What is the shofar and why is it specifically a ram's horn?

The shofar is a ram's horn blown as a trumpet. The use of a ram's horn recalls the Binding of Isaac (Gen 22:13) — the ram caught in the thicket whose horn was offered in Isaac's place. The shofar carries the memory of substitutionary provision into every blast.

How did the shofar fall the walls of Jericho?

Joshua 6:4–5 commanded seven days of marching with shofars, climaxing in a sustained blast after which Israel shouted. The walls fell flat. The shofar did not supplement military action — it replaced it. God's announcement was the weapon.

What is the shofar blast supposed to accomplish in the hearer on Rosh Hashanah?

The rabbis taught that the shofar was meant to awaken sleeping hearts to repentance. Maimonides wrote: "Wake up, sleepers! Examine your deeds, return in repentance." The blast is an alarm designed to interrupt complacency and orient the hearer toward the Day of Judgment.

How does the Sinai shofar connect to the Rosh Hashanah commandment?

Exodus 19:16–19 records that the shofar sounded "exceedingly loud" as God descended to Sinai — and grew louder as God spoke. Leviticus 23:24 calls Rosh Hashanah "a memorial of the sounding of the shofar." The annual blast recalls and re-enters the reality of God's descent to speak.

What is the final eschatological shofar?

Isaiah 27:13 promises "the great trumpet shall be blown" to gather Israel's scattered. Zechariah 9:14: "The LORD God shall blow the trumpet." Every Rosh Hashanah blast is a small copy of this great shofar that will sound once, announcing the permanent establishment of God's kingdom.

Commandment #42 · Positive · Sabbath & Holy Days

Sound the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah

תְּקִיעַת שׁוֹפָר

Source: Numbers 29:1 · Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive #42

The shofar — ram's horn — is Israel's instrument of divine announcement. It marks moments when heaven intersects earth: the giving of the Torah at Sinai, the coronation of kings, the beginning of the Jubilee, the fall of Jericho’s walls. Numbers 29:1 commands its sounding on the first of the seventh month. Every blast rehearses the announcement it will one day make permanently.

יוֹם תְּרוּעָה יִהְיֶה לָכֶם

"It is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you."

Numbers 29:1 — Open in Torah Reader

The Sinai Shofar: God's Arrival Announced

וַיְהִי קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר הוֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק מְאֹד

"And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice."

Exodus 19:19 — Open in Torah Reader

The first shofar blast in Israel's national history was at Sinai. Exodus 19:16: "there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." God descended to the mountain — and the shofar announced His arrival.

The shofar at Rosh Hashanah re-enacts this: the blast that accompanied the giving of the Torah at Sinai is replayed annually. Israel stands as if at the foot of the mountain again, hearing the sound that preceded God's speaking. The shofar does not create God's presence — it acknowledges it.

Jericho: The Shofar as Weapon

Joshua 6:4-5 commanded seven priests with seven shofars to march around Jericho for seven days. On the seventh day, the shofar blew, Israel shouted, and the walls fell. The shofar did not supplement military action — it replaced it. The walls fell not because of assault but because of sound.

Rosh Hashanah's shofar blast carries this theological freight: the sound that brings down strongholds is not human force but divine announcement. The enemy's defenses fall when God speaks through the ram’s horn.

Elijah and the Still Small Voice: The Shofar's Opposite

After Carmel, Elijah fled to Horeb. God passed before him with wind, earthquake, and fire — none of which contained God. Then came the still small voice. God was not in the dramatic; He was in the quiet (1 Kgs 19:11-12). The shofar's blast opens Israel's ears to what follows: not more sound but the quiet word that the sound introduces.

The shofar on Rosh Hashanah is the alarm that clears the ears. What matters is not the blast itself but the silence afterward — the silence in which God may speak, as He did to Elijah in the cave.

The Eschatological Shofar

וְתָקַע בְּשׁוֹפָר גָּדוֹל

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown."

Isaiah 27:13

Isaiah 27:13 and Zechariah 9:14 speak of a final shofar blast that will gather the scattered of Israel and announce God's kingdom. Paul echoes this: "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible" (1 Cor 15:52). Every Rosh Hashanah shofar blast is a rehearsal — a small copy of the great shofar that will sound once, permanently, announcing that the age of exile and judgment has ended and the age of restoration has begun.

Key Figures

Joshua — The Shofar General

His seven-day Jericho campaign was entirely structured around the shofar blast. The walls fell not because of military superiority but because God's announcement through the horn was more powerful than stone construction.

Elijah at Horeb — The Lesson After the Sound

His experience of God in the still small voice after wind, earthquake, and fire taught the principle that underlies the Rosh Hashanah shofar: the blast creates the silence in which God actually speaks.

Study Questions

For reflection and group study

The Sinai shofar blast announced God's arrival and preceded His speaking. The Rosh Hashanah shofar blast is described as its memorial. What does it mean to commemorate a sound — to re-enact acoustically what happened at Sinai?

See Ex 19:16–19; Lev 23:24; Heb 12:19

At Jericho, the shofar blast preceded the walls' fall — sound accomplished what armies could not. What does this reveal about the theological significance of the shofar? Is the sound doing something, or announcing something?

See Josh 6:4–5; Ps 47:5; 1 Kgs 19:12

Elijah heard God not in the shofar-like wind and earthquake but in the still small voice that followed. What does this teach about what the Rosh Hashanah shofar blast is preparing Israel to hear?

See 1 Kgs 19:11–13; Ps 85:8; Rev 3:20

The shofar announced the Jubilee (Lev 25:9), royal coronations (1 Kgs 1:34), and assembly for war (Num 10:9). What do all these occasions share — and what does the shofar on Rosh Hashanah declare about God's kingship?

See Lev 25:9; Num 10:9; Ps 47:5–7

Isaiah and Zechariah prophesy a final great shofar blast. What is the relationship between the annual Rosh Hashanah shofar and the eschatological shofar? Is the annual practice a rehearsal, a memorial, or something else?

See Isa 27:13; Zech 9:14; 1 Cor 15:52

Read this commandment in the original Hebrew.

Open Numbers 29:1 in Torah Reader

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