Ram’s horn announces Rosh Hashanah

Jews will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, for two days beginning at sunset September 13. Leading up to the celebration the ram’s horn is blown.

The ram’s horn was important in the history of Israel. One of the words often used for the horn is shofar (or shophar).

• A long blast on the ram’s horn was used to alert the Israelites when they could approach Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:13).
• The ram’s horn was sounded at the beginning of important feast days (Leviticus 25:9). On the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar trumpets were to be blown (Numbers 29:1). This festival was known as the Feast of Trumpets.
• After Israel marched around Jericho they would hear a long blast on the ram’s horn (Joshua 6:5). The word horn in this verse is qeren, but the word shofar is translated trumpet.

I have observed that shepherds are proud of the ram of the flock. This photo was made in April, 2008, in northern Jordan not very far from Ramoth in Gilead and the border with Syria.

Ram with large horns. Photo taken in northern Jordan near ancient Ramoth Gilead, near the Syrian border in 2008. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Sometimes in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem one of the shopkeepers will demonstrate the sounding of the shofar in hopes of attracting customers. That beautiful horn was a little above my budget. I do not know the animal from which it came. It may be a Yemenite shofar made from the horn of an African kudu. If a reader knows for sure, your comment would be appreciated.