Jews blow shofar and chatsatsera trumpets on the ‘Temple Mount’ for the first time in nearly 2000 years

An animal horn trumpet called a shofar.

COGwriter

Israel365 News posted the following:

For the first time in thousands of years, the shofar sounds on the Temple Mount

September 15, 2026

Hundreds of Jews stood on the Temple Mount before dawn on the second day of Rosh Hashanah this year, and by the time they left, something had happened there that Rabbi Josh Wander believes had not happened in thousands of years: the shofar sounded on the Mount together with the silver Temple trumpets. …

This year’s minyan, held at the Temple Institute under Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and convened as a formal beit din for the occasion, drew a crowd Wander had never seen before. “The room was packed. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “We had hundreds of people in the room as shofar was blown on Misgav Ladach Street in Jerusalem’s Old City.” He drew a direct line to Schlesinger’s own failed attempt roughly a century and a half earlier to unite Jerusalem’s communities around the same practice. “Even though he couldn’t get all the rabbis on board, the rabbis came and stood outside as he blew, because they said, ‘Even if we don’t agree that we should be blowing shofar on Shabbat right now, we can still fulfill the mitzvah by listening to his blowing.’” The same thing happened this year, Wander said: “Many people, even if they weren’t praying with us, came to hear the shofar on Shabbat. It was very special, very moving.”

The ascent

The second day, a Sunday, brought Wander and hundreds of others to the Temple Mount itself. “There was a line of people right after sunrise, waiting to go up to the Temple Mount — hundreds of Jews,” he said. Before ascending, the group blew shofar at the entrance “with a brachah, just to make sure that if we weren’t able to hear it later, we’d have already fulfilled the mitzvah of hearing the shofar.”

What followed, Wander said, had never happened before. “The police allowed us up in groups of thirty. What was unusual this year is that, usually, they send up smaller groups and rush them off the Mount, bringing up the next group as each one leaves. This time, they just kept adding groups; thirty, then another thirty, and another, and another.” He estimated at least 120 people at the first minyan of the morning, with other counts running as high as 200, and roughly 600 total ascending over the course of the day. The group prayed with “pre-printed, pre-approved machzorim” and, for the first time in years, with their own tallitot. “We had Jews, maybe for the first time in many, many years, going up to the Temple Mount and praying freely, in large groups, with their prayer books and their prayer shawls,” he said. The service itself ran nearly four hours. “I don’t think we’ve ever had such a large group praying for that long on the Temple Mount,” Wander said.

Then came the shofar. “When it came time to blow the shofar, a number of people who had managed to sneak shofars up to the Temple Mount started blowing,” Wander said. “That in itself has happened the past two years, [and is] not as significant as what happened next.” This time, worshippers also smuggled up the silver Temple trumpets meant to accompany the shofar. “According to halacha, you’re supposed to have one shofar and two silver trumpets, blowing on either side of it,” he explained. “It’s brought down in the Mishnah that on Rosh Hashanah, the shofar and the trumpets all start blowing together, and at some point the trumpets stop while the shofar continues, because the shofar is the mitzvah of the day.”

What made this year unprecedented, in Wander’s account, was not the smuggling itself but the response. “In previous years, even if someone managed to sneak up a shofar and blow it, they’d immediately be tackled by police and removed from the Mount,” he said. “This year was different; the police were kind to us. Even though they briefly detained the people who brought up the shofar and the trumpets, they let us complete each round first.” Three full rounds of shofar and trumpets sounded together during the service, Wander said, each one allowed to finish before anyone was detained. “We managed, I think, for the first time in thousands of years, to blow shofar together with the silver trumpets on the Temple Mount.” https://israel365news.com/421250/for-the-first-time-in-thousands-of-years-the-shofar-sounds-on-the-temple-mount/

As reported here last month, the Israeli police are getting more tolerant of Jews carrying out religious actions, etc. on the area called the ‘Temple Mount’ (see Israeli police allow Jewish prayer books on the ‘Temple Mount’: A sign of a third temple or that a change to allow sacrifices can happen?)–however there are still issues and the police stopped some Jews blowing shofars last week.

(By the way, the reason I put show ‘Temple Mount’ is that I am not convinced that the ancient temple is where many Jews think it was, but it could be possible.)

