So, Why the Shofar?

In the Torah, we are given a commandment that on the first day of the seventh month (Tishrei), "you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts" (Leviticus 23:24). These loud blasts, or teruah, were understood by the rabbis to allude to the blasts of the shofar. So on Rosh Hashanah, we blow the shofar in order to fulfill this commandment. The biblical text doesn't delve into the precise reason that it's so important we hear a teruah, but there are a few possibilities.

You might imagine that a shofar was chosen for Rosh Hashanah just because it was the only horn-like instrument that the Israelites had in the desert when they were given the commandments.

Actually, the Torah mentions a number of instruments the people had with them, including silver trumpets, so the use of the shofar doesn't seem to have been born from necessity.

The Bible contains many explicit references to the shofar, and not just the Rosh Hashanah commandment. When the people receive the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai, they hear a very loud blast. We are commanded to blow the shofar not only on Rosh Hashanah, but also at the beginning of the Jubilee year.

Warriors in battle and musicians in the Temple also used and blew the shofar.

The sound of the teruah is both earthly and Divine. It comes from an animal, but makes the same sound that was heard on the top of Mount Sinai when God addressed the people. Music can be celebratory, but the sound of the shofar is more than just a sound of jubilation. It is the sound of the presence of God, and the sound we use to cry out to God when we need God's intervention.

In Tractate Rosh Hashanah 16a, we read, "R. Abbahu said: Why do we blow a ram's horn? The Holy One, blessed be He said: Sound before Me a ram's horn so that I will remember on your behalf the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and to account it to you as if you had bound yourselves before me."

In this case, Rabbi Abbahu is claiming that the shofar is an allusion to the ram we read about in the story of the binding of Isaac, which is the Torah reading for Rosh Hashanah.

The shofar reminds us of the sacrifice made by Abraham, and we use it to remind God of that same sacrifice, so that God will credit their good actions to us today. (Remember, in the end of that story, Abraham sees a ram and sacrifices it instead of Isaac.)

So why don't we just use a real trumpet?

It's reasonable to consider that a trumpet is perhaps too technical for the function served by a shofar. Trumpets have evolved over time, and there are many different kinds of horns -- from bugles to cornets to French horns to sousaphones. Those instruments are all regulated to sound a certain way.

A shofar is taken from a living being. Every shofar sounds different, just like every community and every listener is different.

Rabbi Josh Feigelson, campus rabbi and senior director for educational initiatives at Northwestern University Hillel, offers more insight on the issue. A trained tuba player, he described some of the differences between playing the tuba (a brass instrument, like a trumpet) and blowing the shofar.

"Pitch is not so much an issue in playing the shofar," he said. "You're not out to create a melody, which you are trying to do when playing the tuba. When I'm playing the shofar, I'm more focused simply on the sound."

He goes on to say that "the shofar isn't a musical instrument. It is a battle cry, or a mournful cry, but its symbolism comes from its sound and the fact that it is the shofar making the sound on the day of Rosh Hashanah. The tuba has no inherent symbolism, and its sounds are ultimately judged and understood within the context of a melody or a larger work."

There's also something to be said for the primitive nature of the shofar. It is nature-made. It is simple. Many people think that a teruah sounds like a voice crying out. Isn't it appropriate that the instrument that calls us to reflect and repent should sound like a plaintive human voice?

All that said, did you know there are some pieces of classical music that call for the use of the shofar? Edward Elgar's oratorio "The Apostles" includes a shofar, and Lester Bowie, a famous jazz trumpeter, was known for sometimes playing the shofar with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

This pieces comes courtesy of MyJewishLearning.com. For more information about Judaism and Jewish life, visit the above Web site.