Q. I was training in our large Beth Haknesseth to blow the shofar. Then someone apparently a Rabbi, who noticed the voices (open windows) came in from the street and told me that it is incorrect to learn how to blow the shofar in a shul. And I should do so from the Ezras Nashim. Is that correct?
A. Mekor Chaim (591), Moed Lechol Chai (11: 51) and others (See Nitei Gavriel 4: 12) indeed advice not to learn how to blow shofar in the shul itself.
However, Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a maintains that since one who is learning how to blow has to have at least in his mind at that time, the Halachos, traditions and likely intentions necessary for performing the mitzva correctly, it is permitted to do it in the shul itself.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit’a, and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.