Various ones have made attempts to blow trumpets and even offer sacrifices on the area called the ‘Temple Mount’ in the past, but have often run into political/judicial opposition. Israeli courts have generally agreed that Jews have the right to perform animal sacrifices, but have repeatedly denied this right as the timing would have excessively negative consequences. Essentially the concern is that allowing sacrifices on the Temple Mount would trigger massive violence from Muslims, as many are concerned that a massive Jewish Temple would come and displace their al-Aqsa Mosque–which does not have to happen.

However, with the political situation in Israel, combined with the fact that Ben Gvir is a member of the current government, we are sometimes seeing some increased official tolerance of Jewish religious activities. That said, since the Book of Daniel tells us that animal sacrifices will stop (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11), we know that means that they will have to start. And groups like the Temple Institute are pushing for them to start.

That said, perhaps it should be mentioned that trumpets that are made of animal horns, like a ram’s horn, are called shofars. Trumpets made of silver are called shofar and chatsatseras. Both are mentioned in the Old Testament.

Each year, related to the Feast of Trumpets, I normally blow both as can be seen in the sermon video below:

1:16:12

From Atonement to Jubilee: Liberation

What is the connection between the Day of Atonement and the Jubilee? How often was a Jubilee year to be proclaimed? Has the Jubilee to involve release from debt and bondage? Was the Jubilee part of a land reform system where people would get their ancestral lands back at the 50 year mark, hence give people opportunities to start anew? Have their been economic collapses/crises every 50 or 60 years known as the Kondratieff long wave cycle (or K-wave) that may have happened because the Jubilee was not kept? Where does the Bible tell about the year of Jubilee? Is the actual Hebrew word ‘yovel’? What are some things Robert Morton taught about the Jubilee, the 9 days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, Armageddon, and the return of Jesus, the millennial kingdom of God, and the liberty to be proclaimed? What are some similarities between the Jubilee and the conditions during the millennial kingdom? What about fasting, two goats, Jesus being sacrificed, and God’s plan for those called now and those called later? Many have pointed to different years as the start of the Jubilee cycle and when the Jubilee would be in the 21st century. Some asserted that the ‘Great Reset’ would start in a Jubilee year. The Vatican proclaimed 2025 as a Jubilee year and offered ‘plenary indulgences’ to reduce punishment (like in a place they call ‘Purgatory’)–does that make theological sense? The Vatican stated that 2033 would be declared its “jubilee of 2033 will be the Holy Year of Redemption”–is that biblical? If there is a 6000 year plan, could the next biblical Jubilee be in the 2030s? Will liberty and liberation be proclaimed on a Jubilee?

Here is a link to the sermon video: From Atonement to Jubilee: Liberation.

That said, religious Jews are having increasing impact in Jerusalem.

World events continue to align with properly understood biblical prophecies.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Jubilee Aspects of Atonement What is a Jubilee? What connections to the Day of Atonement, Armageddon, and the coming Kingdom of God? Here is a link to a related sermon: From Atonement to Jubilee: Liberation.
Why is a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem Not Required? Although people like Timothy LaHaye teach a third Jewish temple is required, who is ‘the temple of God” in the New Testament? Does the Bible require a rebuilt Jewish Temple? Here is a related item in the Spanish language ¿Por qué no se requiere un templo judío en Jerusalén? Here is a link to two sermons The Temple, Prophecy, and the Work and God’s Temple in Prophecy. And here is a version of the latter one in the Spanish: El templo de Dios en profecía.
Nascent Sanhedrin and Prophecy The reconstituted Sanhedrin wants the reimplementation of animal sacrifices. A related video is titled Sanhedrin pushing animal sacrifices. And a newer one is: Sanhedrin makes burnt offering to dedicate altar!
The Red Heifer, Jewish Beliefs, and the End of the World The Temple Institute is watching a ‘red heifer.’ Why might this be important in the sequence of end time events? Here is a related link in the Spanish language Novilla roja descubierta en EE.UU. e Instituto del Templo está interesado en ella. Here are links to three related videos in English: Red Heifers and the Fate of the World and The Red Heifer and the End of the World and 5 Red Heifers and Year 5783?
Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Will Philadelphian Christians instruct many in the end times? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work. Here is a link to another: Preparing to Instruct Many.