Portfolio Details

Title:

Blow the Trumpet in Zion

Description:

The shofar, or ram’s horn, designed primarily to make a loud noise rather than to make music, was, in the context of war, blown as a call to battle, to warn of impending attack and to proclaim victory. The shofar sounded on Mount Sinai when Moses brought the people out to meet G-d (Exodus 19:16.19) and was used to bring down the walls at Jericho (Joshua 6:4,20). Ezekiel 33 tells of the watchman who blows the shofar to warn the people when he sees approaching danger. In the year of Jubilee the shofar was to be blown on Yom Kippur to announce liberation and restoration. Jewish worship later adapted its use to every Yom Kippur as a symbol of the substitution of the ram for Isaac (Genesis 22:13). Today, the sound of the shofar reminds us of G-d’s Everlasting Covenant with His Chosen People, Israel, and His promise to bring them back to the land as prophesied by Ezekiel as well as to draw the nations to the “mountain of the L-rd and to the house of the G-d of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways” (Micah 4:2). Just as it was used in ancient days as a call to prayer and worship, let the shofar call us to follow the example of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Daniel and all the prophets as they prayed on behalf of the people of Israel. May the shofar call us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and rejoice in the people of G-d returning to Zion.

“When the L-rd turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The L-rd hath done great things for them.