A shofar with a twist
If a shofar makes no noise is it still a shofar? What if it amplifies the sound of something else? What if the shofar is hooked up to your iphone? Or your iphone is hooked up to your shofar?
Italian designers Enrico Bosa and Isabella Lovero have done just that. They call it "The Megaphone."
It's made of ceramic and works like a passive amplifier. It certainly looks like a shofar but it certainly doesn't sound like one. Unless, of course, you've downloaded a shofar ringtone for your iphone.
But don't worry, at The Great Shofar we've got lots of working shofars to chose from. And they've got stands too:)
Comments
Hearing the Shofar Sound and Echos.
Arthur L. Finkle
The Mishnah Berura at 587 (Blowing A Shofar Inside A Pit) indicates that, if the hearer, who is outside a pit or cave, hears the reverberation (echo) from a pit, then he does not fulfill the obligation. If the hearer is able to hear the sound directly, he fulfills the obligation. See 587:1
If one starts blowing the Shofar in the pit and then comes out of the pit playing the Shofar, the hear fulfills because the sound is natural and an echo.
At Mishna Berura 587:3, if one hears the blast but with no intention of fulfilling the mitzvah, he does not fulfill the obligation. Thus, if someone is walking near a synagogue to secure a child and /she happens to hear the sound of the shofar being sounded in the synagogue, s/he does not fulfill the obligation. Although intentionality is the touchstone is this Jewish law, there is a minority decision.
At Mishnah Berurah 588:4, one must intend to hear the shofar for this obligation to be valid.
December 15 2011 at 08:12 AM