The Shofar
A shofar is an instrument made
from the horn of a ram or other kosher animal. It was used in ancient
Israel to announce the New Moon (Rosh
Chodesh) and call people together. It was also blown on Rosh Hashanah, marking the
beginning of the New Year, signifying both need to wake up to the call to repentance, and in connection
with the portion read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Binding of
Isaac (Genesis, chapter 22) in which Abraham sacrifices a ram in place of
his son, Isaac.
Today, the shofar is featured most
prominently in the Rosh Hashanah morning services. It is considered a
commandment to hear the shofar blown.
There is a great deal of symbolism
tied in with the legal requirements for what constitutes a proper shofar.
The shofar of Rosh Hashanah, whose purpose it is to rouse the Divine in the
listener, may not be constructed of an artificial instrument. It must be an
instrument in its natural form and naturally hollow, through whom sound is
produced by human breath, which God breathes into human beings. This pure,
and natural sound, symbolizes the lives it calls Jews to lead. What is
more, the most desirable shofar is the bent horn of a ram. The ram reminds
one of Abraham's willing sacrifice of that which was most precious to him.
The curve in the horn mirrors the contrition of the one who repents.
In the Talmud, we
read: Rabbi Abbahu said:
Why
do we sound the shofar? Because the Holy
One, blessed be God, said: Blow me a ram's
horn that I may remember to your credit
the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham,
and I shall account it to you as a binding
of yourselves before Me. The Torah tells
us: Abraham look up and behold, he saw
a ram caught in the thicket by its horns
[Genesis 22:13].
This teaches us that the Holy One, blessed
be God, showed our ancestor Abraham the
ram tearing himself free from one thicket
and becoming entangled in another. Said
the Holy One, blessed be God, to Abraham:
Thus are your children destined to be caught
in iniquities and entangled in misfortunes,
but in the end they will be redeemed by
the horns of a ram. Therefore the prophet
Zechariah said of the time of redemption:
And the Lord shall be seen over them, and
his arrow shall go forth like the lightning;
and the Lord God shall blow the shofar,
and shall move in stormy winds of the south
[Zechariah 9:14].
[Rosh Hashanah 16a]
According
to Leo Rosten, “The
bend in the shofar is supposed to represent
how a human heart, in true repentance,
bends before the Lord. The ram's horn serves
to remind the pious how Abraham, offering
his son Isaac in sacrifice, was reprieved
when God decided that Abraham could sacrifice
a ram instead. The man who blows the shofar
is required to be of blameless character
and conspicuous devotion; he must blow
blasts of different timbre, some deep,
some high, some quavering.”
Sources: Rabbi Scheinerman's homepage; Rosten,
Leo. The
Joys of Yiddish. NY: Pocket
Books, 1991. |