The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah in Hebrew) is in the autumn, in September-October. According to tradition, it is the time of judgment, when the fate of each creation is decided. Rosh Hashanah is the time of repentance. The Torah portion read in the synagogue is the story of the binding of Isaac. The most significant part of synagogue service is the blowing of the shofar. The shofar is a musical instrument made of a ram’s horn. It is supposed to remind us that the first shofar was made out of that very ram’s horn which was sacrificed by Abraham instead of Isaac, after God saw the strength of his faith.

The sound of the shofar (Tamás Verő, the rabbi of the Frankel synagogue will play the shofar):