The Torah, in Bamidbar, Numbers 29:1, calls Rosh Hashanah, Yom Teruah, literally the day of loud noises. The shofar, the ram’s horn, is what makes those noises on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur, and there are a number of reasons why it is sounded on the High Holiday.
One reason is from “Akeidat Yitzchak,” the story of the“Binding of Isaac” (Bereishit, Genesis 21: 2), when Abraham attempted to carry out the command of God to sacrifice his son Isaac as a show of faith. When God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, an offering was still made. A ram was caught in a nearby thicket by its horns and Abraham made that ram a burnt-offering instead of Isaac. This event took place on Rosh Hashanah and it is one of the reasons the Torah portion of this occurrence is read on the holiday.
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