents to the National Jewish Outreach Program’s online survey about the
High Holy Days – Jews affiliated one way or interested…. To the surprise of organizers,
slightly more than half the survey respondents said that, for them, the most important part
of High Holy Day services was prayer. Only 15 per cent chose “hearing the shofar” in the
multiple-choice questionnaire.”360
356
Rabbi Moshe Bogomilsky, “Vedibarta Bam — And You Shall Speak of Them
Volume I — Bereishit, Chayei Sarah” , Published and copyright © by Sichos In English,
http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/vedibarta-bam/005.htm November 11, 2006.
357
www.jewishscouting.org/awards/default.asp, March 27, 2007. The National Jewish Committee on
Scouting is associated with the Boy Scouts of America.
358
Kelim 17:13.
359
Rabbi Nosson Scherman, Rosh Hashanah – Its Significance, Laws, and Prayers, pg 38.
360
www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=4371, 5-3-05.

A Botanical Shofar
“When he looked at the word ‘shofar,’ the Holy Jew saw an abbreviation for ‘shoresh
poreh rosh ve-la'anah,’ which translates as ‘a root growing poison weed and
wormwood.’361 No matter how low we may have sunk, even to the extent of feeling like a
bitter and poisonous plant, that very bitterness has transformative power, symbolized by
the uplifting sounds of the shofar. …the only way we can make sense of our sins is by
seeing them as opportunities to do more profound teshuvah than ever before, so that we
can scale previously unimagined heights of holiness.”362
The Cricket and the Shofar363
“The humble cricket's summer song would evaporate into the night breeze were it not for
the acoustically impeccable earthen horn it fashions to optimally amplify its call. Is there
a message here for us?
“Why did we wake up this morning? Obviously so that today would be better than
yesterday. To this end the Baal Shem Tov enjoined us all to take a lesson in our divine
service from everything we see or hear. Since everything is according to specific divine
providence, each event in our lives is significant as a message towards a more meaningful
life.364
“Take crickets for example. Chances are, that if you walk around your neighborhood
tonight, you will probably hear the songs of crickets in some park or field. Of course
that's going to get you thinking about Rosh HaShana. How? you may ask. We don't dip a
cricket in honey, we use an apple. And we don't chirp or rub our wings together, we blow
on a ram's horn to celebrate the New Year, marking the onset of the 10 days of teshuvah,
repentance, between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.
361
Deuteronomy 29:17.
362
Yehoshua Siskin, The Jerusalem Post, Oct. 26, 2006,
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1161811207777&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShow
Full, April 22, 2007. The Holy Jew refers to the early hassidic master HaYehudi HaKadosh, the Holy Jew
(1766-1814).
363
Arnie Gotfryd, September 6, 2007, http://www.arniegotfryd.com/content/view/250/56/ December 26,
2008. Cricket facts and diagram from articles by H.C. Bennett-Clark in the Journal of Experimental
Biology.
364
Hayom Yom for the 7th of Tishrei, p.93.

“The sages say that if the Torah would not have been given, we could learn modesty from
a cat, not to steal from an ant, and fidelity from a dove.365 But what do we learn from a
cricket? Let's follow that chirping to its source to find out. In the case of the Mole cricket
for example, that source is a hole in the ground, the shape of a shofar! Rubbing its
forewings together creates harp-like vibrations that make the familiar chirping sound. But
those short wings would not be nearly as loud were it not for the amplification provided
by those meticulously formed and utilized burrows that crickets use to amplify their
songs as high as 90 decibels, the volume of a train whistle 500 feet away.
“The sound of crickets can be so deafening that vacationers in the countryside often have
trouble falling asleep. Similarly, the sound of the Shofar is designed to wake us up from
our spiritual slumber so that we can refocus on what's really important in our lives.366
When we realize how messed up our lives are, we call out to G-d because of our stress
and pressures. The Shofar is emblematic of that call, since when you blow with
compressed lips at the narrowest part of the horn, the sound becomes magnified as the
horn expands upwards. This is why, before hearing the Shofar in synogogue, we recite
the verse, "From out of narrowness, I called to G-d; with expansive relief, G-d answered
me."367 The cricket actually makes a point of chirping specifically at the narrowest point
in its burrow. From the bulb at the base of the burrow, to the smoothed walls, and to the
exponentially curved flare at the top of the horn-shaped hole, the cricket's call center is
magnificent structure, acoustically optimized in its every detail.
“Our call to our Creator through the simple hollowed horn, is a mixture of pure and
broken tones from the depths of the heart. Similarly, our humble cricket, calls out from a
simple, hollowed horn with one pure tone, made up of continuous series of broken tones,
emanating from deep in its burrow.
“As the cricket digs its earthen Shofar over several days, its song gets progressively
louder as the acoustics improve, until the burrow is complete and the sound is optimized.
One of the many things the Shofar symbolizes is the coming of Moshiach and a world of
good. As we hollow out our earthiness and shape our lives properly, our call to the
Creator gets progressively better, too, until we've optimized ourselves and the world
around us the best we can and then Moshiach arrives, faster than we can say Jiminy
Cricket.”
From Generation to Generation

“Balak the Moavite king asked Balaam the sorcerer to curse the Jewish people. Balaam
answered, ‘…the Lord their God is with them, and the trumpeting of the king is in
them.368 The Lord God is with them so what can I do? They are protected in the merit of
Moshe.’
365
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Eiruvin, p.100b
366
[3] Maimonides, Laws of Repentance Ch.3, Par.4
367
Psalms 118:5
368
Numbers 23:21.

