Shofar makers busily crafting a blast from the past

If there’s a business that’s seasonal, it’s that of selling shofars.

Sales spike around the High Holy Days, then mellow down for the rest of the year. Shofar makers, however, don’t just sit around in the off-season; they’re constantly busy collecting raw horns, cleaning them and making them into the ancient musical instruments. 

The process usually begins in Africa and the Middle East, where locals kill animals for their meat and, without any use for the horns, sell them to shofar factories. Nevertheless, not all horns are created equal.

Rabbinic sources agree that an ideal shofar is from a sheep, citing the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, where a ram’s horn is mentioned. The exception is the Yemenite community, which generally prefers the long horn of a kudu, a type of African antelope. 

“The Yemenite community have a tradition to use such a shofar, for reasons that are unclear,” Rabbi Natan Slifkin, popularly known as the “Zoo Rabbi,” told the Journal in an email recently when he was visiting Los Angeles from Israel. “But most of them are probably being sold outside the Yemenite community. The reason for their popularity is doubtless due to their spectacular appearance.” 

Although not as widely used, exotic shofars made from animals such as ibex and eland also are available. Horns made of solid bone that have no removable core are not considered kosher and are automatically disqualified. Horns from cattle are not acceptable either, according to the code of Jewish law known as the Shulchan Arukh.

Eli Ribak, co-owner of Barsheshet-Ribak Shofarot Israel, one of the largest shofar-producing factories in Israel, travels to African and Middle Eastern countries to individually select each horn based on certain qualities.

“You cannot make a good shofar from each horn,” Ribak told the Journal by phone. “I go in the winter [to] select the best raw horns. The filling, the size, the shape — good shape is important.” 

When it comes to preparation, though, none of the laws that apply to kosher food are applicable, according to Ribak. That is, the animal does not need to be slaughtered in a particular way, and those who prepare the shofar do not need to be Jewish.

Shalom Shofars, a factory in South Africa, does not have any Jewish staff members. Established in 1999, the small factory is owned by Marinda du Preez, a Christian. After collecting the horns of rams, kudu and exotic animals from hunters in Namibia and Botswana, du Preez begins the process of transforming them into shofars.

“In a nutshell, we first wash [the horns] in detergents and bleaches to get rid of all the blood and flesh and dirt,” du Preez told the Journal in an email. “Then the horn gets sanded down with a variety of sanders. It gets washed again and then buffed to perfection.

“Then we seal them to keep the colors and protect the horns from drying and cracking,” she continued.  “Now they go to the showroom, where people come to choose them.”

Shofarot Israel follows similar steps to clean the horns, but in an assembly-line fashion. About 30 shofars are made in a day, each one taking about two hours, Ribak estimated. 

The final product does have slight differences from one made by, say, Shalom Shofars, according to du Preez. “[Israelis] have a way of heating the narrow end and making it straight and flat,” she said. “That produces a certain sound. We make an African shofar.” 

Another difference: Under the supervision of Rabbi Ariel Levine, Shofarot Israel has kosher certification from the rabbinate, according to Ribak.

“A shofar factory in China or in other countries does not have rabbinic supervision,” he said. “They say it’s kosher, [but] it’s not always.”

Du Preez said rabbis have assured her that her shofars are completely kosher. 

“I do not sell to Israel because I do not want to compete with their shofar factories,” she said. “We also have a different clientele. In addition to Jews, many of our customers our Christians. There are many Bible believers who just blow the shofar because the Psalms tell us to do so to praise HaShem.”

Unlike Shalom Shofars, which sells mainly to individual buyers, Shofarot Israel sells thousands of the horns every year, many of them to companies in the United States.  One such company, Alef To Tav, a New York-based wholesaler of shofars and other Judaica, then sells those shofars to Judaica stores across the country, including The Mitzvah Store, located near the corner of West Pico Boulevard and Rexford Drive.

“We sell approximately 100 shofars a year, with the prices ranging from $50 to $300,” said Rabbi Shimon Kraft, the store’s owner. “The most popular one is definitely the ram’s horn. The Rams have a special place in L.A.”