page_title: Shofar
section_title: Qualifications
hierarchical_section_title: Shofar / Bible and rabbinic literature / Qualifications
caption_attribution_description: Shofar. Sabbath Horn. Yemenite Jew. Closer up. between 1934 and 1939] CALL NUMBER: LC-M32- 7135[P&amp;P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-DIG-matpc-03283 (digital file from original photo) No known restrictions on publication. Matson Photo Service, photographer. Part of: G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/matpc.03283
context_page_description: A shofar is an ancient musical horn typically made of a ram's horn, used for Jewish religious purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player's embouchure. The shofar is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the very end of Yom Kippur, and is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah. Shofars come in a variety of sizes and shapes, depending on the choice of animal and level of finish.
context_section_description: The expert who blows (or "blasts" or "sounds") the shofar is termed the ba'al tokeah or ba'al tekiah (lit. "master of the blast"). Being a ba'al tekiah is an honor. Every male Jew is eligible for this sacred office, providing he is acceptable to the congregation. The one who blows the shofar on Rosh Hashanah should be learned in the Torah and shall be God-fearing.
  The Shulchan Aruch discusses who is fit to blow the shofar on behalf of a congregation:
  Anyone not obligated to fulfill the mitzvah of sounding the shofar cannot fulfill the commandment for (cover) another whose duty it is to perform the mitzvah.
  Although a woman (who is exempt from this mitzvah because it is time bound) may not blow the shofar for men (whose duty it is to perform the mitzvah), a woman may intone the shofar for herself and other women. Similarly, she may say a blessing over the mitzvah even though it is not mandatory (the requisite blessing contains the words "asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu", "who sanctified us with His commandments [mitzvot] and commanded us to ...", but women are not commanded in this mitzvah).
  Only a freeman (not even a slave who will become free in the next month) can be a Ba'al Tekiah.
caption: Yemenite Jew blowing the shofar, late 1930s
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