Yemenite Shofar? Not Recommended

Laws and Customs of Blowing the Shofar

In Chumash Bamidbar (29, 1) the Torah commands us to hear the sound of the shofar: ′… it is a day of blowing the horn unto you.′ On Rosh Hashana one is obligated to hear the sounds of the shofar from a kosher shofar.  In order to purchase a kosher shofar, one must learn all the pertinent laws.  In Eretz Yisroel, there are four shofar manufacturers.   The majority of the shofars are imported from Turkey, Greece, China, or other countries.  Local shofars are a rarity.

Maran specifies the laws of the shofar in his Shulchan Oruch Orach Chaim, chapter 586:

1. The shofar for Rosh Hashana must be specifically from a ram, in order to invoke the memory of the Binding of Yitzchok.  The Rishonim were divided about the ruling in a situation where there is no ram′s horn: the Rambam rules that it is imperative to have a ram′s horn only, and one doesn′t fulfill the obligation of shofar with any other type of shofar.  Most of the other poskim rule that one fulfills the mitzvah with a shofar from other animals.  Maran rules as follows: (586, 1) after the fact, one is able to fulfill his obligation with other types of shofars, the whole world acknowledges that one should be mehader with a ram′s horn- from a 13 month old sheep. 

There are very large shofars used regularly by Yemenite Jews.  Scientists claim that these big horns are not ram′s horns, but horns of antelopes or addax. Therefore, it is uncertain if one should use this type of shofar on Rosh Hashana.

2.  The shofar must be bent, to show that we are subservient to the Creator of the world.  If one has two choices of shofars to use- wither a straight ram′s horn, or a bent horn of another source, it is better to use the bent one (Mishna Brurah, 586, 5).

3.  One must blow a shofar and not antlers, therefore a shofar from an ox and a cow are disqualified even after the fact. The word shofar is derived from the Hebrew word "shfoferes"- meaning a tube, therefore if one must drill a hole in it with a drill it is prohibited, even after the fact.

4. The shofar must come from a kosher animal.  A shofer from a non-kosher animal is forbidden. 

Edited by Rabbi Ariel Levi, Kollel Mearas HaMachpela, Chevron