When did shofar start?

Answer 1

THE SHOFAR IS PRIMARILY ASSOCIATED WITH ROSH HA‑

SHANAH. Indeed, Rosh ha-Shanah is called Yom T'ru'ah (the day of the shofar blast). In the Mishnah (book of early Rabbinic laws derived from the Torah), a discussion centers around the centrality of the shofar in the time before the destruction of the Second Temple (70 C.O. Indeed, the shofar was the center of the ceremony, with two silver trumpets playing a lesser role. On other solemn holidays, fasts, and New Moon celebrations, two silver trumpets were featured, with one shofar playing a lesser role. The shofar is also associated with the Jubilee Year in which, every fifty years, Jewish Law provided for the release of all slaves,land, and debts. The sound of the shofar on Yom Kippur pro-claimed the Jubilee Year that provided the actual release of fi­nancial encumbrances.

Halakhah (Jewish Law) rules that the shofar may not be sounded on the Sabbath due to the potential that the Ba'al T'kiyah (Shofar Sounder) may inadvertently carry it, which is ina class of forbidden Sabbath work. (R.H. 29b) The historical ex-planation is that in ancient Israel, the shofar was sounded on the

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Shabbat in the Temple located in Jerusalem. After the Temple's de­struction, the sounding of the sho­far on the Sabbath was restricted to the place where the Great Sanhedrin (Jewish legislature and Court from 400 B.C.E. to 100 C.E.) was located. However, when the Sanhedrin ceased to exist, the sounding of the shofar on the Sabbath was discontinued (Kieval, The HighHoly Days, p. 114).

Art Finkle

Answer 2

Any kosher animal except a bull