This coming week is the festival of Rosh HaShanah and the sounds and smells of this festival are already amongst us. Every family has it's own special food; Grandma's recipe for fish, Dad's sweet Challah and the most tasty desert from Mum. (My husband makes the best Challot in the world and together with the best fish from my sister you can crown the festive meal at ours as the most festive meal!) But the truth, for a change, is that I don't want to speak about food rather about the sounds of the festival. We are all already waiting to hear the sound of the shofar; the sound of the opening of the gates of heaven. The shofar has many symbolic meanings in Judaism, such as the binding of Isaac, the sound of standing at Mount Sinai, the ceremony of the kingdom of kings and more.
But, from where is the word "shofar "שופר? What is the root of it's symbolism?
Eliezer Ben Yehuda refered to the root ש-פ-ר when he created the word מנשר (manifest):
"אל חכך שפר כנשר על בית ה'..." Set the horn to thy mouth. As a vulture he cometh against the house of the LORD (Hosea 8:1)
In his newspaper "the light", Ben Yehuda wrote " Did you ever see a vulture blow the shofar? There is in Arabic (with the root נ-ש-ר) another meaning: to publish, to notify to the masses something new, a new gospel." This idea fits well with our topic but unfortunately the understanding of Ben Yehuda wasn't accepted because it was lacking the complete root of the word.
Probably the word shofar is connected to the verb "לשפר to improve". The shofar, that is the method that man uses to express himself towards the firmament, is the symbol of the desire of man to leave the physical realm and the materialistic world where he is found and to improve his deeds and his world to greet the great new year.
At the moment there is a new historical shofar exhibit beginning in the Bible lands museum. You can hear a few interesting stories also here:
I wish everyone a happy and sweet new year, a peaceful, tranquil, health, success and love and of course a year of improvement in Hebrew!
Osnat
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