Reflecting the Talmudic teaching that the blowing of a ram’s horn is vitally important to arousing Divine favor during the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, Chabad-Lubavitch centers across the United States are taking a hands-on approach in allowing children to fashion their own in advance of the Jewish New Year.
The more-than 30-year tradition of bringing the shofar into the classroom helps students connect with and understand the importance of the holiday, says Gail Buchbinder, principal of Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael’s religious school in Springfield, N.J.
“Just listening to the shofar is a partial experience,” says Buchbinder, whose seventh-graders welcomed Rabbi Yisroel Rosenblum, a program director at Chabad of Livingston, and his travelling “shofar factory” last month. “Touching one that’s already made is a partial experience. But actually making a shofar really personalizes it for them.”
Starting weeks before Rosh Hashanah – the two-day holiday begins this year the evening of Sept. 8 – Rosenblum and emissaries like him around the country make the rounds of local schools, synagogues and community centers. In the same vein, campus-based Chabad Houses often set up tables on university footpaths, while other centers feature shofar-making activities at late-summer fairs and carnivals. The common-denominator among the projects is the emphasis on personalizing the holiday for Jews of all backgrounds.
“The idea is to engage the kids and give them a tangible experience,” states Rabbi Dov Mandel, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Fort Worth and Tarrant County in Fort Worth, Texas. “That way, when they go to synagogue, the shofar isn’t a foreign object.”
Rosenblum typically begins his presentations by explaining why the blowing of a ram’s horn is one of the New Year’s most-important rituals.
“It’s like if you were a businessman,” he explains to the children. “If you want to be successful, sometimes you need to sit down and think about what you did in the past year: what worked, what didn’t work, and what could be improved upon. Similarly, the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah reminds us to reflect, so that we can make better choices next year and bring our lives closer to G‑d.”
After this introduction, the kids watch as Rosenblum makes a shofar. Volunteers hold a goat’s horn steady as the rabbi trims its ends and drills a small hole through the tip. After he carves the mouthpiece, they sand and polish the horn. Each school is given the option to make one shofar per group or one shofar per child.
Rosenblum also gives children the opportunity to blow the horn and attempt the three-note succession of blasts made during Rosh Hashanah prayer services.
Younger children, such as the three and four-year-year-olds at the Oheb Shalom Nursery School in South Orange, N.J., particularly enjoy the demonstrations.
“I think it’s really a great help so that the children understand what the meaning of Rosh Hashana is,” says Iris Ehrlich, the school’s director. “Sometimes it’s difficult to explain to young children what the holidays are, but the hands-on nature of the shofar factory helps to bring it to life.”
“What amazes me,” echoes Jennie Tinkelman, whose two sons attend Oheb Shalom, “is that they come away knowing so much about the holiday. The rabbi can explain it much better than I can, because he makes it fun.”
Rosenblum estimates that in a given season, his shofar factory reaches between 2,000 and 2,500 children. Mandel, meanwhile, says that in a typical year, Chabad of Fort Worth sells between 10,000 and 12,000 for use in such workshops. Crunch the numbers, he says, and it’s not difficult to imagine millions of people annually having a hands-on shofar experience.
“Before we had children we got a little lax about celebrating the holiday,” says Tinkelman. “The shofar factory has been a good way to bring it back into the family, and even during our holiday traditions at home, the kids want to play the shofar for us. So they’ve taken what they’ve learned at school and brought it home.”
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