Shofar

The shofar, a kind of horn, originated in Israel for Jewish religious and social callings. The shofar in the Jerusalem Holy Temple in Israel was generally associated with the trumpet. Both instruments were used together on various occasions. The shofar is mentioned frequently in the Torah and throughout the Talmud and later rabbinic literature. It was the voice of a shofar, "exceeding loud", issuing from the thick cloud on Mount Sinai that made all the Israelites tremble in awe (Exodus 19, 20).

In post-Biblical times, the shofar was enhanced in its religious use because of the ban on playing musical instruments as a sign of mourning for the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. It is noted that a full orchestra played in the temple, including, perhaps, a primitive organ. The shofar continues to announce the New Year and the new moon, to introduce the Sabbath, to carry out the commandment to sound it on Rosh Hashanah, and to mark the end of the day of fasting on Yom Kippur. The secular uses have been of Jerusalem in 1967.

In the Mishnah a discussion centers on the centrality of the shofar in the time before the destruction of the second Jerusalem temple.In ancient Israel, the shofar was sounded on the Shabbat in the temple in Jerusalem. After the Jerusalem temple's destruction, the sounding of the shofar on the Sabbath was restricted to the place where the great Sanhedrin (Jewish legislature and court) was located. However, when the Sanhedrin ceased to exist, the sounding of the shofar on the Sabbath was discontinued.

The sound of the shofar could also be heard on the ever of Jerusalem Day.