KSJV.shofar

=shofar (Vocabulary, S)=

The hollowed horn of a ram which, when blown with proper technique, produces a distinctive sound that carries far and wide. The blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipur helps make the High Holidays special and unites us with Jews all over the world who are also using it in their observances. It derives from the Bible: "Then shalt thou make proclamation with the blast of the horn on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make proclamation with the horn throughout all your land." (Leviticus 25:9)

The shofar is mentioned numerous other times in the Torah, for example as Moses was about to ascend Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments: "And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a horn exceeding loud; and all the people that were in the camp trembled" (Exodus 19:16) and "And it shall be, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the horn, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.' (Joshua 6:5), describing how Jericho would fall to the assault of the Jews.

Traditional Jews blow the shofar at the morning service every day during the month of Elul, leading up to Rosh Hashanah. And of course, the shofar is sounded several times in a prescribed manner during the course of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipur observances.

In very ancient times, the sounding of the ram's horn was to scare away the evil spirits associated with the fall pagan farming holidays.