shevarim

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Pronunciations

shevarim (shih-var-EEM) listen

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Definitions

  • n. One of the sounds blown on the shofar during high holidays; three short notes blown closely together.

Example Sentences

  • "There are three main types of shofar blasts — tekiah, shevarim and t’ruah. A fourth type, tekiah gedolah, is just a longer version of the regular tekiah blast." (source)

  • "I wonder what goes through people's minds during the tekiot, those 100 blasts of the shofar heard around the world on Rosh Hashanah. Awe? Remorse? Nostalgia? A warmth of peoplehood? Custom requires a complex permutation of three notes, Tekia, Shevarim, Terua—long notes, moaning notes, and sobbing notes. And the message of this ancient instrument of alarm that is known as the shofar is itself a very complex one." (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew

Etymology

  • שברים, lit. 'breaking'‎

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education

      Regions

      • North America

      Dictionaries

      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).

      Alternative Spellings

      shevareem, shvarim, shvareem

Notes

  • "Before the shofar is blown, the rabbi or cantor will call out this word, signaling to the person blowing the shofar what sound to play—and to the congregants what sound they will hear." (JPS)

    See also tekiah, tekiah gedolah, and terua.

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