A writer for the Washington Post, Gene Weingarten, decided to ask the violin virtuoso Joshua Bell to play a piece of music at a Washington, DC, subway station at the morning rush hour, and see if anyone noticed. Bell had already been acclaimed as a musical genius at a young age. The violin he would play at the subway was crafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari – bought by Bell for $3.5 million – a Stradivarius specimen that was one of the most exquisite and expensive instruments in the world. Weingarten describes how Joshua Bell, dressed in a very nondescript, casual manner, sets himself up at the Metro stop, takes out his Stradivarius violin, and begins to play. What happens? The crowd never gathers. Almost everyone rushes by, utterly oblivious.

If I stopped at the Washington Metro and blew my shofar, on the other hand, people would stop. And then some might say, “He’s the Joshua Bell of the shofar.”