About Baba Shofar

Baba Shofar is a small family workshop that sources, finishes, and inspects shofars. The name "Baba" comes from the family — it is the name many in our community use for the grandfather of the household, and the workshop began as his quiet side work, then became the family trade.

The shofar tradition

The shofar is a musical and ritual instrument in Jewish life. Its main use is on the High Holy Days, especially Rosh Hashanah, where the shofar is sounded as part of the morning service. The horn is also used at the close of Yom Kippur and in certain other community moments throughout the year.

For a shofar to be kosher for the mitzvah, the horn must come from a kosher animal (most commonly ram, mountain goat, or kudu), must be of a single piece, must be hollowed naturally rather than mechanically forced, and must produce a clear sound. The workshop verifies each horn against these requirements as part of its preparation.

How the workshop selects horns

Horns are sourced through suppliers we have worked with for many years. Each delivery is hand-inspected before any work begins. A horn that is cracked, that has an unsuitable curve for its size, or that does not produce a clean note is set aside and not finished for sale.

The finishing work is mostly cleaning, smoothing, and adjusting the mouthpiece for comfort. We do not paint, varnish, or otherwise change the appearance of the horn — the surface is the natural surface of the animal, cleaned and oiled. A polished finish is available on some ram's horn shofars; the higher gloss is achieved by hand-polishing, not by adding any coating.

Two horn families

Ram's horn. The traditional shofar of Ashkenazi communities and many Sephardic communities. Usually curved or slightly twisted, ranging in size from a small 9-inch horn (often used for a child or for portable home use) to a long 18-inch synagogue horn with a deeper voice.

Yemenite kudu. The horn of the Yemenite tradition and many Mizrahi communities. Long, dramatically curved, with multiple twists along its length. Sounds with a deeper and longer tone than ram's horn, and can reach 40 to 50 inches end to end. These are the horns most often photographed in news coverage of major holiday services.

Who buys

• Synagogues purchasing for the year's services, often replacing an aging shofar.
• Families preparing for a bar or bat mitzvah where the young person will sound the shofar.
• Cantors and chazzanim who prefer a personal horn rather than the synagogue's shofar.
• Educators and teachers building a small collection for classroom use.
• Communities further from the major Jewish population centres, where local availability is limited.

What the workshop does not do

The workshop does not sell decorated shofars (painted, gilded, or carved-with-imagery shofars are not part of the tradition we work within). We do not make novelty horns or non-kosher horns. We do not ship to commercial resellers; the relationship is direct.

Contact

Write to [email protected] with a few words about who the shofar is for and what size or sound you prefer. We usually reply within a working day and can suggest two or three suitable horns from the current selection.