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Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayyim 586:19 says:

הִרְחִיק אֶת הַשּׁוֹפָר וְנָפַח בּוֹ וְתָקַע בּוֹ, פָּסוּל.

If he distanced the shofar from him and breathed into it and blew, it is invalid.

I'm not sure if this implies that one's mouth must always be on the shofar itself, or this deals with a specific case where one blows into the shofar from a distance, i.e. there is space (air) between one's mouth and the shofar.

Let's say one is uncomfortable with the shofar aperture or the hardness of the shofar resting on his lip. He wants to insert a straw or a rubber tube into the narrow opening of the shofar and blow into the straw or tube. Can he do this, halachically?

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The answer to your question is 3 seifim earlier (586:16):

ציפהו זהב במקום הנחת פה, פסול.‏

The Aruch Hashulchan (586:28) writes:

ובמקום הנחת פיו – פסול משום חציצה, שהזהב מפסיק בין פיו לשופר.‏

The sound must be created by the contact of the lips on the shofar, additionally it may not be altered in any way by a foreign body.

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  • Actually the halacha that you quoted is a רמב"ן, his source is the hahacha that I quoted. See אבני נזר in letter printed in beginning of ספר חלקת יואב link who explains that although we usually apply the principle of כל לנאותו אינו חוצץ that would not apply in the case of shofar since we need a positive "נגיעה" on the shofar, not just a lack of any חציצה, hence the halacha of the Ramban that even a space of nothing is problematic.
    – BenNathan
    Aug 20, 2015 at 19:53
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