The Hebrew name for the ram’s horn sounded during Rosh Hashanah is shofar. A shofar is an ancient wind instrument made from an animal horn, most commonly the horn of a domestic ram in Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish communities. A Yemeni Jewish tradition commonly uses a curved kudu horn instead.
The shofar is central to Rosh Hashanah worship. Its blasts recall the biblical command to mark the first day of the seventh month with a “memorial of blowing,” and Jewish tradition connects the ram’s horn with the binding of Isaac. In that story, a ram becomes the substitute sacrifice, giving the instrument an additional association with remembrance and mercy.
A shofar is not the same as a modern trumpet. It has no valves or other pitch-changing mechanisms; the player changes the sound through breath and embouchure. Jewish law prescribes a minimum of 30 blasts on each day of Rosh Hashanah, while many communities follow customs totaling about 100 blasts.
The shofar is also heard at the end of Yom Kippur and, in many communities, during weekday services throughout the Hebrew month of Elul. The Hebrew words “shofar” and “shofrot” are often confused with “trumpet,” but biblical trumpets were a different instrument.