Hi, I noticed the following in your background to Rosh Hashanah 34 3) [line 40] DERECH HA'AVARASO - [the Shofar must be blown] in the way that it grows out of the ram's head; i.e. with one's mouth on the narrow end. (Just as the narrow end is on the ram's head as it grows, so too the mouth of the person blowing must be on the narrow end.) (RASHI 27b)
I believe that the parenthetical phrase is mistaken. The narrow part of the shofar is not on the animal's head as it grows. The wide end is what's attached to the animal. The narrow end is free and must therefore be cut to create the mouthpiece. What I think Rashi means on 27b is that once the shofar curves around as it grows to maturity, the 'future mouthpiece' ends up being higher up in the air (for many rams) and looks like the way we hold a shofar.
Perhaps I'm mistaken - please let me know.
shlomo horwitz, baltimore
Thank you! Your assertion that the Shofar grows from the head of the Ayil with the wide part attached and the narrow part in the air is certainly correct. The page that you looked at has already been corrected in our records; somehow it was not updated properly online.
The correct understanding of the Gemara and Rashi, however, is that the Shofar must be blown while in the same shape that it was when it was carried upon the head of the Ayil. Just as the narrow end was not wide nor the wide end narrow when it grew from the head of the Ayil, so too they may not be so when the Shofar is blown.
Kol Tuv, Moshie Cohen (originally from Baltimore)