We are very excited about these new sterling silver coated shofars. We now have 6 models to choose from.

	Product Name+	Price	Buy Now
	Call of The Shofar – 20″ Silver Encased Ram’s Shofar	$199.99
	Date Palm – 18″ Silver Encased Ram’s Shofar	$179.99
	Hear The Call – 12″ Ram’s Shofar	$99.00
	Jerusalem – 20″ Silver Encased Ram’s Shofar	$199.99
	Silver Jerusalem – 32″ Kudu Shofar	$360.00
	Silver Jerusalem – Oryx Shofar	$184.00

i recently moved into my mothers house to assist her after my fathers death. i noticed that there was no mezuzahs on any of the door posts.our front door is strange and a mezuzah can only be placed vertical with no room for a inward slant as i had in Miami Beach.can a mezuzah be left vertical on the right side of the door.also…my mother does not want mezuzahs in the house. it is her home.i should be lucky for the outside doors.at 82 years of age she is unwilling to make changes like a kosher kitchen,all door post mezuzahs and now she wants to go to a nearby church because our only temple closed as over the years the majority of jews have relocated.[a church] i asked her.?..i think its more for socialization.maybe the mezuzah might help our home with these dilemma’s.

Here is what I answered:

I am a certified Torah scribe. I write, check and sell Mezuzahs, Tefillin, Torahs etc.

There are several issues involved in your question. First, there is not obligation at all to put the Mezuzah up slanting in. This is only a custom and only for Ashkenazi Jews. This custom is because there are two opinions about how a Mezuzah is to be affixed. One is that the Mezuzah should be vertical and the other is that it should be horizontal. The majority opinion is that it should be vertical, but some have the custom to slant it a bit just to acknowledge the opinion that it should be horizontal.

Regarding the issue of your mother not wanting to put up Mezuzahs. Technically it is your mother’s house and therefore you are only obligated to put a Mezuzah on the door to the bedroom where you sleep. Someone here said that since you are obligated in honoring your mother that you shouldn’t make an issue out of putting up Mezuzahs. I disagree. If your mother was physically ill and didn’t want to take her medication, it would not be honoring her by doing nothing. Spiritual matters are no less important than physical matters.

I would suggest that you think of a way to convince your mother to put up Mezuzahs in the entire house, or at least on as many doors as possible. Perhaps it would be helpful to sit down with her at the computer and look at decorative Mezuzah covers that she would like. Offer to buy for her whichever one she likes as a gift. You know your mother. You are the biggest expert in the world at how to get what you want out of her. You have been doing it since the day you were born. This case is no different, except that what you want in this case is good for her also.

The Mishna in Ethics of our Fathers states, “A Mitzvah brings another Mitzvah”. Perhaps the Mitzvah of putting up proper Kosher Mezuzahs will have a positive effect on your mother regarding the other issue that you wrote about.

Good luck

PS I am going to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my website if you need a place to buy a Kosher Mezuzah.

http://www.thegreatshofar.com/

I was happy to see the following response:

thank you so much..i appreciate you taking the time to write that information.it has helped so much.i enjoyed your web site and will definitely use it!

The next Shofar is a silver coated oryx Shofar.  The horn of the oryx is almost straight.  This gives it a look reminiscent of the trumpets used in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  This beautiful oryx Shofar is coated with a sterling silver design of Jerusalem.

We are really excited about this new line of sterling silver Shofars. We will be adding a few more soon.

After my interview on the Yishai and Friend show, we decided to do a radio ad on Israel National Radio.  Let us know what you think.

I want to thank Yishai for having me on the show and giving a plug to our site.

The crafting of Shofars is an ancient art that hasn’t changed much for thousands of years.  Every Shofar starts out as a raw horn of an animal.  There are several types of animals whose horns can me made into a Shofar.