“‘Then curse the next generation,’ said Balak.
“‘That I can’t do either,’ said Balaam, ‘because of the merit of Joshua. He, too, has God
with him; he blows the shofar and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down.’”369
Shofar in Kabbalah
Throughout this book, I make several references to the Tree of Life, to angels, and to
other concepts that come from kabbalah and the mystical traditions of Judaism.
Kabbalistic writings like the Zohar and the teachings of many Hasidic rabbis contain
more teachings about shofar. For example, there are teachings that link the several types
of shofar blasts to the mystical attributes of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I
have not tried to explain these because they require more understanding of kabbalah than
I have acquired. Teachers qualified in these esoteric traditions are available, and “when
the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”370
The following is a small sample of the mystical writings about shofar:
“When the world is renewed in time to come, everything will be conducted in a

miraculous manner – that is, through Divine providence alone, which transcends
nature…
“Then a new song will be awakened. As the verse proclaims: ‘Sing unto God a
new song, for He has performed wonders…’371 This is the song of the future
world, the song of Divine providence – the paradigm of the miraculous. For then
the world will be governed through Divine providence and wonders… This is a
song of nature, a song of the heavenly bodies in their constellations and orbits.
This is the song of the present state of reality, in which God guides His world
through the order of nature.
“…This new song will be a fourfold song: simple, doubled, tripled, and
quadrupled. This corresponds to the successive revelation of the essential Divine
Name Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey:372 the simple song is Yud, the doubled song is Yud-Hey,
the tripled song is Yud-Hey-Vav, and the quadrupled song is Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey.
Through this, the four worlds of Emanation, Creation, Formation, and Action
attain unification and harmony.
“Altogether, this combination of holy letters bears the gematria (numerical value)
of 72, corresponding to the gematria of chesed (kindness). For this song is bound
up with the fulfillment of the Divine promise: ‘The world will be renewed with
chesed.’373 Thus, it will be played on an instrument of 72 strings.
369
Numbers Rabbah 23, cited in Moshe A. Braun, The Jewish Holy Days, page 15.
370
Buddhist proverb.
371
Psalms 98:1.
372
The four-letter name of God.
373
Psalms 89:3.

“This song is the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. It is the sound that
awakens the soul from its sleep. It is the voice of the tzaddik, who knows how to
give holy reproof without poisoning the spiritual fragrance of those to whom he
speaks. It is the pristine river that waters the Garden of Eden and splits into four
tributaries. It is the song of the Divine Oneness from which everything comes
forth, and to which everything returns.”374
God’s Concern for the Animal

“As wild goats hesitate to pause to drink from waterholes lest their enemies, laying in
wait, attack and kill them, God causes frightening sounds to emanate from their horns and
terrorize their adversaries. The goats may thus safely stop for nourishment.”375
Rosh Hashanah on the Battlefield

A veteran recalls Jewish New Year services during World War II when he was stationed
east of Cologne, Germany, preparing to cross the Rhine River: “We dug in behind a
forest, and they had a rabbi come from Paris, France, to Germany, and we celebrated
about an hour or an hour and a half before we were called back to the front lines," Green
recounted. “And during the services, you blow the shofar 44 times. And we didn't have a
shofar, so somebody shot off an M28 44 times -- and that had to do for a shofar. And the
rabbi thought that was pretty good."376
374
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, adapted from Likutei Moharan II, 8, Sections 1 and 10, translated by David
Sears, www.nachalnovea.com/breslovcenter/articles/article_divineprov.html, November 3, 2007.
375
Shimoni to Psalms 104, para 862, pg. 951 f. as cited in Animal Life in Jewish Tradition by Elijah Judah
Schochet, page 145.
376
Moe Green, born in Minneapolis in 1919, as quoted in an oral history project of Jewish veterans of
WWII collected by the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest. Minneapolis – St. Paul Star
Tribune, September 22, 2007, www.startribune.com/218/story/1437694.html, November 9, 2007.

Appendix – Scriptural References to Shofar
The centrality of shofar in the Jewish psyche can be better understood when we realize
how frequently Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, refers to shofar and its blasts. Additional
references to ĥatzotzrot – trumpets, tekiah and teruah - blasts, yovel – another word for
horn, and other aspects of horns supplement this understanding, even if the references are
not directly linked to shofar. For example, knowing that the altar in the Temple had
“horns” links shofar blowing to the holiness of the Temple sacrifices.377
Many of the following verses are elaborated upon elsewhere in Hearing Shofar. I
encourage you to mine this compendium for insights to help you hear and understand the
many voices of shofar. Examination of the many passages referring to sheep, k’lee –
instruments,378 or related terms can also enhance our understanding of shafar.
A Note on the Hebrew: The Hebrew terms in parentheses below are the basic Hebrew
form of the word or phrase, simplified to omit tense, plural and other grammatical
constructions.
Genesis
4:20
And Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and amidst herds.
And the name of his brother was Jubal (yovel); he was the ancestor of all who play who
play the lyre and the pipe.
22:7-8, 13
And he said, “Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt
offering?” And Abraham said, “God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering, my
son.”… When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in a thicket by its
horns (keren). So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in
place of his son.
Exodus
19:13
When the ram’s horn (yovel) sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.
19:16, 19
On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud
upon the mountain, and a very loud voice of the shofar (shofar);379 and all the people who
were in the camp trembled… The voice of the shofar (shofar) grew louder and louder…
377
Translations based on Tanakh, Jewish Publication Society, 1985. I have inserted Hebrew terms to more
accurately convey the meaning.
378
For an explanation of k’lee, see Chapter 3-5 – Beyond the Days of Awe.
379
This, along with Job 39:25, is one of the rare instance in Torah where “shofar” is spelled without the
letter vav. I have found little explanation for this variant spelling. One theory concerns the shape and
meaning of vav. It is frequently used as a conjuction to mean “and”. Its shape, a vertical line, seems to
create a link between heaven and earth. The suggestion is that people usually experience a separation from

