Moroccan Shofaros Posul for Tekias Shofar

The Tel Aviv Religious Council’s ritual objects department has called on the wide public not to use a shofar made in Morocco on Rosh Hashanah. The department workers say they have examined the shofaros, thousands of which have already been distributed to stores, and discovered that they were glued with polyester – making them posul for tekias shofar.

“The import of shofaros from Morocco began last year, and we didn’t realize what a big mess it would be,” says Rav Aryeh Levin of North Tel Aviv, head of the department. Rav Levin notes that the Moroccan shofar can be identified according to a ring attached to its mouthpiece.”There are two main factories in Israel which produce shofaros, in Tel Aviv and in Yaffo,” adds Rav Levin. “In these factories the shofaros are polished and sharpened under hashgacha.”

Avraham Ribak, owner of Bar Shechet Ribak Yisrael Shofaros on Rechov Nachalas Binyamin in Tel Aviv, says the shofaros imported from China in recent years have also been discovered as posul.

“The Chinese shofaros are smeared with pig fat,” he says. “Several people permitted the shofaros from abroad without even checking them.”

Eldad Mizrachi, chairman of the Tel Aviv-Yaffo Religious Council, stressed in response that “the ritual objects department’s activity is preventing a great michshol from the public. This matter must be enforced, and the law prohibiting fraud in the entire ritual objects industry should be amended if needed.”

{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}