The most common Shofar is made from the horn of a ram, that is a male sheep that is at least a year old.  The very long curvy Shofars that are known as Yemenite Shofars, are made from the horn of the Kudu, a type of antelope found in southern and eastern Africa.  Neither of these types of horns is available in sufficient quantities in Israel.  The raw horns are brought from countries in southern Africa where the animals are raised for meat production.  In theory, you could make a Shofar out of the horn of a Bull.  However Jewish law prohibits this in order that the Shofar not ‘remind’ God of the sin of the golden calf.

Every Shofar manufacturer has to maintain good relationships with growers of these animals in Africa in order to ensure that they will get good quality horns that will not crack or split.  Also it is extremely important to get horns from herds of animals that have been checked to be disease free.  Once the horns arrive in Israel, the manufacturer inspects them and sorts out which ones are fit to make into Shofars.  A very large percentage of the horns end up being discarded at this stage.  This is because Jewish law requires that every finished Shofar be completely intact without any cracks or holes.  It is prohibited to patch a Shofar that has a hole or crack.  Any horn which is not in extremely good condition will not be intact at the end of the production.

An animal’s horn is made of an outer layer of hard keratin, filled with soft bone tissue.  Keratin is the same material that our bones and hair are made from.  In order to make a horn into a Shofar, the bone tissue needs to be removed from inside the horn.  This is done by letting the horn sit for at least a year.  By the end of the year, the tissue inside has dried, shriveled and decomposed.  It can usually be removed in one solid piece.

The horn is now sterilized by heat to kill any bacteria that may be present inside.

Now we are left with a hollow horn that is ready to be crafted into a Shofar.  Usually at least some part of the Shofar needs to be straightened in order to drill the mouthpiece.  This is done by carefully heating the Shofar and bending it.  Many Shofars break or split at this stage and end up being discarded.  The very tip of the horn is sawed off and a hole is carefully drilled to form the mouthpiece.

The Shofar is now polished to the desired finish.  This is one part of the process where modern machinery is very helpful.  Extreme care has to be taken not to over polish the Shofar to the extent that a weak spot is created where it can crack.  There are different types of Shofar finishes.  Some are fully polished to a very high gloss.  Others are left partially unpolished in order to display the natural look of the horn.

At this point, the Shofar is tested to determine if its sound is good.  If necessary, the mouthpiece is adjusted by widening the hole until it produces a loud, clear sound.

This is a short summary of the work that goes into creating a Shofar.  There are many details to this work that are trade secrets which we won’t write about here.  All of the work on the Shofars we sell is done in Israel by Jewish craftsmen with years of experience in making Shofars.  As a final step, we also test and inspect each Shofar that we sell to make sure that it is of superior beauty and sound.

How sad.  Imagine if California declared that Jews are not allowed to build but Koreans are.  Imagine if an order was made by the Prime Minister of France saying Jews could not build homes in Paris.  Such things are unthinkable in today’s day and age.  Yet here in the Jewish State of Israel, in the land of Judea, for which the Jews are named, we are not allowed to build our homes because we are Jewish.  Muslims and Christians build freely but not Jews.

Here is a video of part of what happened yesterday.  It is in Hebrew but what you are seeing is a line of vehicles coming to the gate of our village, entering and starting to fill out tickets to stop building that was legal last week but has now been declared illegal.  You will see some of the people from our village pleading with them to be reasonable and the inspectors ignoring them.  Toward the end you will see Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari (the guy in the suit and tie) chastising the inspectors for obeying immoral orders of the government.  He tells them:

You want to come here and show us that you are strong that we should be afraid of you?!  Let me tell you something, you are assisting the worst enemies of Israel!  The fact that you are following orders will not save you.  The people of the settlements are stronger than you and they will be victorious.

Here’s the video

You may wonder why I am posting this on a site about Shofars. I want everyone who visits this site to know that when they purchase from us, they are supporting the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. I think that most of our customers will be very proud of that.

We hope you will take advantage of this sale to pick up some items for your gift list and to treat yourself. There is no coupon necessary to receive the discount price.