''Chazozra'', also ''hazozra'', ''hasosrah'', ''hasoserah'', plural ''chazozrot'', ''hasoserot'' was a

natural trumpet A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series. History :''See: Clarion'' The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication (e.g. break camp, retreat, e ...

used in religious rituals by the

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

s, made of bronze, silver or silver alloys. The ''chazozra'' is mentioned 31 times in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

and is translated ''tuba'' in the Vulgate. The first written description of the ''chazozra'' is probably recorded in the 4th book of Moses. The prophet Moses is from

Elohim ''Elohim'' ( ) is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural in form, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly but not always the Go ...

prompted: "And the LORD spoke to Moses and said: Make two trumpets of beaten silver..." (4 Mos 10) The straight metal trumpet ''chazozra'' can be distinguished from the curved natural horn ''

shofar A shofar ( ; from , ) is an ancient musical horn, typically a ram's horn, used for Jewish ritual purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player's embouchure. The ...

'' by its design. While the word ''shofar'' derives from Akkadian, ''chazozra'' is based on the Hebrew consonant root ''ḤṢR'' (“housing”, “fence”, derived “tube”). The shape, but not the name, appears to have been imported from Egypt, deriving from the simpler Egyptian military trumpet '' sheneb'', which produced only two notes. The ''chazozra'' was usually played in pairs. While the ''chazozra'' is attributed to the institutionalized sacred area and the circle of power of the Second Temple, the ''shofar'' was part of the magical-mystical worship of God According to the Bible, the dedication of Solomon's temple included “…120 priests who blew trumpets. And it was as if it were someone who trumpeted..., as if a voice could be heard praising and thanking the LORD." ( 2 Chr 5,12-13) When the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD at the end of the Jewish War, the stolen temple equipment was taken to Rome. An illustration of this can be found in the form of two reliefs on the Arch of Titus in Rome (), which were only added later, around 190 AD. Flavius Josephus states the length of a ''chazozra'' in his book Antiquities of the Jews as a "bare cubit" (approx. 46 cm). Josh Wander worked on remaking them. After extensive planning, preparation and supervision, the trumpets were made and on Tisha B’Av in 2024, the trumpets were blown for the first time in 2000 years.Since then, Wander has blown them at a number of events including when Israel went out to war against Hamas.

Literature

*Edward H. Tarr: The Trumpet . Schott, Mainz 1984. ISBN 3-7957-2357-4

References

{{Natural horns Ancient Hebrew musical instruments Natural horns and trumpets Sacred musical instruments

See also

Literature

References