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Rare undated single sheet for use by the Toke’ah (individual who blows the Shofar on Rosh Ha-Shanah) to be recited quietly and aloud prior to blowing the shofar. The first paragraph consists of Psalm 24 which begins “Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord’s, and all that fills it; the world, and those who dwell in it” concluding with “And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian” (Genesis 39:2). There is a short prayer and a paragraph quoting from the Zohar parashat Pinhas, followed, in larger unvocalized square letters, the prayer to be recited immediately prior to blowing the shofar, noting the custom to be followed in Safed. At the end is the prayer to be recited after blowing the shofar.
There are two series of shofar blasts: for the first, which is sounded before the Musaf, the congregation may sit before they rise to hear it, and hence it is called teki'ot meyushav ("sitting teki'ot"; to distinguish it from the second series, which is heard during the Musaf Amidah, for which the congregation has been standing all the time). This first series is preceded by two benedictions: (1) "Blessed be Thou O Lord our God King of the universe, who has sanctified us by Thy commandments and has instructed us to hear the call of the shofar"; (2) "Blessed be Thou … who has kept us in life, has sustained us and privileged us to reach this season of the year." The second series, the teki'ot me'ummad ("standing teki'ot") is heard three times during the reader's repetition of the Musaf (in the Sephardi rite also in the silent Amidah) at the conclusion of each one of its major sections (Malkhuyyot – the kingship of God; Zikhronot – the remembrance of the merit of our ancestors; and Shofarot – hope for the coming of the Messianic Era to be ushered in by the sound of the shofar). In some communities it is also customary to sound up to a total of one hundred sounds at the conclusion of the service. The shofar may be sounded only in the daytime. When Rosh Ha-Shanah occurs on the Sabbath, the shofar is not blown, the traditional reason being "lest he carry it (the shofar) from one domain to another (in violation of the Sabbath)" (RH 29b). When the Temple was in existence, it was sounded there even on the Sabbath, but not elsewhere. After the destruction of the Temple Johanan b. Zakkai permitted its use on the Sabbath in a town where an ordained bet din sat (RH 4:1). This, however, is not the normal practice in our times. The congregant sounding the shofar is called a ba'al teki'ah and anyone capable of doing so is permitted to blow it. The prompter, or caller, is the makri.
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