I live in England and have served as a ba’al tokeia for many years, baruch Hashem. May Hashem help that I merit to continue being mezakeh Yidden with the mitzvah of hearing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.
Each year anew I search for a nice, mehudar shofar with a nice, smooth shape, so that I will be able to blow clear, long and correct blows that pierce the ears and hearts well, and “arouse those who are ‘sleeping’.”
Throughout the year I am a melamed in a cheder. That year, the Talmud Torah administration cleared out a storage room where many items had lain for many years, and one of the melamdim discovered a beautiful shofar among those items. Its color was nice, its shape was mehudar, and its texture was smooth – exactly what I was looking for. Using this shofar, he showed the children the different sounds – tekiah, shevarim, teruah. When I saw the shofar, I asked him if I could try blowing it. I put it between my lips and blew, and its sound was clear and strong, pleasant like a violin, and touching the heart. I tried again and again, and each time I became more excited. This was a shofar the likes of which I hadn’t seen in many years. “Can you give me this shofar?” I asked the melamed. “I will give you another one in its place.”
The melamed agreed, and I took the shofar home. I discerned that on the narrow side, close to the end, there was a small fracture. This was not a problem; it could be fixed by fine sanding, and indeed that is what I did.
Interesting, I thought. How does a shofar break this way? It’s a bit strange. I decided to check the shofar, to pass it through fire. I lit a candle, brought the narrow opening of the shofar close to the flame, and behold, the shofar melted – one drop after another, and with every drip it soundlessly announced: I am made of plastic! I am not a real shofar. A ram’s horn doesn’t melt from a few seconds near a flame.
I was amazed by how I had been duped. This shofar was cleverly fashioned to be a successful imitation of a real shofar. What would have happened if it hadn’t occurred to me to try testing it with fire? I was liable to recite a brachah l’vatalah and to be machshil hundreds of
