Most people buy one shofar in their life. Here is what actually matters, in the order it matters.
1. Can you blow it?
Start here, because it rules things out fastest — and because it is the question most online listings quietly avoid.
If you intend to sound the shofar, you need an uncoated horn with a bare mouthpiece. Silver plating, gold plating and paint all alter the way a horn resonates, and a coated mouthpiece interposes between the blower and the horn. A plated shofar is a display piece, however beautiful, and should not be used to sound the teruah.
Carving and engraving are different. They cut into the horn rather than covering it, so an engraved shofar keeps its own voice. If you want a decorated horn you can still blow, that is the way to get one.
You will find a great many silver-plated and hand-painted shofars sold online with the word kosher in the title. Ask the seller what the coating is and what the mouthpiece is finished with. If they cannot tell you, they do not know.
2. Ram or kudu?
Ram is the traditional and preferred horn. Its curve carries the memory of the Akedah, and its sound is tighter, brighter and more piercing. Most households want a ram.
Kudu — the long spiral, often called Yemenite — is permitted and widely used, particularly in Yemenite and Sephardi communities. It is chosen for length and for a deeper, more sonorous voice. It is also considerably more dramatic to hold.
Neither is a compromise. They are different instruments.
3. What about the exotic horns?
A quick guide, because this category is where sellers get loose with the word kosher:
- Ram — preferred.
- Kudu, ibex — permitted, widely used.
- Cow and ox — excluded, by association with the golden calf.
- Deer antler — not a horn at all. Antler is solid bone rather than a hollow sheath, so it cannot be a shofar.
- Oryx and gemsbok — contested. Some authorities identify these with the Torah's re'em and exclude them. Several US suppliers stock them heavily and describe the whole range as kosher. Buy them if you like them; do not rely on that claim.
4. How long?
Longer horns give a fuller, lower sound and need more air. Shorter horns speak more easily.
- 12–14 inches, ram — the easiest first shofar. If nobody in the household has blown one, buy this.
- 16–18 inches, ram — a fuller, rounder blast, comfortable once you have the embouchure.
- 30–40 inches, kudu — congregational scale. Enormous sound, and it takes real breath.
5. Cracks, holes and marks
Natural horn carries lines, and most of them are fine. A lengthwise crack running less than half the horn's length does not disqualify it. Small holes are acceptable where the sound is unchanged. A widthwise crack becomes a problem if it encircles most of the horn.
The test that matters is the sound. If it speaks cleanly, it is a shofar.
How to actually get a sound out of it
Buzz your lips as you would into a trumpet, pressed to one side of the mouthpiece rather than centred. Keep the corners of your mouth firm. Do not blow harder — blow tighter. Almost everyone who cannot get a note is using too much air and too little lip.
It takes most people an evening. It is worth the evening.
Caring for it
A shofar is keratin, like a fingernail. Keep it dry, out of direct sun, away from radiators. Let it drain mouthpiece-down after blowing, and store it in a cloth bag rather than sealed plastic, which traps moisture and produces the smell shofars are unfairly famous for.
Our Judaica line lands shortly. In the meantime, our full standard for what we will and will not call kosher is published at How We Label Kosher, and the fall feast dates are here.