While their colour might hold the attention of the children and worshippers, the answer to the above two questions is no. Shofars that can be used ritually come from animals, including rams, antelopes and goats. The long spiral shofar used by Yemenite Jews, for example, comes from the greater kudu, a striped antelope common to some parts of Africa. But most shofars are made from a ram\u2019s horn. In fact, the shofar is sometimes referred to as a \u201cram\u2019s horn.\u201d This type of horn reminds us of Akeidat Yitzchak<\/i> (the Binding of Isaac), which supposedly took place on Rosh Hashanah, since a ram was sacrificed in Yitzchak\u2019s place.<\/p>\n
A ram\u2019s horn has a wide base surrounding a core bone, which connects to the animal\u2019s head. Once the animal is dead, the horn is separated from the bone, resulting in a horn that is hollow in its wide part, but sealed at its narrow edge. Heat is applied to enable straightening part of the horn (though some rabbis think this should not be done), then it is polished on the outside and an air-passage hole is drilled in the narrow part, allowing it to produce a sound similar to a trumpet, a trombone or a didgeridoo.<\/p>\n
According to Mahzor Lev Shalem, the shofar had a variety of uses in the Bible. It was used as a call to war (remember how it was used to miraculously tumble the walls of Jericho in Joshua, Chapter 6), as a call to assemble the community and, most significantly, to note G-d\u2019s descent on Sinai. Later, it became associated with G-d\u2019s call for Jews to repent.<\/p>\n
From one specific shofar, a player can typically produce one sound, which depends on the horn\u2019s length \u2013 the longer it is, the lower the sound produced by it, and players must use their lips to vibrate the air in the shofar exactly in the resonance frequency of the specific shofar. But Israeli trumpet player Amit Sofer takes the shofar beyond the tekiah, shevarim and teruah routines of the Jewish prayer book, and turns it into a musical instrument. Listen to Sofer\u2019s trio presentation of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah\u201d (youtube.com\/watch?v=lwaD92UcZME<\/a>).<\/p>\n The shofar is well traveled. Its Greek cousin, the troumbeta<\/i> or voukino<\/i>, for instance, was once used all over Greece. Greek musicologist Fivos Anoyanakis, author of Greek Popular Musical Instruments, notes that this animal horn was used to announce field-wardens and postmen. It closely resembles the shofar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to Yad Vashem, during the Shoah, Rabbi Yitzhak Finkler, the Radoszyce rabbi, was incarcerated at Skarzysko-Kamienna, a forced labour camp. Getting hold of a ram\u2019s horn required him to bribe a Polish guard \u2013 but the guard brought him an ox horn. It took a second bribe to get the right kind of horn. Then, the rabbi asked camp inmate Moshe Winterter (later Hebraized to Ben Dov), who worked in the camp\u2019s metal shop, to make a shofar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At first, Winterter refused. Preparing an item that was not an armament, or even carrying something considered contraband from the workshop to the barracks, carried with it a penalty of death. But he relented. So, in 1943, camp inmates heard the shofar blowing. The shofar traveled around wartorn Europe and the United States until Winterter made aliyah. In Israel, he donated the shofar to Yad Vashem.<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sep-12-Rosh.12.the-shofar-Trumpeting_place_Zeigarnik.jpg\")
<\/a>