Escape room: The Silent Shofar
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.
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.
5 story stations · online you can pick a level that adds more locks.
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 for “The Silent Shofar”
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.
📯 The Silent Shofar
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.
0 of 6 stages solved
Stage 1: The engraved word
1/6The 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.
Facilitator guide: 📯 The Silent Shofar
What the room practises
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?
Preparing and printing
On the easy level the printed kit has 7 pages: a facilitator sheet with the opening story, the setup list and every answer, plus an A4 card for each of the 6 stages. Besides printing, get ready: a shofar or a picture of one and apple and honey for the end.
Most important: If you have a shofar, blow the sequence from station 2 out loud.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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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