Why blow the shofar

Think of this sound as an alarm clock that you can't hit snooze on. Truah is the wake up call to the new year. The three sounds above are played all throughout the Rosh Hashanah service. And during the final combination, the shofar player concludes with tekiah gedolah , the great blast, one last, long tekiah to wrap up. By continuing to browse, you're agreeing to our use of cookies.

To find out more about cookies and how to manage them, please take a look at our cookie policy. Read more about: Rosh Hashanah , Yom Kippur. Below, you can listen to each of the four shofar sounds we blow on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and learn more about what they each mean: Tekiah Tekiah is a single blow.

Listen to Tekiah Your browser does not support the audio element. Shevarim The next type of sound made with the shofar is called shevarim. The shofar, which is more a horn than a trumpet, is a very important instrument in the history of Israel. The trumpets, according to Numbers , were used to summon the people or to warn of battle and approaching of the enemy. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the LORD. Similarly to physical sleep, we can find ourselves in a spiritual slumber.

Have you ever felt yourself becoming drowsy or fully asleep to the things of the spirit? Like your relationship with the LORD or your attention to keeping sin from creeping into your life. But more than that, the shofar is our recognition that God is King of all creation as well as our Lord on a personal level. Not only as the one who began the work in us, but as the one who reigns today. The horn invites us to reflect on our actions and to return to God.

It calls for repentance , turning away from your sins, and returning to the Creator. With the sounds of the shofar, we are reminded to look into our souls, examine our lives, and return to the God of the Bible. God commanded this festival so that it might serve as a spiritual alarm clock for His people.

The calloused, routine, and day-to-day life is placed on hold. The main theme of Rosh HaShanah is liberation. The sound of the shofar is a call for busy and tired people to stop and look to the heavens. Do the people fear when the trumpet blows in the city? Amos Blowing the shofar is meant to be a reassuring sound — reminding us that God hears and is constantly watching.

In the New Testament, we find the words of the apostle Paul about the future gathering of believers around the Messiah. He writes that it will begin with the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep before, and then of all the living.

He explains that this gathering will begin with the sound of a trumpet — a shofar. So comfort one another with these words. 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. The Talmud struggles with the same question that you have, James. 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.

Remember, in the end of that story, Abraham sees a ram and sacrifices it instead of Isaac. 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.

But a shofar is taken from a living being. Every shofar sounds different, just like every community, and every listener, is different. Rabbi Feigelson is a trained tubist, and he wrote to me about 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.