SHOFAR: Israel musical instrumnt

A shofar is a musical instrument that is of the ancient origin. The musical instrument is manufactured with the use of a horn, originally that of a ram, used for Jewish religious functions. Like the contemporary bugle, the musical instrument lacks pitch-altering device. All the pitch control of the instrument is done by alternating the embouchure of the player. Shofar-blowing is integrated in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The musical instrument comes in many sizes.

The musical instrument is mentioned often in the Hebrew bible, the Talmud and the Rabbinic literature. The blast for this musical instrument that is coming from the thick cloud on the Mount Sinai caused the awe trembling of the Israelites.

The musical instrument was used in the announcement of holidays and the Jubilee year. The 1^st day of the 7^th month is said to be a day for the blowing of the musical instrument. They were signifying the beginning of a war. Later the playing of the musical instrument was employed in the processions, as accompaniment musical instrument and eventually the musical instrument was put into the temple orchestra by David.

The Torah describes the 1^st day of the 7^th month as a zikron teruˁah and as a yom teruˁah. This was understood by the Jewish sages as referring to the sounding of the musical instrument.

In the Jerusalem Temple, the musical instrument was sometimes used along with the trumpet. On New Year’s Day principal festival was conducted with the musical instrument that was placed in the center with a trumpet on the both sides of the musical instrument; it was a horn of a wild goat and straight in its shape, being decorated with gold at its mouthpiece. On days of fasting, the principal ceremony was led with the trumpets in the center and the musical instrument on the both sides of the trumpet.

On Rosh Hashanah and other full holiday, a single priest perfected two sacrifices in rectitude of the holiday. On the Rosh Hashanah, something special came up during the special sacrifice. Arguably, two of the musical instrument players played the long notes and one player of the trumpet played the short note.

Certainly, on Yom Kippur, the musical instrument was sounded to announce the Jubilee year. Certainly, in Rosh Hashanah 33b, the sages asked why the musical instrument was sounded on the Jubilee Year.

The shofar was played in the times of Joseph to assist him in capturing Jericho. As they surrounded the walls, the musical instrument was played and the Jews were able to capture the city. The musical instrument was taken out to war so that the soldiers would know when a battle would start. The person that will blow the musical instrument would call out the soldiers from the hill top. All the troops were able to hear the sound of the horn from the position because of the unique sound of the musical instrument.

In the post-Biblical times, the musical instrument was enhanced in the religious use because of the sanction of playing musical instrument a symbol of mourning for destruction on the temple. The musical instrument kept announcing the New Year, and the new moon, to introduce Shabbat, to carry out the commandant to play the instrument on Rosh Hashanah, as well as to mark the end of day of fasting on Yom Kippur once the services have finished in the evening. Secular uses of the musical instrument have been dropped.

The musical instrument is mainly linked with Rosh Hashanah. In Mishnah, a discussion concentrates on the centrality of the musical instrument in the time prior to the destruction of the 2^nd temple. Certainly, the musical instrument was the center of the festival, having two silver trumpets performing the lesser notes. The musical instrument also is linked with the jubilee year in which every 50 years Jewish law supplied for the release of all the slaves, land and debts. The sound of the musical instrument on Rosh Hashanah pronounced the Jubilee Year and the sound of the musical instrument on the Yom Kippur announced the real release of financial encumbrances.

The halakha opines that the musical instrument may not be played on Shabbat because of the potential that the ba’al tekiyah may unintentionally carry it which is an unapproved work of Shabbat.

The Sages specified that the mitzvah was to receive the sounds of the musical instrument. They went so far as to cogitate the musical instrument puffed into a pit or cave and to plump whether a person who hears the unique sound or the echo has contented the mitzvah. The Shulchan Aruch summarized up that if the listener hears the sound, the mitzvah is not legal. However, if the hearer identifies the direct sounds, he accomplishes the mitzvah. According to Jewish law, women and minors are immune from the directive of hearing the musical instrument blown, though they are fortified to be present at the ceremony.

If the player of the musical instrument blows with the intention that anybody that hears the sound of the instrument will perform the mitzvah, then anybody that is listening, who intends to hear the musical instrument can perform the mitzvah because the community player of the instrument blows for all. If the hearer stands still, it is said that the person has the intention of listening. If one hears the sound of the instrument, having no intention of fulfilling the mitzvah, then the mitzvah was not accomplished.

A professional who plays the musical instrument is called ‘Tokea or Ba'al T'qiah. Being a Ba'al T'qiah is a very big honor. Every male member of the Jew is qualified for this office, as long as he is acceptable to the people. The person that plays the musical instrument on Rosh Hashanah should also be learned in the Torah and must be God-fearing.

According to the Jewish Law, the musical instrument may be produced from the horn of any animal from the Bovidae family excluding the horn of a cow. Bovidae horns are manufactured of keratin. On the either hand, an antler is not just a horn; rather it is a solid bone.  Antler cannot be used as the shofar because the antler cannot be hallowed out.

There is no necessity for ritual killing, and hypothetically, the horn instrument can come from a non-kosher animal for the reason that under most clarifications of Jewish law the musical instrument is not essential to be muttar be-fikha.

In practice, two versions of the musical instrument are used; Ashkenazi and Sefardi shofar is manufactured from the horn of a domestic animal; ram, while the Yemeni Shofar is manufactured from the horn of a kudu. A Moroccan version of the musical instrument is a flat instrument, having no curves apart from the main curve that is on the instrument. The musical instrument may be painted in many colors.

The musical horn is flattened and shaped by the application of heat that softens the musical instrument. A hole is produced from the tip of the musical horn to the natural hollow inside of the instrument. The shofar is played much like the European brass musical instrument, with the player of the instrument blowing through the hole of the instrument, causing the air chamber inside the instrument to vibrate. Sephardi versions of the instrument normally have a carved mouthpiece that is analogous to that of the European trumpet or the French horn, though smaller.

The harmonics that is gained when performing the musical instrument can differ because of the irregular shape of the instrument’s hollow; rather than a pure perfect 5^th intervals as narrow as a 4^th or as wide as a 6^th may be manufactured.

It is traditional to hear about 100 or 101 sounds in the synagogue, even though the minimum necessity is to hear about 30 sounds. The musical instrument is played just before, during and after the Musaf prayer on Rosh Hashanah.