SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, began last night. And across the world, Jews are praying, reflecting and celebrating. And for many, a highlight is hearing the shofar, an animal's horn blown like a trumpet. Deena Prichep explains how this primal instrument became a spiritual soundtrack.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: The shofar sounds at several points during the Rosh Hashanah service, on one or both days. It can be big or small, blown by one person or anyone who brings their own. But the sound it creates is unmistakable.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOFAR HORN)
ALICIA JO RABINS: It's absolutely a feeling of awe, and it never goes away. It never gets old.
PRICHEP: Rabbi Alicia Jo Rabins has a glossy, dark brown shofar about 2 1/2 feet long.
RABINS: When we say horn, we think of, like, a trumpet or maybe a trombone. But really, the original horns are the horns of animals.
PRICHEP: And the shofar still is - the small curved horn of a ram or the dramatic spiral of an African antelope. To blow it, you purse your lips, take a deep breath and...
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOFAR HORN)
DANIEL PICUS: It makes noise, right? It calls people to attention.
PRICHEP: Daniel Picus teaches biblical studies at Western Washington University. He says the shofar is mentioned when the Torah is revealed on Mount Sinai, when the walls of Jericho come tumbling down.
PICUS: So it sort of marks moments of gathering and also, like, intense experience and emotion.
PRICHEP: Including Rosh Hashanah.
PICUS: In the Hebrew Bible, Rosh Hashanah is the day of trumpeting and the day of remembrance. The association of the shofar with Rosh Hashanah is right there in the biblical text.
PRICHEP: In later writings, you get the details - how the shofar should be prepared and exactly how and when to blow it on Rosh Hashanah, and also what it means. Rabbi Micha'el Rosenberg teaches at the Hadar Institute, a center for Jewish learning based in New York City. He points to several sources that compare the sound of the shofar to the cry of a mother in pain.
MICHA'EL ROSENBERG: When you hear those broken shofar blasts in particular - (imitating shofar horn)...
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOFAR HORN)
ROSENBERG: You can really imagine someone sort of, like, so caught up that they can't get the full sound out, even though they're gasping with their cries.
PRICHEP: Maimonides, a medieval Jewish rabbi and scholar, describes the blast of the shofar as a sort of spiritual wake-up call to become your best self.
ROSENBERG: We've been caught up. We've fallen asleep in the hevlei hazman, in the vanities of the time, and the shofar wakes us out of our slumber.
PRICHEP: There are also Hasidic theories that the blowing of the shofar reenacts the breathing of life into the world. But Rosenberg says, one of the most powerful things about the shofar is that it doesn't say anything at all.
ROSENBERG: It transcends my words. It transcends my rational thoughts. And it really is just a feeling that I can hope to hold on to.
RABINS: It really brings you into the moment. And you also feel connected to your ancestors, who have been hearing this sound and making this sound for thousands of years.
PRICHEP: Rabbi Alicia Jo Rabins says the shofar can call across time to speak to those wordless places inside of us so that we can wake up and feel pain and joy and pay attention in this moment and...
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOFAR HORN)
PRICHEP: ...In the year to come.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOFAR HORN)
PRICHEP: For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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