The Tel Aviv Religious Council's ritual objects department has called on the wide public not to use a shofar (ram's horn) made in Morocco during the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana
and Yom Kippur.
The department workers say they have examined the shofarot, thousands of which have already been distributed to stores, and discovered that they were glued with polyester - making them unfit, as far as Jewish Law is concerned.
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"There are two main factories in Israel which produce shofarot, in Tel Aviv and in Jaffa," adds the rabbi. "In these factories the shofarot are polished and sharpened under supervision. It's disrespectful bringing a shofar prepared by an Arab on Shabbat into a synagogue."
The forbidden shofar
Avraham Ribak, owner of Bar Shehet Ribak Israel Shofarot on Tel Aviv's Nahalat Binyamin Street, says the shofarot imported from China in recent years have also been discovered as impure, embarrassing both rabbis and the public of buyers.
"The Chinese shofarot are smeared with pig fat," he says. "Several rabbis permitted the shofarot from abroad without even checking them."
Eldad Mizrachi, chairman of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Religious Council, stressed in response that "the ritual objects department's activity is preventing a great obstacle from the public. This matter must be enforced, and the law prohibiting fraud in the entire ritual objects industry should be amended if needed."
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