When Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz, director of the Chabad Center in Highland Park Illinois, first started looking around in 1986 for a holiday program that would enhance his schoolchildren's appreciation of the mitzvah of the shofar, he was simply thinking of a one-time demonstration without much preparation.

He wanted to get the children more involved with shofar blowing, but there were no shofar manufacturers around to go to on a class trip, so it occurred to the rabbi that he could teach the children to make their own horns in school.

In the 14 years that followed, the rabbi's shofar factory has evolved into an innovative program embraced by Chabad centers and yeshivas around the world.

"Commercial shofar makers in Israel didn't want to divulge the secrets of their trade," relates Rabbi Schanowitz. "I had to seek advice from the 'hornsmiths' who manufacture buttons from animal horns. Over several months I conducted a lot of trials and error."

In time the Chabad emissary developed his own methods for softening and removing the horn's cartilage, and shaping the long narrow mouthpieces for the shofars. By necessity he became expert with the different drills, files and acids used to shape the horns. He contracted with a slaughterhouse in Texas, that sent the first shipments in boxes boldly marked "Rabbi Schanowitz's Horns," which earned him disturbing looks from the postman...

As the research continued new ideas for improving the shofar factory program evolved. Rabbi Schanowitz rented the heads of several different animals from a local taxidermists to better illustrate how the horns grow before they are removed. Employing models and posters he explained to the youngsters that ram's horns are the most desirable as they invoke the image of the binding of Yitzhak and his later substitution with a ram sacrifice. Next best are the horns of the goat, the kudu (antelope) and the gazelle.

"Although the cow is a kosher animal its horns cannot be used for the mitzvah of the shofar," notes Rabbi Schanowitz. "The cow's association with the infamous episode of the Golden Calf, renders it one of Israel's harshest accusers. A prosecutor cannot also serve as Israel's defender on Rosh Hashanah."

The children receive certificates for completing a course in horn making. In a few centers the students make their own shofars.

"[Chabad founder] Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi wrote in his work, the Tanya, that on 'every Yom Tov there is an arousal of the soul,'" says Rabbi Schanowitz. "When children manufacture their own personal shofars from start to finish during Elul time, their connection to the mitzvah of sounding of the blasts becomes real."