By Mark D. Zimmerman
Jews around the world are listening to the blowing of the shofar during the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and again on Yom Kippur. The shofar is typically a hollowed out ram’s horn, though other animals’ horns are also used, including goats, ibexes and kudus. While there is not a specific reference to the shofar in the Torah, it says in Leviticus Chapter 23 Verse 24, “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.” What shofar-related event took place that made the Guinness Book of World Records?
B. In 2014, the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life sponsored the “Great Shofar Blowout” in Whippany, New Jersey, where 1,022 participants blew the shofar at the same time, breaking the old Guinness record of most shofar blowers by more than 300.
C. A Chabad rabbi set the record for the longest held tekiah gedolah note at Kfar Habad in Israel on Yom Kippur 2017. The blast lasted 1 minute and 55 seconds.
D. In 2012, at a synagogue in Safed (Tzfat), Israel, the record was set for the longest length shofar ever blown, a kudu horn measuring 34″ long.
E. In 2021, a congregation in Jerusalem set a record for the most people infected with COVID-19 by a shofar blower. Within days of the Rosh Hashanah service, 53 people tested positive after the shofar blower, not knowing he was positive for the virus, unwittingly spread his germs throughout the congregation with his many tekiahs, shvarims, and teruahs, not to mention his outstanding tekiah gedolah.