What the shofar’s ancient sound means on Rosh Hashanah

(RNS and NPR) — Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, begins at sunset Friday (Sept. 11). Across the world, Jews will spend the holiday in prayer, reflection and celebration. And for many, a highlight will be hearing the shofar: an animal’s horn blown like a trumpet.

It can be the small, curved horn of a ram or the dramatic spiral of an African antelope. But the sound it creates is unmistakable.

Creating that sound is not difficult, but it does take some practice, said Rabbi Alicia Jo Rabins , who is also a musician based in Portland, Oregon. You take a deep breath — which Rabins calls one of the most basic spiritual practices — and purse your lips, like you are playing a brass instrument.

“When we say horn, we think of, like, a trumpet or maybe a trombone,” she told RNS and NPR. “But really the original horns are the horns of animals.”

How did this primal instrument become a holiday’s spiritual soundtrack?

“ The most basic answer is that it makes noise, right? It calls people to attention,” said Daniel Picus , associate professor of biblical studies in the ancient world in the Department of Global Humanities and Religions at Western Washington University in Bellingham…