s no mouthpiece. It isvery difficult to blow. Shofar blowers spend many hourspracticing before Rosh Hashanah. The Shofar blowers are peoplewho are admired in a community. The Shofar blower is called theba’ al tekiah. Another person stands next to the ba’ al tekiahand calls out the notes. There are three kinds of notes. The tekiah is a singleblast. The shevarim is a series of three blasts. The teruah isa set of ten blasts. During the Shofar service the ba’ al tekiahMastrangelo 4blows three notes in different combinations as they are calledout. At the end of the Shofar service, a very long tekiah, thetekiah gedolah is blown.There are many reasons why the Shofar is blown on RoshHashanah. According to the Maimondies, the great Jewish scholar,the Shofar is blown on Rosh Hashanah to say, “Wake up! Wake upeveryone who is asleep! Remember God, your creator! Instead ofInstead of doing things that are not worthwhile, take some timeto think about what you can do to make yourself into a betterperson. Give up doing bad things!” According to Rabbi SaadiaGaon, some reasons the Shofar is blown are: that Rosh Hashanahis the world’s birthday, that the Shofar reminds us of the ramthat Abraham sacrificed in the palace of his son Isaac, that whenGod gave us the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the Israelitesheard the sound of a Shofar, and the Shofar is the call ofredemption. The Silent Prayer, Amidah, is proclaimed on Rosh Hashanah. Amidah has three essential components: Kingship Memories,Judgment, and Shofar. There are ten verses for each component -three each from Torah, Prophets and writings, plus one additionalverse from the Torah.On Rosh Hashanah, some stories are recited. These storiesremind Jews of God being forgiving and able to redeem people fromtheir sins. It also shows God as loving and all knowing. Somestories recited were: “Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar” (Genesis 21),Mastrangelo...