20:15
And the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the voice of the shofar (shofar) and
the mountain smoking…”
27:1-2
You shall make the altar… Make its horns (keren) on the four corners, the horns (keren)
to be of one piece with it; and overlay it with copper.
29:12
…and take some of the bull’s blood and put it on the horns (keren) of the altar with your
finger…
34:29-30
And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, Moses
was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant (keren), since he had spoken with
Him. Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant (keren);
and they shrank from coming near him.
38:1-2
He made the altar… He made horns (keren) for it on its four corners, the horns (keren)
being of one piece with it; and he overlaid it with copper.
Leviticus
8:15
…Moses took the blood and with his finger put some on each of the horns (keren) of the
altar, cleansing the altar…
16:5-26
(From Yom Kippur morning Torah reading.)
God, but during revelation at Sinai we experienced a oneness with God, a unity of heaven and earth, that
obviated the need for a conjunction.
Another explanation is that the gematria, numerical value, of this root form of the word is 580, the same
value as “tefillin.” Perhaps this first instance of shofar in Torah, this blaring theophany, is bound to us still
as if it were “a sign upon our arms and a remembrance between our eyes,” (paraphrasing Exodus 13:9
13:16). A further discussion of the gematria of “shofar” without a vav is in Music and Kabbala by Rabbi
M. Glazerman, revised by Rabbi R. Harris (Raz-Ot Institute, Jerusalem 1988), pp. 112-113.
According to Zohar, ”Vol 10:304. “Rabbi Yehuda said: In ‘the sound of the Shofar,’ the word "Shofar" is
spelled without the letter vav, for it has the same meaning as in the verse, "It pleased (Heb. shafar)
Daryavesh" (Daniel 6:1) and in the verse, "O king, let my counsel be acceptable (Heb. yishpar) to you"
(Daniel 4:24) and the verse, "I thought it good (Heb. shefar) to report the signs and wonders" (Daniel 3:32)
- meaning that these are expressions which speak of glory and beauty, which alludes to zeir anpin, the
secret of tiferet.” http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=zohar/zohar&vol=19&sec=668 September 4,
2009.

And from the Israelite community he shall take two he-goats for a sin offering and a ram
for a burnt offering… Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the
Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; and he shall place lots upon the two goats,
one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel. Aaron shall bring forward the
goat designated by lot for the Lord, which he is to offer as a sin offering. While the goat
designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make
expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel… He shall then slaughter
the people’s goat of sin offering, bring its blood behind the curtain, and…he shall
sprinkle it over the cover and in front of the cover. Thus he shall purge the Shrine of the
uncleanness and transgression of the Israelites, and he shall do the same for the Tent of
Meeting, which abides with them in the midst of their uncleanness… he shall take some
of the blood…of the goat and apply it to each of the horns (keren) of the altar, and the
rest of the blood he shall sprinkle on it with his finger seven times… When he has
finished purging the Shrine, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, the live goat shall be
brought forward. Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and
confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins,
putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a
designated man. Thus shall the goat carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible
region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness… He who set the Azazel-goat free
shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may reenter the camp.
17:7
…they may offer their sacrifices no more to the goat-demons after whom they stray.
23:24
(See Meditation for 12th Day of Elul in Volume One)
In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a
sacred occasion remembered with blasts (teruah).
25:9-10
Then you shall sound the shofar blast (teruah); in the seventh month, on the tenth day of
the month – the Day of Atonement – you shall have the shofar sounded throughout the
land and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land
for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee (yovel) for you…
The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is inscribed with words from Leviticus 25: "Proclaim liberty throughout
all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”

Numbers
10:2-10
Have two silver trumpets (ĥatzotzrot) made; make them of hammered work. They shall
serve you to summon the community and to set the divisions in motion. When both are
blown in long blasts (tekiah), the whole community shall assemble before you at the
entrance of the Tent of Meeting; and if only one is blown (tekiah), the chieftains, heads of
Israel’s contingents, shall assemble before you. But when you sound short blasts (tekiah
teruah), the divisions encamped on the east shall move forward; and when you sound
short blasts (tekiah teruah) a second time, those encamped on the south shall move
forward. Thus short blasts shall be blown (teruah tekiah) for setting them in motion,
while to convoke the congregation you shall blow long blasts (tekiah), not broken ones
(teruah). The trumpets shall be blown (tekiah ĥatzotzrot) by Aaron’s sons, the priests;
they shall be for you an institution for all time throughout the ages. When you are at war
in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the
trumpets (teruah ĥatzotzrot), that you may be remembered before the Lord your God and
be delivered from your enemies. And on your joyous occasions – your fixed festivals and
new moon days – you shall sound the trumpets (tekiah ĥatzotzrot) over your burnt
offerings and your sacrifices of well-being. They shall be a reminder of you before your
God: I, the Lord, am your God.
23:21-22
No harm is in sight for Jacob,
No woe in view for Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
And their King’s acclaim (teruah) in their midst.
God who freed them from Egypt
Is for them like the “horns” (also translated as strength or swiftness) of a wild ox.380
29:1
In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion:
you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day of blasts (teruah).
31:6
Moses dispatched them on the campaign, a thousand from each tribe, with Phinehas son
of Eleazar serving as priest on the campaign, equipped with the sacred utensils (k’lee)
and the trumpets of the blasts (ĥatzotzrot teruah).
380
This is Balaam’s second attempt to curse the Israelites. Teruah is used elsewhere to describe the blasts of
the shofar. The poetic use of the word is emphasized in the next line where God’s protection is compared in
a metaphor to the eminences of a re-em, a now extinct species of buffalo.

Deuteronomy
33:17
He has horns (keren) like the horns (keren) of the wild-ox;
With them he gores the peoples,
The ends of the earth one and all.
Joshua
6:4-5
(See Meditation for 16th Day of Elul in Volume One.)
The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I will deliver Jericho and her king [and her] warriors into
your hands. Let all your troops march around the city and complete one circuit of the city.
Do this six days with seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns (shofar) preceding the
Ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the
horns (tekiah shofarot). And when a long blast (also translated as “prolongation”) is
sounded on the horn (keren yovel) – as soon as you hear that sound of the horn (kol
shofar) – all the people shall give a mighty shout. Thereupon the city wall will collapse,
and the people shall advance, every man straight ahead.”381
(In verses 6-7, Joshua’s son relates the above instructions to the people.)
8-9,
When Joshua had instructed the people, the seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns
(shofar) advanced before the Lord, blowing their horns… The vanguard marched in front
of the priests who were blowing the horns (shofar yovel)… with the horns sounding
(tekiah shofar) all the time.
(In verses 12-14 we are told about the marching on days one through six, “blowing the
horns as they marched” and “with the horns sounding all the time.”)
6:15-16, 20
On the seventh day, they rose at daybreak and marched around the city, in the same
manner, seven times; that was the one day that they marched around the city seven times.
On the seventh round, as the priest blew the horns (tekiah shofar), Joshua commanded the
people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city… So the people shouted (tekiah)
when the horns (shofar) were sounded. When the people heard the sound of the horns
(kol shofar), the people raised a mighty shout (teruah) and the walls collapsed. The
people rushed into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they captured the city.
They exterminated everything in the city…
Judges
3:27
But Ehud had made good his escape while they delayed; he had passed Peslim and
escaped to Seirah. When he got there, he had the ram’s horn (shofar) sounded through the
381
This verse is essentially repeated in the instructions for and then the narrative of the battle.

