Which horns are used for the shofar at Rosh Hashanah services and what it symbolises

At the synagogue service for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), the shofar, a wind instrument made of a ram's horn, is sounded a hundred times, the very instrument whose blasts brought down the walls of Jericho. A shofar is made from the horns of rams, antelopes and gazelles, but never from those of a cow, since a cow may symbolise the golden calf, and the sound of such a horn would only turn the Lord away from forgiving sinners. The symbolism of the shofar rests on the sacrifice of Isaac: the left horn of the ram offered up in his stead sounded over Mount Sinai. The shofar made from the right horn of the animal presented to Abraham by the angel, according to the Midrash, will be sounded on the day when all the tribes of Israel are gathered in. But apparently not today. Illustration from a seventeenth-century prayer book

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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Frederic Leighton

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Which horns are used for the shofar at Rosh Hashanah services and what it symbolises

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

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