View source for Shofar

=== Post-Biblical times ===
[[File:Old Jerusalem Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue Oil and Shofar for the Messiah.jpg|thumb|At Old Jerusalem's [[Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue]], a flask of oil and a shofar await the [[Mashiach]].<ref>It has been said that when the Mashiach comes, the Sephardic community will be ready to anoint him and blow the shofar to announce his arrival. Legend has it there is a tunnel from under the Yohanan Ben Zakkai synagogue that leads directly to the [[Temple Mount]].</ref>]]

While the shofar is best known nowadays for its use on [[Rosh Hashana]], it also has a number of other ritual uses. It is blown each morning (and in some communities in the afternoon as well) during the month of [[Elul]],<ref>Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 128:2</ref> and to mark the end of the day of fasting on Yom Kippur, once the services have been completed in the evening.<ref>Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 133:26</ref>

In Talmudic times the shofar was also blown to introduce [[Shabbat]].<ref>[https://www.sefaria.org.il/Shabbat.35b.8?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Shabbat 35b]</ref> It was also used both to initiate and dissolve a [[Herem (censure)|Herem]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brand |first1=Ezra |title=From Admonishment to Excommunication: The Talmudic Laws of Ostracism (Moed Katan 16a-b) - Pt.2 |url=https://www.ezrabrand.com/p/from-admonishment-to-excommunication-563 |website=ezrabrand.com/ |access-date=1 May 2024}}</ref>

At the inception of the [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora]], during the short-lived ban on playing musical instruments, the shofar was enhanced in its use, as a sign of mourning for the destruction of the temple. The declaration of the ban's source was in fact set to the music itself as the lamentation "Al Naharoth Bavel" within a few centuries of the ban. (A full orchestra played in the temple. The ban was so that this would not be taken for granted, hence the wording of the ban, "if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, over my chiefest joy...".){{citation needed|date=January 2020}} The shofar is generally no longer used for secular purposes (see a notable exception in a section [[#National liberation|further down]]).<ref>[[Judith Kaplan Eisenstein]], ''Heritage of Music'', New York: UAHC, 1972, pp.&nbsp;44–45.</ref>

[[Halakha]] (Jewish law) rules that the Rosh Hashana shofar blasts may not be sounded on Shabbat, due to the potential that the {{transliteration|he|ba'al tekiah}} (shofar sounder) may inadvertently carry it, which is in a [[39 Melakhot|class of forbidden Shabbat work]].<ref>Rosh Hashanah 29b</ref> Some explain this prohibition as stemming from the spiritual effects of the shofar which are matched by the spiritual energy of Shabbat, making Shofar blowing unnecessary<ref>{{cite web |title=Why we don't blow the Shofar on Shabbat |url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/988699/jewish/Why-No-Shofar-on-Shabbat.htm |website=Chabad.org |access-date=September 21, 2025}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=October 2025}}. Originally, the shofar was sounded on Shabbat in the [[Temple in Jerusalem]]. After the temple's destruction, the sounding of the shofar on Shabbat was restricted to the place where the great [[Sanhedrin]] was located. However, when the Sanhedrin ceased to exist, the sounding of the shofar on Shabbat was discontinued.<ref>Kieval, ''The High Holy Days'', p.&nbsp;114</ref>