Edited by Filip Vukosavović (Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, 2011), 72 pp., $23 (paperback)
The subtitle of this exhibit catalog from the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem calls the shofar “a witness to history,” and indeed it has been. The shofar has been present at many of the most important events throughout the history of the Jewish people, and as noted by editor (and exhibit curator) Filip Vukosavović, unlike the Star of David or even the menorah, “the shofar is one of the oldest and most recognizable symbols of Judaism … in continual use in a wide variety of circumstances for more than 3,000 years.” The blowing of the shofar (a simple wind instrument made from the horn of certain kosher animals, but not deer or cattle) has accompanied both triumph and tragedy—as military fanfare (most famously at the Battle of Jericho described in Joshua 6), as sacred herald of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the onset of the Sabbath, and to proclaim herem (expulsion) against a member of the Jewish community. Sound the Shofar includes stories of shofars that were used in the concentration camps and the one that Rabbi Shlomo Goren sounded at the Western Wall the day in 1967 when Israeli troops took the Old City during the Six-Day War, both of which serve to highlight the emotional connection between the Jewish people and this ancient instrument.
The catalog is a fairly quick but enjoyable read, with all text and the captions for the many beautiful color images provided in both English and Hebrew. It begins with a helpful discussion of the animals whose horns are suitable for shofar production (bovids such as sheep, goats, antelopes and gazelle), as well as the basic anatomy of the horns themselves. Unfortunately, the details of the actual method for making an animal horn into a shofar is a closely kept secret passed down within families of shofar makers, so only the most basic steps can be explained in the catalog. The bulk of the volume is devoted to the shofar and its depiction throughout history; the earliest example may be a Persian-period Yehud coin from the fourth century B.C.E. that bears the image of a horn-shaped object. Others include Byzantine mosaics and inscriptions, medieval illuminated manuscripts, tombstones and jewelry, as well as several examples of modern stamps and stationery from Israel. More than a dozen shofars are pictured from the past few centuries, displaying an impressive variety of size, shape, decoration and finish—from large, curved rams’ horns to long, straight oryx horns, some still naturally rough, others polished to a glass-like smoothness, still others with gold and silver ornamentation, and some inscribed with Biblical references to the shofar. All in all, Sound the Shofar is an excellent introduction to, and exploration of, a sometimes-underappreciated Jewish icon.
Sound the Shofar: A Witness to History
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