By Janet Lubman Rathner
A harsh harmony of sounds-drilling, sanding, and incessant horn squeals-emits from the Lubavitch Center in Columbia, Md., in the weeks and days leading to Rosh Hashanah and the arrival of Yom Kippur.
These are the joyful noises of annual shofar workshops, which education director Rabbi Hillel Baron says enhance the daunting task of teaching religion and making it relevant.
"From an education standpoint, hands-on is much more effective [than lecturing]," he says, adding when someone is involved in creating something, it enhances the mitzvah-in this case, fashioning a shofar.
"The Talmud says-there's an opinion, at least-that the preparations of a mitzvah are equal to the mitzvah itself," Baron says. "The person becomes spiritually and emotionally invested, and walks away and is proud of his or her shofar, and will forever cherish it because they put the sweat equity into it."
This particular and most ancient of endeavors-shofar crafting dates back over 5,000 years-takes place at this Chabad center, halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., approximately 500 times before the holidays end. Children and even the occasional older adult attempt to construct, and some to master playing, one of Judaism's most defining and sacred instruments, Baron says.
Shofar workshops, or factories, as they are sometimes called, are held countrywide by Chabad-one of the largest branches of Hasidic Judaism and Jewish outreach purveyors worldwide-at its centers, schools, synagogues, and basically just about anywhere where Jews assemble.
In Columbia, this High Holiday season marks the eighteenth time that Baron has organized the activity-long enough for him to see the fruits of his labors.
"They never forget," he says of the participants. "I even have a parent of a child in our pre-school who remembers when she came with her father to make a shofar."
Finding the Horn
Shofar blowing is a formidable task, but Baron says making the instrument sing is not nearly as challenging as ensuring there is enough raw material for making enough so no one goes home empty-handed.
This is why, last spring, in addition to sweeping for chametz and otherwise becoming immersed in Passover preparations, Baron and his cadre of assistants were also already stockpiling for the High Holy Days.
Due to biblical significance, the ram's horn is preferred when it comes to making a shofar. But, since adult sheep are not a staple of the American palate, this particular item is not readily available in mass quantity in the United States.
Acceptable alternatives but even harder to come by-at least in this country-are horns from ibex, eland, and kudo. Cow horns, of which there is an abundance, are never used, Baron explains.
"It would remind us of the golden calf, which is something we are not proud of. It's a … mistake we made, worshipping the golden calf, so we don't want to have that as a sign on Rosh Hashanah," Baron says.
That leaves goat horns, which are increasingly plentiful, thanks to the burgeoning Muslim and Caribbean populations in this country.
Baron's army makes the requisite purchases from a meat-processing plant in Pennsylvania and, during the summer, devotes hours to preparing the horns-the core has to be removed-for the workshops.
The workshops are a lot of effort, but, based on the racket at the end of the day, invariably a success, Baron says.
"I give a lesson and, by the time they leave, they're making a symphony of shofar sounds," he says. "We have to tell them, 'Don't blow while on the school bus. The bus driver will go insane.'"
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