Why shofar on rosh hashanah

Not only as the one who began the work in us, but as the one who reigns today. The horn invites us to reflect on our actions and to return to God. It calls for repentance , turning away from your sins, and returning to the Creator.

With the sounds of the shofar, we are reminded to look into our souls, examine our lives, and return to the God of the Bible.

God commanded this festival so that it might serve as a spiritual alarm clock for His people. The calloused, routine, and day-to-day life is placed on hold. The main theme of Rosh HaShanah is liberation. The sound of the shofar is a call for busy and tired people to stop and look to the heavens. Do the people fear when the trumpet blows in the city?

Amos Blowing the shofar is meant to be a reassuring sound — reminding us that God hears and is constantly watching. In the New Testament, we find the words of the apostle Paul about the future gathering of believers around the Messiah. He writes that it will begin with the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep before, and then of all the living.

He explains that this gathering will begin with the sound of a trumpet — a shofar. So comfort one another with these words. The sound of the shofar on that day will announce the second coming of our Messiah.

Apostle Paul said to encourage one another with these words. Below, you can listen to each of the four shofar sounds we blow on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and learn more about what they each mean:.

Tekiah is a single blow. It's a long, loud blast. If you've ever seen a knight or court messenger play a horn or blow a long sound to call attention to a king in a movie, tekiah , is kind of like that.

When tekiah sounds, it brings everyone to attention. Your browser does not support the audio element. The next type of sound made with the shofar is called shevarim. The three, broken blows of shevarim , sound like crying.

Other brass instruments do not tend to carry quite the same level of aroma. It is nature-made. It is simple. Many people think that a teruah sounds like a voice crying out. All that said, did you know there are some pieces of classical music that call for the use of the shofar?

Rosh Hashanah. It is mentioned numerous times in the Bible, in reference to its ceremonial use in the Temple and to its function as a signal-horn of war. Comprised of the Mishnah and the Gemara, it contains the opinions of thousands of rabbis from different periods in Jewish history.

This is accomplished by drying the horn for about a year. At this point, the inner layer is shriveled up and is easily removed. If one were to remove the core from the sheath and drill a hole through it, it would not be a kosher shofar. The shofar is then left to dry. When it is dry, the tip of the keratin is carefully sawed off and a hole is drilled into the center of the shofar to form a mouthpiece.

While flaring the mouthpiece allows for easier blowing, one should inspect the shofar to insure that the mouthpiece has not been distorted; as such a shofar is not preferred. Any pitch produced by a shofar , whether loud, soft, or dry, is acceptable. If a shofar splits along the entire length, it is no longer kosher. If split entirely across the width then if four thumb breadths about 3.

If one blows with the shofar facing downwards it is unacceptable, 22 since the shofar must be blown in the position that it faces in nature, upwards. One must blow from the narrow end, the side facing the Heavens in nature 23 If one widens the narrow end and narrows the wide end it will not be a kosher shofar. As mentioned, a shofar has a soft tissue core and a keratin sheath. Cattle horns are one solid piece of bone, which is one reason why they are not used for shofros.

A shofar need not be from an animal that was slaughtered properly by shechita , but may not originate from a non-kosher species. One is permitted to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah , but one may not desecrate Yom Tov in any way, even on the second day of Yom Tov , except to instruct a non-Jew to obtain one from outside the permitted carrying zone. While a bent shofar actually conveys contrition and should be sought out, 34 in order to drill the hole for the mouthpiece a very bent shofar must first be carefully heated to degrees to allow for a partial straightening.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to drill as one would have to drill on a curve. The straightening and drilling process is the period when a shofar is most fragile and may crack or split, wasting many hours of labor and expense.