The High Holy Days: Shofarot by The Jewish Museum published on 2019-07-17T19:13:36Z [SOUND OF BLAST ON THE SHOFAR] SUSAN BRAUNSTEIN: The blast you just heard was made by a shofar, or horn, like the ones you see here. Shofarot are made from the horn of rams or other kosher animals. Darcie Crystal, a Reform rabbi. DARCIE CRYSTAL: We have shofars from all over the world, from many different Jewish communities and you can see that they look different. Some are very long and curved, others are sort of straight, some are engraved, but what’s amazing is that the ritual itself from time to time and place to place has remained actually quite constant. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year on the Hebrew calendar and it occurs sometime during the fall, usually in September. The Torah calls Rosh Hashanah “Yom Teruah,” which means “the day of sounding the horn.” And we are commanded to hear the sound of this horn several times on Rosh Hashanah. The shofar is not easy to sound. It takes a lot of practice. I’ve been told that people who are trained to blow the trumpet are phenomenal at sounding the shofar. This is the sound known as tekiah. It is one blast. [SOUND OF BLAST ON THE SHOFAR] Maimonides, one of our great rabbis from the Middle Ages, called this our “alarm clock.” He said, awake you sleepers from your slumber, look at your deeds and turn back to God, to do “teshuvah,” which means “repentance.” And so as we hear this piercing sound, which really doesn’t sound like anything else, there is an audible gasp in the congregation because it’s just such an amazing moment for the community to witness. SUSAN BRAUNSTEIN: We also sound the shofar to mark the end of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and the last of the 10 days of repentance and reflection that begins with Rosh Hashanah.