32 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020 

S

ome events appear to spread the coro-
navirus more efficiently than others. 
Blowing the shofar — without ade-
quate precautions — may be one of them.
Drs. Adam Schwalje and Henry T. 
Hoffman, both professional otolaryngolo-
gists at the University of Iowa and amateur 
bassoon players, said that playing a musical 
instrument, even a shofar, could propel 
virus-laden droplets into the air. Schwalje 
told the Times of Israel that the playing or 
hearing the shofar “may pose an infection 
risk.
”
The doctors told a conference at the 
University of Iowa School of Music that at 
one choir performance in Amsterdam ear-
lier this year, 102 of the 130 singers came 
down with coronavirus infections. Experts 
say that shouting, or singing, or even 
talking loudly in a room, propels droplets 
into the air causing others to breathe in 
the virus and develop their own infections. 
Scientists suspect that aerosols from breath, 
even smaller than droplets, travel farther 
and stay airborne longer and can convey 
the virus in poorly ventilated spaces as well. 
Schwalje said sounding the shofar out-
of-doors would mitigate the risk, as would 

standing at a distance from listeners, and 
pointing the wide end away from them. 
Cyrille Cohen, head of the immuno-
therapy laboratory at Bar-Ilan University 
in Israel and a veteran shofar-blower, addi-
tionally recommends attaching a face mask 
to the wide end of the shofar.

The New York-based Orthodox Union 
issued a statement recommending the 
mask over the wide end as “an appropriate 
precaution,
” but not to rely on it to prevent 
transmission of the virus.

PUBLIC SOUNDINGS
Every year, some Jews — at home or in the 
hospital — do not get to hear the shofar 
sounded in synagogue. This year, many 
more who usually attend synagogue will 
stay away. The Jewish community has to 
help, and many congregations are doing 

what they can to make this joyful noise 
sound around Metro Detroit.
Conservative Congregation B’
nai 
Moshe in West Bloomfield, for instance, 
will share services over the internet, but 
Rabbi Shalom Kantor also plans to have 
the shofar sounded in three public loca-

tions: a commons area of Rolling Oaks 
Community in Farmington Hills, Bloomer 
Park in West Bloomfield and Burton Field 
just next to the Burton Elementary School 
in Huntington Woods. 
Orthodox congregations also plan to 
sound the shofar in the neighborhood 
as well as at the synagogue. Rabbi M. M. 
Polter reports that the Woodward Avenue 
Shul in Royal Oak will arrange for the 
shofar to sound in three locations in the 
Huntington Woods area. 
According to Rabbi Shaya Katz of 

Rosh Hashanah 5781

Ruvi Singal of Southfield 
blows the shofar at Young 
Israel of Oak Park.

JERRY ZOLYNSKY

Shofar
 Safety

This year, it may be
a little more diffi
 cult
to hear the blast.

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Placing a mask over the wide end of
the shofar is “an appropriate precaution.”

— ORTHODOX UNION