hill country of Ephraim, and all the Israelites descended with him from the hill country;
and he took the lead.382
6:34
The spirit of the Lord enveloped Gideon; he sounded the horn (shofar), and the
Abiezrites rallied behind him.
7:7-8
(See discussion in Chapter 3-1 – Shepherd Nation.)
“…I will put Midian into your hands through the three hundred ‘lappers’; let the rest of
the troops go home.” So [the lappers] took the provisions and horns (shofar) that the
other men had with them, and he sent the rest of the men of Israel back to their homes,
retaining only the three hundred men.
7:16-22
[Gideon] divided the three hundred men into three columns and equipped each with a
ram’s horn (shofar) and an empty jar… When I and all those with me blow our horns
(tekiah shofar), you too, all around the camp, will blow your horns (tekiah shofar) and
shout, “For the Lord and for Gideon.” Gideon and the hundred men with him arrived at
the outposts of the camp… They sounded the horns (tekiah shofar), and smashed the jars
that they had with them, and the three columns blew their horns (tekiah shofar) and broke
their jars…[and] they shouted… They remained standing where they were, surrounding
the camp; but the entire camp ran about yelling, and took to flight. For when the three
hundred horns were sounded (tekiah shofar), the Lord turned every man’s sword against
his fellow…and the entire camp fled…
1 Samuel
2:1, 10
(The Song of Hannah, traditionally read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, begins and
ends with references to horns.)
And Hannah prayed:

I have triumphed [literally “My horn (keren) is high”] through the Lord;
I gloat [literally “My mouth is wide”] over my enemies;
I rejoice in Your deliverance.
382
The voice of shofar resonates throughout the story of Deborah from which this quote is taken. The Song
of Deborah, Judges 5:23, says, “‘Curse Meroz!’ said the angel of the Lord. ‘Bitterly curse its inhabitants,
because they came not…to the aid of the Lord among the warriors.” Talmud (Moed Kattan 16a) says the
means of cursing the inhabitants of Meroz (a plain in Ephraim] was to excommunicate them with the
blowing of 400 shofarot. (www.netivot-shalom.org.il/parshaeng/bashalch5762.php, 8/13/05.) A few lines
further into Judges lays the story of Sisera’s mother whose cries are regarded as the model for the sounds of
the shofar; See Chapter 1-7 – The Ewes Horn in Volume One.

The foes of the Lord shall be shattered;
He will thunder against them in the heavens.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
He will give power to His king,
And triumph to [Literally, “And will raise the horn (keren) of”] His anointed one.
4:5-6
(Was the teruah sounded by shouting or blowing shofar? Perhaps both, since the first
sentence uses “yarihou” (shouting) as well as teruah. Perhaps a better translation would
be, “…all Israel shouted and blew big [shofar] blasts so that the earth resounded.)
When the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord entered the camp, all Israel burst into a great
shout (teruah gedolah), so that the earth resounded. The Philistines heard the noise of the
shouting (teruah) and they wondered, “Why is there such a loud shouting (teruah
gedolah) in the camp of the Hebrews?”
13:3
Saul had the ram’s horn (shofar) sounded throughout the land, saying, Let the Hebrews
hear.”
15:14
(Samuel uses the voice of sheep to prick the conscience of Saul.)
Than what is this bleating of sheep in my ears…?
16:1
(While not specifically identified as such, the flask used by Samuel to anoint Saul in 1
Samuel 10:1 was probably also a horn.)
And the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected
him as king over Israel? Fill your horn (keren) with oil and set out; I am sending you to
Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have decided on one of his sons to be king.”
16:11, 13
Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the boys you have?” He replied, “There is still
the youngest; he is tending the flock.”… Samuel took the horn (keren) of oil and anointed
him in the presences of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord gripped David from that
day on.

Samuel anoints David with oil from a horn. Fresco, Dura Europos Synagogue. Prior to 256 CE.
2 Samuel
2:28
Joab then sounded the horn (shofar), and all the troops halted; they ceased their pursuit of
Israel and stopped the fighting.
6:15
Thus David and all the House of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts
(teruah) and with blasts of the horn (kol shofar).
15:10
But Absalom sent agents to all the tribes of Israel to say, “When you hear the blast of the
horn (shofar), announce that Absalom has become king in Hebron.”
18:16
Then Joab sounded the horn (shofar), and the troops gave up their pursuit of the
Israelites; for Joab held the troops in check.
20:1
A scoundrel named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, happened to be there. He
sounded the horn (shofar) and proclaimed: “We have no portion in David, no share in
Jesse’s son! Every man to his tent, O Israel!”

20:22
After squashing a rebellion…
[Joab] then sounded the horn (shofar); all the men dispersed to their homes, and Joab
returned to the king in Jerusalem.
1 Kings
1:32-34
Then King David said… “Let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him there
king over Israel, whereupon you shall sound the horn (shofar) and shout, “Long live King
Solomon!”
1:39-41
The priest Zadok took the horn (keren) of oil from the Tent and anointed Solomon. They
sounded the horn (shofar) and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” All the
people then marched up behind him, playing on flutes and making merry till the earth
was split open by the uproar. Adonijah and all the guests who were with him, who had
just finished eating, heard it. When Joab heard the sound of the horn (shofar), he said,
“Why is the city in such an uproar?”
1:50-51
Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, went at once [to the Tent] and grasped the horns (keren) of
the alter. It was reported to Solomon: “Adonijaj is in fear of King Solomon and has
grasped the horns (keren) of the alter.
2:28
When the news reached Joab, he fled to the Tent of the Lord and grasped the horns
(keren) of the Alter – for Joab had sided with Adonijah, though he had not sided with
Absalom.
5:18
(The Hebrew of the second phrase of this verse is, “ein Satan V’ein Pega Ra.” The initial
Hebrew letters of these words form the acronym “shofar” and allude to the power of
shofar to confound the evil impulse. This verse is the only instance in Tanakh where the
initial or final letters of consecutive words spell “shofar.”)383
But now the Lord my God has given me respite all around; there is no adversary and no
mischance.
383
Mordecai Kornfeld attributes this insight to the Tur (OC 590) at
http://dafyomi.shemayisrael.co.il/rhashanah/insites/rh-dt-34.htm, May 7, 2006 and discusses this technique
of finding hidden meanings in Torah at www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/kornfeld/archives/simchat1.htm,
May 7, 2006.

