The 100 Voices Of The Shofar (Tutorial)

יוֹם תְּרוּעָה יִהְיֶה לָכֶם

SHOFAR PRODUCTION

The most important Mitsva of Rosh HaShana is listening to the Shofar. The Shofar is an animal horn that has been modified a) by removing the horn stuffing and b) opening a mouthpiece at the narrowest end of the horn. In this video (in Hebrew) you can see the entire Shofar production process

TUTORIAL

Now, how do you produce the voices of the Shofar?

You should not place the Shofar “inside” your mouth between your lips, as if you were inflating a balloon. If you blow air into the Shofar in this way the Shofar will not produce any sound. The Shofar should be placed “over the closed lips”, on one side of the mouth (if possible, the right side) or in the middle of the mouth. Once the Shofar is resting on the lips, you have to blow air with the lips tightly pressed, emitting the sound of the letter “P”, while your lips are vibrating

Do not inflate the cheeks too much. Do not force the lungs inhaling too much air. You have to breathe as normally as possible. The most challenging point is adjusting the mouthpiece of the Shofar on your lips, preventing air from escaping from any other point of the mouth, at finding the correct angle. This requires practice.

Again, the steps to effectively blow the Shofar are:

1. Closing the lips.

2. Make the lips vibrate with the letter «P».

3. Place the mouthpiece of the Shofar on the lips.

4. Keep moving and pressing the Shofar on the lips while you blow, until you find the right angle.

THE VOICES OF SHOFAR (qolot)

Each Shofar has a unique voice, like human beings. And each Shofar emits a single musical note. In Rosh HaShana we produce that note in three different ways, which the Sages call “voices” (or “sounds”, qolot) The first “voice” is called teqi’a. Teqi’a is the longest, uninterrupted and simplest sound. Then we have shebarim, dividing the sound of the Shofar into three short voices, interrupting the air that reaches the Shofar by covering the mouthpiece with the tongue. Finally, we have the teru’a , nine very short voices. To produce the sound of teru’a with tap rapidly the mouthpiece of the Shofar with our tongue, approximately nine times.

In this video (between 6-9 seconds) is the most common way to produce the sound of the teru’a

According to other ancient traditions, in order to produce the teru’a, instead of “tapping” with the tongue (similar to the sound of the letter “T”), you “rub” the mouthpiece of the Shofar (imitating the sound of the letter “L”) with the tongue creating “waves”. The sound here is a little less intermittent. This video shows this way of sounding the teru’a, typical of the Jews of Yemen and many Syrian Jews.

THE 100 SOUNDS

The combination of the Shofar sounds for Rosh haShana is as follows:

teqi’a / shebarim-teru’a / teqi’a (4 voices).

teqi’a / shebarim / teqi’a (3 voices)

teqi’a / teru’a / teqi’a (3 voices)

This formula as you can see consists of 10 voices. And it is repeated 10 times during Rosh haShana. 3 times before the Musaf prayer, 3 times during Musaf prayer, 3 times during the Musaf repetition, and one more time after Musaf. Thus, in total, during each day of Rosh haShana we hear the voice of the Shofar 100 times (מאה קולות).