Dear Rabbi a few questions on acquiring a shofar
Q. I was given a shofar as a present, it has a good sound but it is rather straight and only slightly bent. I was told that if you heat the shofar you can soften it and bend it, is that permitted?
A. The Talmud Rosh Hashana 27b mentions that a shofar is required to fulfill the “Derech Haavaroso” prerequisite or the way it was grown on the head of the animal, without being changed from the natural way it grew.
Poskim disagree as to what that change means. From the Talmud it is apparent that it becomes disqualified only if it was changed inside out or by reversing the side one blows into.
Pri Megodim (Mishbetzos Zahav 586) debates as to if a natural straight ram shofar is preferable to a common shofar that was bent by softening the shofar with hot water. It would seem that he rules that there is no difficulty in using such a shofar. Likewise Zichron Terua (p. 68) maintains that the custom of Ashkenazim and others that if the changes made by softening the shofar in hot water are small and are made only to better its appearance it is permitted. However, Piskey Teshuvos (586: 9) avers that from the Rav's Shulchan Aruch and Mate Efraim, it is apparent that any physical change made to the shofar, that deviates from the way it naturally grows, disqualifies. Therefore, even small changes made for the purpose of making it easier to blow should be avoided. Minchas Yitzchok (8: 54) quotes Toras Chaim (O.H. 586: 2) that indeed disqualifies an artificially bent shofar for the reason mentioned above.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
