SHOFAR STORY

Hadassah
moves
mountains.

from page 84

included short blasts — except just
before the month of Tishrei, when
longer blasts were heard.
According to Leviticus 23:14, the
reason for the longer blasts is the holy
days — Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur
and Sukkot — which come in this
month.
• In June 1967, the shofar was
blown after Israeli forces liberated the
Western Wall, the Kotel, in Jerusalem.
• Today it's air-raid sirens and TV
bulletins. Long ago, however, Jewish
leaders used the shofar as a kind of
warning call. It would be blown to
announce a war (Judges 3:27) or to
bring the community to assembly
(Joshua 6:12). It also was used in pro-
cessionals (Joshua 6:4).
During the Middle Ages, the shofar
was blown on fast days, while it also
was sounded on Fridays to announce
the coming of Shabbat.
On Friday, the blasts called on work-
ers to stop their labor, then to close
shops, then to light the Shabbat can-
dles and finally to formally welcome
the Day of Rest.
• Though the idea of Satan is a
decidedly un-Jewish concept (the
word, however, originates in Jewish
Scripture), some assert that he is
indeed out there, responsible for our
bad behavior — and apparently quite
dumb, as well.
Some hold that the purpose of blow-
ing the shofar is to "confuse Satan."
Hearing it before Rosh Hashanah is to
trick him, they say, into thinking the
Messiah has arrived, and then his
power will have forever dissipated.
• A ram's horn is the favorite, but a
shofar does not have to be made of
one.
Almost any kosher animal will do —
but not the cow. This is because a cow
harkens back to the golden calf.
Most scholars prefer the use of a
ram's horn because it recalls the ram
used as a sacrifice in place of Isaac.
Others note this particular horn's
curved shape, saying it shows submis-
sion.
• If Rosh Hashanah falls on
Shabbat we do not blow the shofar. It
is related to the 39 categories of cre-
ative endeavor forbidden on Shabbat.
One famous scholar disagreed.
Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi was a well-
known 11th-century scholar who
declared that blowing the shofar was,
in fact, an art and consequently per-
missible on Shabbat. Alfasi did find a
few adherents to this pronouncement,
but not many, and today his views on
this are not accepted by halachic schol-
ars. II

From Mt. Rushmore to Mt. Scopus,
Hadassah moves mountains,
performing miracles every day,
and realizing our organization's potential
as a dynamic force of nature.

L'shanah tovah tikatevu

June Walker, National President

I--IA
DAS
SAH

800.664.JOIN • www.hadassah.org
Local contact: 248.683.5030
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