20:27
(One of many verses in which Israel is compared to sheep or goats.)
…when the Israelites encamped against [the Arameans], they looked like two flocks of
goats, while the Arameans covered the land.
2 Kings
9:13
They sounded the horn (tekiah shofar) and proclaimed, “Jehu is king!”
11:12-14
They anointed him and proclaimed him king; they clapped their hands and shouted,
“Long live the king.” … saw the king standing by the pillar, as was the custom, the chiefs
with their trumpets (ĥatzotzrot) beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing
and blowing trumpets (tekiah ĥatzotzrot).
Isaiah
18:3
All you who live in the world
And inhabit the earth,
When a flag is raised in the hills, take note!
When a ram’s horn (shofar) is blown, give heed!
27:13
(See Meditation for 21st Day of Elul in Volume One.)
And in that day, a great ram’s horn (shofar) shall be sounded; and the strayed who are in
the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt shall come and worship
the Lord on the holy mount, in Jerusalem.
58:1-7
(Yom Kippur morning Haftorah. See Meditation for 22nd Day of Elul in Volume One.)
Cry with full throat, without restraint;

Raise your voice like a ram’s horn (shofar)!
Declare to My people their transgression.
To the House of Jacob their sin.
Jeremiah
4:5
Proclaim to Judah,
Announce in Jerusalem,
And say:
“Blow the horn (tekiah shofar) in the land!”
Shout aloud and say:
“Assemble, and let us go
Into the fortified cities!”

4:19-21
Oh, my suffering, my suffering!
How I writhe!
Oh, the walls of my heart!
My heart moans within me,
I cannot be silent;
For I hear the blare of horns (kol shofar),
Alarms of war.
Disaster overtakes disaster,
For all the land has been ravaged.
Suddenly my tents have been ravaged,
In a moment, my tent cloths.
How long must I see standards
And hear the blare of horns (kol shofar)?
6:1
(The initial letters of the Hebrew in the third and fourth lines of this verse contain the
acronym “teshuvah” and allude to the power of the shofar to awaken repentance. This
verse is the only instance in Tanakh where the initial or final letters of consecutive words
spell “shofar.”)384
Flee for refuge, O people of Benjamin,

Out of the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the horn (tekiah shofar) in Tekoa,
Set up a signal at Beth-haccherem!
For evil is appearing from the north,
And great disaster.
6:17
(See Meditation for 23rd Day of Elul in Volume One.)
And I raised up watchmen for you:

“Harken to the sound of the horn (kol shofar)!”
But they said, “We will not.”
42:14
…if you say, ‘No!’ We will go to the land of Egypt, so that we may not see war or hear
the sound of the horn (kol shofar), and so that we may not hunger for bread, there we will
stay,’ then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah!…
51:27
Raise a standard on earth,
Sound a horn (tekiah shofar) among the nations…
384
Mordecai Kornfeld, www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/kornfeld/archives/simchat1.htm, May 7, 2006.

Ezekiel
7:14
(The expression translated below as “they have sounded the horn” is ta-koo b'takoo-ah in
transliteration. This means something like "blast the blaster". It employs the rhetorical
device of paronomasia to poetic effect. This is the only instance in Tanach where the
phrase is used.)
They have sounded the horn, and all is prepared; but no one goes to battle, for my wrath
is directed against all her multitude.
33:2-6
When I bring the sword against a country, the citizens of that country take one of their
number and appoint him their watchman. Suppose he sees the sword advancing against
the country, and he blows the horn (tekiah shofar) and warns the people. If anybody hears
the sound of the horn (kol shofar) but ignores the warning, and the sword comes and
dispatches him, his blood shall be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the horn
(kol shofar) but ignored the warning, his bloodguilt shall be upon himself; had he taken
the warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword advancing
and does not blow the horn (tekiah shofar), so that the people are not warned, and the
sword comes and destroys one of them, that person was destroyed for his own sins;
however, I will demand a reckoning for his blood from the watchman.
Hosea
5:8
Sound a ram’s horn (tekiah shofar) in Gilbeath,
A trumpet (ĥatzotzrot) in Ramah;
Give the alarm in Beth-aven,
After you, Benjamin!
Ephraim is stricken with horror
On a day of chastisement.
8:1
[Put] a shofar (shofar) to your mouth –
Like an eagle over the House of the Lord;
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And been faithless to My teaching.
Israel cries out to Me,
“O my God, we are devoted to You.”
Joel
2:1-2
Blow a shofar (tekiah shofar) in Zion,
Sound an alarm on My holy mount!
Let all dwellers on earth tremble,
For the day of the Lord has come!

2:15
(From Haftorah of Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur.)
Blow a horn (tekiah shofar) in Zion,

Solemnize a fast,
Proclaim an assembly!
Amos
1:2
(While this verse does not specifically reference shofar, it poetically introduces the other
shofar images used by Amos.)
The Lord roars from Zion,

Shouts aloud from Jerusalem…
1:14
I will set fire to the wall of Rabbah,
And it shall devour its fortresses,
Amid shouting (teruah) on a day of battle,
On a day of violent tempest.
2:2
I will send down fire upon Moab,
And it shall devour the fortresses of Kerioth.
And Moab shall die in tumult,
Amid shouting (teruah) and the blare of horns (kol shofar)…
3:6
When a ram’s horn (shofar) is sounded in a town,
Do the people not take alarm?
The prophet Amos from a manuscript in the British Library.

