📯 Escape room: The Silent Shofar

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A Rosh Hashanah escape room for kids 10–12: a letter cipher, shofar blasts and dates in Tishrei open the shofar’s case. For class and home.

Kids 10–12
Medium
20 minutes
5 story stations

The story

The day before Rosh Hashanah, the synagogue’s shofar went silent, and inside it was a folded note! Someone locked the shofar case with a code. Solve the riddles, open the case and find out what stopped the blowing.

Run it at home or in class

What to prepare

A shofar or a picture of one
A case or box with a code lock
Printed station sheets
Apple and honey for the end

Tips for the facilitator

If you have a shofar, blow the sequence from station 2 out loud.
At the end, serve apple dipped in honey to everyone who took part.
For a class: split into groups of 3–4 and give each group its own case.

Difficulty level

The story clues stay the same on every level; harder levels add more locks in between. You can ask for a hint at every stage.

0 of 6 stages solved · Easy · 15–25 minutes

Stage 1: The engraved word

1/6

The word SHOFAR is engraved on the shofar in a number cipher. Every letter is worth its place in the English alphabet: A = 1, B = 2 … Z = 26.

S H O F A R

What is the total of the letters in SHOFAR?

Run it in real life too

Print a facilitator kit for the easy level: a sheet with the opening story, the setup and every answer, plus a big card for each of the 6 stages.

📯 The Silent Shofar: facilitator kit

Kids 10–12 · 15–25 minutes · Level: Easy · 6 stages

Opening story: The day before Rosh Hashanah, the synagogue’s shofar went silent, and inside it was a folded note! Someone locked the shofar case with a code. Solve the riddles, open the case and find out what stopped the blowing.

Setup

A shofar or a picture of one
A case or box with a code lock
Printed station sheets
Apple and honey for the end
Print the 6 stage cards and put them in order, or hide each card around the room so every answer leads to the next one.
Read the opening story to the group and start a timer.
When the group gets stuck, give one hint from the table, one at a time.
If you have a shofar, blow the sequence from station 2 out loud.
At the end, serve apple dipped in honey to everyone who took part.
For a class: split into groups of 3–4 and give each group its own case.

Answers and hints (facilitator only)

Stage	Answer / code	Hints
1. The engraved word	67	S=19, H=8, O=15, F=6, A=1, R=18. · Add them up.
2. Counting the blasts	14	1 + 3 + 9 + 1.
3. The calendar	10	The first day is 1 Tishrei. · Add nine days.
4. Apple and honey	2	First work out how many slices are needed: 5 times 2.
5. Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock	4	Every symbol is a number. What is one symbol worth? · Add: 2 plus 2.
6. The case	1410	The number of blasts, then the date of Yom Kippur.

Read at the end: The case is open! The note says: “Sorry, I just wanted a rest before the holiday. Signed, the Shofar.” Shanah tovah, a good and sweet year!

📯 The Silent Shofar · Stage 1 of 6

The engraved word

The word SHOFAR is engraved on the shofar in a number cipher. Every letter is worth its place in the English alphabet: A = 1, B = 2 … Z = 26.

S H O F A R

What is the total of the letters in SHOFAR?

✍️ Our answer:

📯 The Silent Shofar · Stage 2 of 6

Counting the blasts

The shofar has three kinds of sound: tekiah, shevarim and teruah. In our puzzle: tekiah = 1 long blast, shevarim = 3 medium blasts, teruah = 9 short blasts. The shofar blower played: tekiah, shevarim, teruah, tekiah.

How many blasts were heard in the whole sequence?

✍️ Our answer:

📯 The Silent Shofar · Stage 3 of 6

The calendar

Rosh Hashanah falls on the 1st and 2nd of the month of Tishrei. Yom Kippur falls nine days after the first day of Rosh Hashanah.

On which date in Tishrei is Yom Kippur? (Write a number.)

✍️ Our answer:

📯 The Silent Shofar · Stage 4 of 6

Apple and honey

There are 5 people in the family, and each one dips 2 apple slices in honey. Every apple is cut into exactly 5 slices.

How many apples need cutting?

✍️ Our answer:

📯 The Silent Shofar · Stage 5 of 6

Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock

On the way to the last clue of “The Silent Shofar” you find another corridor of locks. Every 📯 is worth 2. Add two symbols.

📯 + 📯 = ?

Which number opens the lock?

✍️ Our answer:

📯 The Silent Shofar · Stage 6 of 6

The case

The case code is the answer from station 2 followed by the answer from station 3. For example, if the answers were 7 and 25, the code would be 725.

What is the code?

✍️ Our answer:

Facilitator guide: 📯 The Silent Shofar

What the room practices

A letter-number cipher, adding sounds, calendar counting and division.

The 5 stations (without the answers)

The engraved word: What is the total of the letters in SHOFAR?
Counting the blasts: How many blasts were heard in the whole sequence?
The calendar: On which date in Tishrei is Yom Kippur? (Write a number.)
Apple and honey: How many apples need cutting?
The case: What is the code?

Age and group size

Best with teams of 3–5 children. In a class or a big party, print a kit per team and run the room in parallel.

Giving hints in this room

Online the hints open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit in the facilitator table next to each answer. Give the first hint after a couple of minutes of silence, not at the first wrong guess.

Questions and answers

What age is “The Silent Shofar” for, and how long does it take?

It was written for kids 10–12, at medium difficulty, and usually takes 20 minutes. It has 5 story stations, and online you can choose between three difficulty levels that add more locks.

What do I need to run “The Silent Shofar”?

A printer and these props: A shofar or a picture of one; A case or box with a code lock; Printed station sheets; Apple and honey for the end. The printable kit includes a facilitator sheet with every answer and a card for each stage.

What if the players get stuck?

Every stage has graded hints. Online they open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit next to each answer on the facilitator sheet. The first hint never gives the answer away.

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