21 Shofar Blasts a Day: The Temple's Lost Soundscape
Most Jews today hear the shofar once a year. But in the Second Temple, horns and silver trumpets were part of the daily soundscape of Jerusalem — at least 21 blasts every ordinary day, scaling up to 48 on Sukkot, and possibly 57 when Passover eve fell on Shabbat. This episode digs into Mishnah Sukkah, the Bartenura, and Talmudic sources to reconstruct what the shofar actually did: how it punctuated the Levites' song, cued the people to prostrate, closed the shops on Shabbat eve, and paced the all-night water-drawing procession of Simchat Beit HaShoeva. The shofar we know is a survivor — a…
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