Habakkuk
3:4-4
His majesty covers the skies,
His splendor fills the earth:
It is a brilliant light
Which gives off rays (keren) on every side –
And therein His glory is enveloped.
Zephaniah
1:16
A day of horn blasts and alarms (shofar teruah) –
Against the fortified towns
And the lofty corner towers.
Zechariah
2:1-4
I looked up, and I saw four horns (keren). I asked the angel who talked with me, “What
are those?” “Those,” he replied, “are the horns (keren) that tossed Judah, Israel, and
Jerusalem.” Then the Lord showed me four smiths. “What are they coming to do?” I
asked. He replied: “Those are the horns (keren) that tossed Judah, so than no man could
raise his head; and these men have come to throw them into a panic, to hew down the
horns of the nations that raise a horn (keren) against the land of Judah, to toss it.”385
9:14
My Lord God shall sound the ram’s horn (tekiah shofar)
And advance in a stormy tempest.
Psalms
27:6-7
(Recited in many congregations following the shofar blasts during Elul.386)
Now is my head high

Over my enemies roundabout;
I sacrifice in His tent with shouts (teruah) of joy,
Singing and chanting a hymn to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
Have mercy on me, answer me.”387
385
While this verse is not about the shofar, it does illustrate the archetypal power and mystery of horns. See
also Daniel 7 and 8.
386
The Authorized Daily Prayer Book, Revised Edition, Joseph H. Hertz, 1948, pg. 840.
387
Psalms 27:6-7. Some translations interpret “teruah” as “shouts.” While this is more poetic in English, it
misrepresents the central importance of hearing shofar as a wake-up call in the month prior to Rosh
Hashanah, the Day of Teruah, and ignores the blowing of shofar that occurred in “His tent” when sacrifices
took place.

33:2-3
Praise the Lord with the lyre;
with the ten-stringed harp sing to Him;
sing Him a new song;
Play sweetly with shouts (teruah) of joy
47:2,6
All you peoples, clap your hands, raise a joyous shout (tekiah) for God…
God ascends midst acclamation (teruah); the Lord to the blast of the horn (shofar).
69:31-32
I will extol God’s name with songs,
and exalt him with praise.
That will please the Lord more than oxen,
than bulls with horns (keren) and hooves.
75:5, 10-11
“To wanton men I say, ‘Do not be wanton!’
to the wicked, “Do not lift up your horns (keren)!’”
Do not lift your horns (keren) up high
in vainglorious bluster…
As for me, I will declare forever,

I will sing a hymn to the God of Jacob.
“All the horns (keren) of the wicked I will cut;
but the horns (keren) of the righteous shall be lifted up.”
81:2-6, 8
(See discussion in Chapter 1-2 – Five Translation Challenges)
Sing joyously to God, our strength;

Raise a shout (teruah) for the God of Jacob.
Take up the song,
sound the timbrel,
the melodious lyre and harp.
Blow the horn (tekiah shofar) on the new moon,
on the full moon for our feast day.
For it is a law for Israel,
a ruling for the God of Jacob;
He imposed it as a decree upon Joseph
when he went forth from the land of Egypt;
I heard a language that I knew not.
In distress you called and I rescued you;

I answered you from that secret place of thunder.

89:16, 18, 21, 25
Happy is the people who know the joyful shout (teruah).
…our horn (keren) is exalted through Your favor.
I have found David, My servant;

anointed him with My sacred oil.388
…his horn (keren) shall be exalted through My name.
92:11
You raise my horn (keren) high like that of a wild ox; I am soaked in freshening oil.
98:6
With trumpets (ĥatzotzrot) and the blast of the horn (kol shofar)
raise a shout before the Lord, the King.
112:9
He gives freely to the poor; his beneficence lasts forever; his horn (keren) is exalted in
honor.
118:5
(The verse can also be translated, “Out of the narrow place I called upon God, who
answered me in spaciousness."389 This can be interpreted as a reference to the shape of
the shofar and the process of teshuvah, moving from the constricted space of the
hardened heart to a place of redemption.)
In distress I called upon the Lord;

the Lord answered me and brought me relief.
118:27
…bind the festal offering to the horns (keren) of the altar with cords.
132:13, 17
For the Lord has chosen Zion;
…There I will make a horn (keren) sprout for David…”
148:14
He has exalted the horn (keren) of His people…
388
The anointing oil was poured from a horn; see I Samuel 16:13
389
Debra Orenstein, Lifecycles Vol. 1: Jewish Women on Life Passages & Personal Milestones,
www.myjewishlearning.com/lifecycle/Other_Life_Events/InspireNewCeremonies/GivingBirth.htm,
January 9, 2006.

150
Hallelujah.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise Him in the sky, His stronghold.
Praise Him for His mighty acts,
praise Him for his exceeding greatness.
Praise him with blast of the horn (shofar);
praise Him with lute and pipe.
Praise him with resounding cymbals;
praise Him with loud-clashing cymbals.
Let all that breathes praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Job
16: 15
I sewed sackcloth over my skin;
I buried my glory in [Literal: “made my horn (keren) enter into”] the dust.
39:19, 24-25
Do you give the horse his strength?…
Trembling with excitement, he swallows the land;
He does not turn aside at the blast of the trumpet (shofar).
As the trumpet (shofar)390 sounds, he says, “Aha!”
From afar he smells the battle,
The roaring and shouting (teruah) of the officers.
Daniel
3:14-15
Nebuchadnezzar spoke… “Now if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue of
gold that I have set up when you hear the sound of the horn (keren), pipe, zither, lyre,
psaltery, and bagpipe, and all other types of instruments, well and good; but if you will
not worship, you shall at once be thrown into a burning fiery furnace, and what god is
there that can save you from my power?”391
390
Shofar is spelled here without the vav.
391
Other verses repeat the theme and reference to the horn.

