Shortly before Jews around the world celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on Friday night, Gal Gadot appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, bringing not one, but two shofars, the ram’s horn that is blown in synagogues in a holiday ritual.
Gadot went on the show to promote her latest movie, The Runner, on Amazon’s Prime Video, a thriller where she runs all over London at the behest of a sinister criminal who has kidnapped her son and who is blackmailing her. The movie, released on September 2, quickly shot to first place on Amazon’s rating charts.
While she spent much of the interview chatting with the host about the challenges of parenting, toward the end he wished her a happy holiday and asked about gefilte fish, which is eaten on Rosh Hashanah. Kimmel wondered whether it was like baccalà, a traditional Italian dish eaten on Christmas Eve, which he said no one in his family really liked, but which they ate anyway.
Gadot said, “I love gefilte fish, for the horseradish,” with which it is traditionally served. “I eat it just for the horseradish, but I like it.” She added that she and her family also eat apples and honey or honey cake.
Next, they spoke about the shofar, and Gadot had brought one for each of them, which she said she had gotten from her rabbi. Hers was relatively straight, and she managed to get some sound out of it, but the one she gave Kimmel was twisted, and she said it would be harder to play. But she said she thought he could handle it because, “You used to play the clarinet or the trumpet or something,” and he said he had played the clarinet. He tried and managed to elicit a passable sound from the instrument.
Gadot explains Jewish shofar tradition to Kimmel
Before they played, Gadot explained the tradition to Kimmel. “The idea is really nice because it’s for everybody and the mitzvah, the good deed, is to hear the shofar and it’s basically supposed to awaken the soul for a good year for everybody to come.”
“Oh, good. We could use a good year,” said Kimmel as he picked up the shofar. After he played, they sat and improvised together until they burst out laughing, and Kimmel joked, “We should start a band,” before wishing Gadot a happy new year.