Tekiah Gedolah ~ Whew ~

Rabbi Todd shared his time with the Kohavim class. We had several Shofars to use, one long one (Rabbi Jay's) and the smaller ones. The children were intrigued about the size, and noticed that the size corresponded to the pictures of the animals displayed on our bulletin board.

We asked the children where could we go to obtain knowledge about some of the questions we had about the horns of the animals, and how one might make a shofar.

The responses were: The computer.  We would put in www.animal.com, books, and then Rabbi Todd reminded us of the value of asking someone we know as well who might have the answer to our inquiries.   There are many sources we can go to for information.

Rabbi Todd told us the Shofar is used to ring in the start of the Jewish New Year. There are 4 different sounds that are heard:

1) the Tekiah ~ lasts 3 seconds
2) Shvarim ~ A tekiah broken into 3 segments
3) Teruah ~ nine rapid blasts
4) Tekiah Gedolah ~ A triple Tekiah which last at least nine seconds.

Rabbi Todd held the sound for 26 seconds~ significantly longer for us!!

Thank you Rabbi Todd for sharing your gift of time and knowledge.