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A shofar (Hebrew: שופר) is a horn,
traditionally that of a ram, used for Jewish religious purposes. Shofar-blowing
is incorporated in synagogue services on
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Many reasons are assigned for the ceremony of shofar-blowing. Saadia
Gaon (892-942) gives ten. The Cabala emphasizes the significance of
the shofar and the teki'ot. Thus a certain midrash, citing "Blessed
is the people that know the joyful sound" (= "teru'ah"; Ps. lxxxix.
15), asks: "Do other peoples not know the joyful sound? Have they
not many kinds of coronets, buccina, and salpidin [= σαλπιδες]?" and
then answers: "But the Israelites know how to serenade their Creator
with the teru'ah" (Pesik., ed. Buber, p. 152a). The Zohar dwells on
the word "know" as signifying in this midrash passage a secret
knowledge and mysticism. The shofar represents the windpipe or the
spiritual part of the body alongside the gullet, through which the
food or the earthly part passes.
The sound of the shofar awakens the Higher Mercy = "Rahamim" (Zohar,
Emor, p. 99b, and Pinehas, p. 232a). The object of the second and
third series of teki'ot is to bewilder and stagger Satan (R. H.
16b), who, at first imagining that the Jews are merely complying
with the Law, is surprised by the second blowing, thinking perhaps
that the Messiah is coming, and finally is dumfounded, expecting the
Resurrection, with which his power will finally cease.
It is the custom to blow one teki'ah every day during the month of
Elul except on the day preceding Rosh ha-Shanah (Orah Hayyim, 581).
This is a later innovation. The author of "Shibbole ha-Leket" (13th
cent.) quotes (§ 282; ed. Buber, p. 132b) a midrash and Pirke R. El.
to the effect that on New Moon of the month of Elul, Moses ascended
Mount Sinai to obtain the tablets of the Law for the second time,
and that the shofar proclaimed this fact in order that the
Israelites might not be again misled. Thenceforth the shofar was
sounded annually on the eve of New Moon Day in Elul to commemorate
the event, showing that originally the shofar was blown only on the
first night of Elul (Vitry Mahzor, p. 361).