Read The Story of My Journey Into Shofar Making

I, James Rhoades grew up in Arizona filling my pockets with gifts from nature. My 'special rock' collection started out with priceless pebbles and grew to include semi-precious and precious stones, petrified wood, and antler sheds.

A welder by trade, my creative side found expression in metal which lead to making hand made knives with wood and antler handles. The Indian influences sparked my interests in beading, jewelry making, and leather working. These were all great hobbies till I found my one true passion.

Early in 2004, after suffering great loss with the death of my wife, I had some time on my hands to heal and rebuild. I decided to heed the call and pursue a long time interest in the use of animal horns to make the ancient instrument known as the Shofar.

In Biblical times, massive armies were alerted, moved, and instructed by the familiar sounds of the Shofars' blasts that could be heard from great distances. Numbers 10:9 says, "And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your GOD, and ye shall be saved from your enemies."

That's how Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho with seven priests blowing seven trumpets of rams horns on the seventh trip around the city on the seventh day (Joshua 6:4). Later Gideon's victory against the Midianites came when his tiny army of three hundred men broke pitchers and held lamps in their left hand while blowing their shofars with their right (Judges 7:22).

Finding my first Kudu was my biggest challenge. Suppliers were out. Shipments were detained by customs in Africa. Taxes and shipping costs fluctuated while they were still on the dock. Determination paid off. Once I had that first horn in my hands I became a shofar builder and discovered with that first blast the sound that moved my heart and changed my life forever.

I and my Shofar are seldom separated. It generates curiosity and conversation wherever I go. One school asked me to blow it on the National Day of Prayer. Another school's high school teacher asked me to share what I knew with his history class and a music teacher asked me to speak to her kindergarten class and her high school band students. Pastors have had me present it in their churches. I've been interviewed at community events and the sound continues to be heard. Now I build Shofars to make them accessible to those who's lives would be as enriched by them as my has been.

SHALOM

James Rhoades