The Ledger
Rabbi Uriel Rivkin blows a shofar at a
clinic for children at Temple Emanuel
in Lakeland. Shofars are used at
various occasions in Jewish services,
especially prior to and during the
High Holy Days.
Jewish Children Learn to Make, Appreciate Shofars
Lakeland, FL – The basement of Temple Emanuel is a three-ring circus of noise. There is the noise of excited chatter from small children, teenagers and adults. There is the noise of tools at work — saws, drills, a belt sander. And occasionally, trumpeting through it all, is the hollow ringing bray of a newly created horn being tested — too-OOOO! Tootootootooooo!
It’s a visceral sound, ancient, even primitive. It is the same sound that echoed in the hills and courts of Israel in the days of Rabbi Hillel, of King David, of Moses. It’s produced in a simple way — by blowing into a hole cut in the horn of a ram.
For a few hours, the basement of Temple Emanuel, a Conservative synagogue in Lakeland, is a factory to help children make their own shofars, as the ceremonial horns are called in Hebrew. Shofars are used at various occasions in Jewish services, especially prior to and during the High Holy Days. It is blown on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown Friday, and it is the last sound heard at the end of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, 10 days later.
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