The following video, featured on Israeli Salad, IsraelNN TV’s weekly magazine, presents Shimon Keinan, a professional Shofar blower and manufacturer. The Shofar is the traditional horn of a ram which is blown on the festival of Rosh Hashana.
Since he was a young boy at the Rodfei Shalom synagogue in Tiberius, Shimon Keinan has been involved in the world of Shofars. As a young child, Shimon admirably stared at the man who blew the Shofar at his synagogue during the Rosh Hashana prayer service. When he was 18 years old he was given the opportunity to be the synagogues Shofar-blower on the high holidays. Years later he opened his own Shofar factory in northern Israel.
Keinan told IsraelNN TV’s Teneh Samuel that from the moment he meets a horn he is to transform to an actual sound producing Shofar, he knows exactly how it will look and how it will sound.
Keinan explained that some Shofars can tell us a story and teach us of the past. For example, the flat Shofars originate from the time of the Spanish inquisition. “They couldn't hide a regular Shofar like this one” says Keinan, presenting a regular swirly shaped horn “that's why they started flattening the Shofars, which is not an easy task. They would hide their Shofar under their clothes"