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Comments on Blowing a Shofar with a mask over the wide end

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Blowing a Shofar with a mask over the wide end

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Last night, as part of his weekly livestream COVID update, Rabbi Dr. Glatt quoted Rav Mordechai Willig that one should put a mask over the wide end of the Shofar while blowing to prevent spreading COVID. The Rabbi of the Shul I Davened at this morning (a close Talmid of Rav Mordechai Willig) was convinced that Rav Mordechai Willig was either misquoted or would retract this soon.

His reasoning was that he feels putting a mask changes the tone and would render the blowing Passul.

Does anyone know whether this is true? The Rabbi tried demonstrating but it was hard to tell (it certainly muffles the sound but it was unclear if the tone was changed as well) because its so easy to change the tone anyway. You move it the tiniest bit and the tone is different.

Has anyone heard anything else about this Shaila? Does anyone have any Maareh Mekomos that they can think of that may be relevent. Have any other well known Rabbanim weighed in on this?

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1 comment thread

General comments (7 comments)
General comments
DonielF‭ wrote over 4 years ago

I just tried this myself. In my humble opinion I don’t hear a difference between if the end is covered with a mask or not. Just to test I did try it with the mask over the short end – needless to say I couldn’t get a sound out at all.

msh210‭ wrote over 4 years ago

And if the mask does change the sound, so? You can't change the sound after it exits the shofar? What about women (or anyone) who hear it through a curtain? Is that not the same thing?

DonielF‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Relevant is footnote 1 here. In short, one only fulfills the mitzvah of Shofar if he hears the קול הברה, and it's possible that your question, supposing that the sound is actually affected by the mask covering the opening, could be one of the cases in which the different translations would argue on whether one has fulfilled the mitzvah or not.

manassehkatz‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Ongoing discussions, but most recently with my LOR, indicated that based on medical advice will likely (I wouldn't say "definitely" on anything a month away these days) include covering the wide end of the Shofar.

MTL‭ wrote over 4 years ago

I have heard from reliable rabbis* that it is okay as long as it does not change the sound of the shofar. Muffling the sound is okay. (*but I do not have sources for this)

Skipping 1 deleted comment.

MTL‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

I found the quote (https://youtu.be/jHkL1y2ZJZ4?t=1786) and suggested the edit. It appears that Rabbi Glatt is quoting "poskim" for that. The next thing that he said (about the toke'ah blowing from a different room) was something that he attributed to Rabbi Willig. In case this question is specifically about Rabbi Willig. *shrug*