Daniel’s vision in an illuminated manuscript from 11th Century France.
8:3-22
I looked and saw a ram standing between me and the river; he had two horns (keren); the
horns (keren) were high, with one higher than the other, and the higher sprouting last. I
saw the ram butting westward, northward, and southward. No beast could withstand him,
and there was none to deliver from his power. He did as he pleased and grew great. As I
looked on, a he-goat came from the west, passing over the entire earth without touching
the ground. The goat had a conspicuous horn (keren) on its forehead. He came up to the
two-horned ram that I had seen standing between me and the river and charged at him
with furious force. I saw him reach the ram and rage at him; he struck the ram and broke
its two horns (keren). He threw him to the ground and trampled him, and there was none
to deliver the ram from his power. Then the he-goat grew very great, but at the peak of
his power his big horn (keren) was broken. In its place four conspicuous horns (keren)
sprouted toward the four winds of heaven. From one of them emerged a small horn
(keren), which extended itself greatly toward the south, toward the east, and toward the
beautiful land. It grew as high as the host of heaven and it hurled some stars of the
[heavenly] host to the ground and trampled them. It vaunted itself against the very chief
of the host; on its account the regular offering was abandoned. An army was arrayed
iniquitously against the regular offering; it hurled truth to the ground and prospered in
what it did… “Understand, O man, that the vision refers to the time of the end… I am
going to inform you of what will happen when wrath is at an end, for [it refers] to the
time appointed for the end. The two-horned (keren) ram that you saw [signifies] the kings
of Media and Persia; and the buck, the he-goat – the king of Greece; and the large horn
(keren) on his forehead, that is the first king. One was broken and four came in its stead –
that [means]: four kingdoms will arise out of a nation, but without its power…”
Ezra
3:10
When the builders had laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord, priest in their
vestments with trumpets (ĥatzotzrot), and Levites son of Asaph with cymbals were
stationed to give praise to the Lord, as King David of Israel had ordained.

Nehemiah
4:12-14
As for the builders, each had his sword girded at his side as he was building. The
trumpeter (tekiah shofar) stood beside me. I said to the nobles, the prefects, and the rest
of the people, “There is much work and it is spread out; we are scattered over the wall,
far from one another. When you hear a trumpet call (kol shofar), gather yourselves to me
at that place; our God will fight for us!”
12:31-43
I had the officers of Judah go up onto the wall, and I appointed two large thanksgiving
[choirs] and processions. [One marched] south on the wall to the Dung Gate; behind them
were…some of the young priests with trumpets (ĥatzotzrot)… and… the musical
instruments of David, the man of God and Ezra, the scribe went ahead of them… Both
thanksgiving choirs halted at the House of God…and the priests…with trumpets
(ĥatzotzrot)… On that day, they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced… and the rejoicing
from Jerusalem could be heard from afar.
1 Chronicles
13:8
They transported the Ark of God… and David and all Israel danced before God with all
their might – with songs, lyres, harps, timbrels, cymbals, and trumpets (ĥatzotzrot).
15:24, 28
Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zecharia, Benaiah, and Eliezer the priest
sounded the trumpets [literal: “trumpeted (ĥatzotzrot) the trumpets (ĥatzotzrot)”] before
the Ark of God… All Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouts
(teruah) and with blasts of the horn (kol shofar), with trumpets (ĥatzotzrot) and cymbals,
playing on harps and lyres.
16:4, 6, 42
He appointed Levites to minister before the Ark of the Lord, to invoke, to praise, and to
extol the Lord God of Israel… and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priest, with trumpets
(ĥatzotzrot), regularly before the Ark of the Covenant of God… Heman and Jeduthan had
with them trumpets (ĥatzotzrot) and cymbals to sound, and instruments for the songs of
God…
2 Chronicles
5:11-15
When the priest came out of the Sanctuary… all the Levite singers… dressed in fine
linen, holding cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing to the east of the altar, and with
them were 120 priests who blew trumpets (ĥatzotzrot). The trumpeters (ĥatzotzrot) and
the singers joined in to unison to praise and extol the Lord; and as the sound of the
trumpets (ĥatzotzrot), cymbals, and other musical instruments and the praise of the Lord,
“For He is good, for His steadfast love is eternal,” grew louder, the House, the House of

the Lord, was filled with a cloud. The priests could not stay and perform the service
because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the House of God.
7:6
The priests stood at their watches; the Levites with the instruments for the Lord’s music
that King David had made to praise the Lord, “For His steadfast love is eternal,” by
means of the psalms of David that they know. The priests opposite them blew trumpets
(ĥatzotzrot) while all of Israel were standing.
13:12-15
“See, God is with us as our chief, and His priests have the trumpets for sounding blasts
(ĥatzotzrot teruah) against you. O children of Israel, do not fight the Lord God of your
fathers, because you will not succeed.”… When Judah turned around and saw that the
fighting was before and behind them, they cried out to the Lord, and the priests blew the
trumpets (ĥatzotzrot). The men of Judah raised a shout; and when the men of Judah raised
a shout, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
15:13-14
Whoever would not worship the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, whether small
or great, whether man or woman. So they took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice and
with shouts (teruah), with trumpeting (ĥatzotzrot) and blasts of the horn (shofar).
18:10
(Same as 2 Kings 22:11)
Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had provided himself with iron horns (keren); and he said,
“Thus said the Lord: With these you shall gore the Arameans till you make an end of
them.”
20:28-29
They came to Jerusalem to the House of the Lord, to the accompaniment of harps, lyres,
and trumpets (ĥatzotzrot). The terror of God seized all the kingdoms of the lands when
they heard that the Lord had fought the enemies of Israel.
23:13
She looked about and saw the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, the chiefs with
their trumpets (ĥatzotzrot) beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and
blowing trumpets (tekiah ĥatzotzrot), and the singers with musical instruments (k’lee)
leading the hymns.
29:26-28
When the Levites were in place with the instruments (k’lee) of David, and the priests with
their trumpets (ĥatzotzrot), Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the
altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord and the trumpets (ĥatzotzrot)
began also, together with the instruments (k’lee) of King David of Israel. All the

congregation prostrated themselves, the song was sung and the trumpets (ĥatzotzrot) were
blown [literal: “trumpeted” (ĥatzotzrot)] – all this until the end of the burnt offering.

