Objects

The shofar (Hebrew: animal horn) is a wind instrument of a liturgical nature. It is made of the horn of an animal, usually a ram's horn – in reference to the story of the binding of Isaac. The shofar appears in biblical descriptions as an instrument which was used to announce important events, such as impending danger, the start or end of war, the start of fasting or a jubilee year. It was also used for liturgical purposes in the Jerusalem Temple. In later times, the sound of the shofar, repeated a hundred times, announced the beginning of the New Year (also known as the Feast of Trumpets) and the ten Days of Atonement coming with it. During the Feast of Jom Kippur, the shofar announces the end of the Atonement. The shofar makes three types of sound: tekiah, teruah and shevarim (M. Bendowska, Z. Borzymińska, Szofar [in:] Polski słownik judaistyczny, Warsaw 2003, vol. 2, pp. 645).