It is the only ancient instrument preserved in the Jewish cult today. In orthodox communities it is blown at New Moon services, and in eastern Europe even in exorcising ceremonies, as many spectators have seen in Anski’s famous play Dybbuk; and in all synagogues, liberal and orthodox, New Year’s and the Day of Atonement end with the violent, awe-inspiring blasts of the traditional shofar. The shofar [blown in the Temple] at the New Year was [made from the horn] of the wild goat, straight, with its mouthpiece overlaid with gold. And at the sides [of them that blew the shofar] were two [that blew upon] trumpets. The shofar blew a long note and the trumpets a short note since the duty of the day fell on the shofar. [The shofars] on days of fasting were rams’ horns, rounded with their mouthpiece overlaid with silver.
And between them were two [that blew upon] trumpets. The shofar blew a short note and the trumpets a long note, since the duty of the day fell on the trumpets. The Year of Jubilee is like to the New Year in the blowing of the shofar and in the Benedictions. Rabbi Judah says: “At the New Year they use rams’ horns and at the Years of Jubilee wild goats’ horns.” A shofar that has been split and stuck together again is not valid. If the broken pieces of a shofar have been stuck together again it is not valid. If a hole had been made in it and it was stopped up again, if it hinders the blowing it is not valid, but if it does not, it is valid.
The old ritual distinguished between two kinds of shofarim, one being made from the horn of the ibex, or wild goat, for New Moon ceremonies, and one from the horn of the ram for Fastdays, which never coincided with New Moon days. It was certainly more than a coincidence that the ibex horn was used for New Moon rites; zoologists describe it as “crescent-shaped.” It is interesting in this connection to cite a Burmese people, the Karên, who attribute eclipses of the moon to “the facts that wild goats are eating the luminary.”
Thus, we find the shofar involved in magic beliefs and tasks. The origin of the ideas connected with this horn is very old. One of these ideas is its secret character; in the synagogues the shofar is covered and must not be seen by the worshipers. No satisfactory reason for this has been given by liturgists; they do not know that this is a remnant of the old taboo forbidding the sight of sacred implements, preserved among many primitive peoples. The Colombian Tuyucá, for example, hide the mouth parts of their ritual wooden trumpets in a brook, and Dutch peasants conceal the bark trumpets they use at winter solstice in a well from Christmas until the following Advent. A religious law in Israel says that, while men are obliged to listen to the voice of the shofar, women and children are exempted from this duty. Whoever is familiar with the rites connected with primitive trumpets cannot refrain from seeing in this indulgence a last remnant of the old taboo forbidding women and children all contact with the holy instruments.
One single magic deed of the shofar is referred to in the Bible, and a very strong one. When Joshua, the Judge, besieged Jericho, seven priests with shofarim strode round the town for six days, followed by the Ark of the Covenant; on the seventh day they did so seven times, and as they blew and all the people joined in with shouts, “the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.” Here, Hebrew legend meets with Greek mythology. Amphion, Niobe’s husband, son of Zeus and Antiope, reached for his lyre when he was about to found Thebes, and as he played the scattered stones gathered and built the wall by themselves. This is a fundamental idea behind all primitive and oriental music: sound governs matter.
In connection with the shofar, the Talmudian tractate Rosh-hashana discusses the orthodoxy of blowing the trumpet in a pit, cistern or barrel. Even the nearly contemporary Talmudian comment Gmara was no longer able to understand this passage; the players, it supposed, stood in a pit or cistern. What the Talmud actually means cannot be understood without a knowledge of primitive rituals. Negroes of Loango, for example, dip their trumpets into a barrel, New Hebridians into a hollow tree trunk or half a coconut shell filled with water, and Northwest Brazilians, as well as Singhalese, into pots. One idea may be to obtain the unnatural, terrifying sound which is an important requirement in magic rituals. But this is not all. As the Singhalese compare the pot in question to the earth, the hollow objects blown into must be regarded as magic cavities, such as were discussed in our first chapter. The trumpet dipped into a cavity is the combination of the male and the female principle; it is a forgotten fertilization charm.
Pachelbel and Biber