Bibliography
Footnotes throughout the book suggest many helpful resources. The following will be
particularly rewarding for anyone interested in learning more about the laws, traditions,
and meanings of shofar, teshuvah, and the Days of Awe:
Machzor (High Holy Days Prayer Book) – See, for example:

The Complete Artscroll Machzor – Rosh Hashanah (Nusach Askenaz), Mesorah
Publications, Ltd., 1985
Halachah (Jewish Law) and Traditional Sources

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Rosh Hashanah; see, for example, Talmud Bavli,
Schottenstein Edition, Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1999; or Jew's College/Soncino
English translation edited by Isidore Epstein, 1952, http://www.come-and-
hear.com/talmud.
Maimonides (The Rambam), Hilchot Shofar; translation by Eliyahu Touger, Maimonides

– Mishneh Torah, Moznaim Publishing Corporation, 1988
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (ha Rav), Shulhan Aruch, translated and annotated by
Rabbi Eliyahu Touger and Uri Kaploun, Kehot Publication Society, Brooklyn, NY, 2004
Rabbi Yisrael Meir (haCohen) Kagan (Chofetz Chaim), Mishneh Berurah, especially
Volume 6(B) – Laws of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, first published in 1907; edited
by Rabbi Aviel Orenstein, Pisgah Foundation, Jerusalem, distributed by Feldheim, 1999.
More Recent Works

Adler, Cyrus, The Shofar – Its Use and Origin, Smithsonian Institution, 1893. A digital
copy is online as part of Report Upon the Condition and Progress of the U.S. National
Museum During the Year Ending June 30, 1892 at www.books.google.com, October 14,
2007. Adler also wrote or contributed to several informative articles related to shofar in
the 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, www.jewishencyclopedia.com.
Agnon, Shmuel Yosef, Days of Awe; Schocken Books, Inc., New York, 1948, 1965
Braun, Joachim, Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine, translated by Douglas W. Stott,

William B. Eerdmann Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge,
U.K., 2002.
Braun, Moshe A., The Jewish Holy Days: Their Spiritual Significance, Jason Aronson
Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1985, based on the teachings of Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib
Alter – the Sfas Emes.
Edwards, Lisa A., A Horn of Plenty: A Re-Vision of the Shofar Service for Rosh
Hashanah, ordination thesis, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, New
York, New York, 1994.

Eli Friedman, ed., Days of Awe, Days of Joy, Kehot Publication Society, Brooklyn, NY,
1997.
Lehmann, Allan, “Shofar” in The Jewish Catalog, Siegel, Richard; Strassfeld, Michael;
and Strassfeld, Sharon, editors. Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973
Meisels, David, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Secrets, 2004, ISBN 1-931681-61-9.
Miller, Malcolm, “The Shofar and its Symbolism,” Historic Brass Journal, Vol. 12,
2002, pp 83-114.
Reik, Theodor, Four Psychoanalytic Studies: Couvade, The Puberty Rites of Savages,
Kol Nidre, The Shofar; Grove Press, Inc. 1946
Scherman, Nosson; Goldwurm, Hersh; and Gold, Avie; Rosh Hashanah – Its
Significance, Laws, and Prayers; Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1983
Stern, Yosef, Days of Awe, Ideas and Insights of the Sfas Emes on the High Holy Days,
Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1996. Sfas Emes refers to the hassidic master Rabbi Judah
Aryeh Leib Alter (1847-1905).
Internet
The author maintains the site, www.HearingShofar.com. Materials written by Arthur L.
Finkle are also posted at the site. It also contains a blog www.blog.HearingShofar.com
for updates to and discussion about this work.
The internet is a treasure trove of information, but one has to sieve through sites of
questionable value to find the gems. A popular internet search engine returns about a
million hits on the word, “shofar.”392 The following sites are recommended:
Jewish Encyclopedia, www.jewishencyclopedia.com.
Tel Shemesh, Celebrating and Creating Earth-Based Rituals in Judaism,

http://telshemesh.org.
Ritualwell.org, Ceremonies for Jewish Living, www.ritualwell.org.
Chabad’s www.askmoses.com.
392
Returns on www.google.com searches for the word “shofar” vary from a high of about 1.5 million in
2005, down to 350,000 in October 2007, and back up to about a million in April 2009. This suggests
changes in Google’s indexing and not vacillations in the term’s usage.

Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of The Ram's Horn - Vol. 3

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HEARING SHOFAR:

THE STILL SMALL VOICE OF THE RAM’S HORN

Book Three – The People of the Ram

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 1 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

BOOK TWO – FOR THE SHOFAR BLOWER Click here.

BOOK THREE – THE PEOPLE OF THE RAM.

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Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 2 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 3 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 4 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 5 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

The Ram Whose Horns Reached To Heaven

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 6 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 7 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

The Mythic Image

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 8 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 9 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 10 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

How Common was it to have a Shofar?

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 11 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 12 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

“The great shofar is sounded and a still small voice is heard.”37

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 13 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

This was followed by a silence even deeper. Midrash44 says:

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 14 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

The poet answers this question:

From the Sages

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 15 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

I don’t know what sort of God we have been talking about.

The caller calls in a loud voice to the Holy One at dusk.

Shall He who implants the ear not hear?

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Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 16 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 18 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 19 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 20 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 21 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

He explains this further,

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 22 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

The shofar blasts also commemorate, according to Dreifuss,

Dreifuss also point to the magical power of the shofar.

With regards to the self and sexual identities, he comments,

Dreifuss similarly states,

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 23 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

The Power of a Symbol

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 24 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 25 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 26 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 27 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

The Four Elements

These views influenced Maimonides who wrote:

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 28 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 29 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

A few years ago, in Calgary, Canada, I participated in a symposium on mysticism, with

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 30 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

I continued my own prayers and concluded by blowing my shofar. Then I wrapped up my

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 31 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 32 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

From “Rosh Hashanah: The Environment is a Broken Window”

We are the shaman of the world,

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 33 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

Hearing Shofar – Volume 3 Page 34 © 2009, Michael T. Chusid

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