28S TIIK SHOl'AK^ Ani.KK\ 



TluMO sooins t«> l»o lit tit' dtmbt that it has bciMi (•(Mitinnouslv nso«l in 

 the Mosaic srivict* \\om tho time it was established until wow. (Hip- 

 kins, Xll ) 



The shape «»l" the iiistvumeni \aries eoiisi{leial)]y. Tlie niedern ex- 

 amples are usually tlat (PI. xt.vi. No. 1). '\\\o Italian specimens of the 

 se\enteontli eentury jiiest'vve the form of the itatnial horn; the liist of 

 these is in possession t)f the l\ev. l>r. S. Moiais, of Philadelphia; it 

 was proenred lor him iVom \"enire by Dr. Isaiah TiU/zatto, of I'adua. 

 The sei'oiul Italian specimen i^IM. xi.vi. No. -) was collected by Or. 11. 

 Fiiedenwald. and belonus to the National Museum collections. The 

 sanu' shape is t>\hibiied in a beautiful example tiiiurcd by llipkins 

 (Tl. xi-Vii, ^«o. 1^, ]u-eser\ed in the (ifcat Synaii'outus Aldjiate, London. 

 A number of excellent specimens \\(M'e brouuht touether at the Anulo- 

 .lewisb Historical Exhibition, held in London in 1SS7. They are ligured 

 in the ai'companyinji' ]>lates and brielly described in tlu' list of illustra- 

 tions. Occasionally the instruments contain Hebrew inscriptions. Such 

 an on(\ found near Dessau, was exhibited before the Berliner (lesellscliat't 

 fiir .Vnthropoloiiie, Ethnoloiiie und rr^eschiclite, at the nieetini;- of 

 March L'O, ISSO, and formed the subject of a valuable paper by T. (L 

 \Vet/.stein(]>p. ().i-73. See Tl. XLVii, No. 3^. A similarly t-arved and in- 

 scribed instrunuMit is in the ])ossession of a lady in New York (PI. xi.ix. 

 No. 1). The inscriptuni reads: "Happy art* the i)eoi)lc who know the 

 sound (of the shofar)," and on the reverse, '•In the liiiht of Thy coun- 

 tenance shall they walk." The inscription on the Dessau instrument 

 consists of Isaiah xxvii, l.> (quoted below), and the two blessin,i»'s 

 recited by the ])erson who blows the instrument: •• PlcsstMl ;irt Thou, 

 O Lord, our (iod, Kinji- ol tlu' Universe, who has sauctiiicd us with 

 His eommandments and comnmuded us to hear the sound of the 

 shofar;*' "Blessed art Thou, () Lord, our (lod, Iviuji' of the Iniverse, 

 who has caused us to li\e, ami preserved us, and cau.s«Ml us to reach 

 tills time." (Wetzstein, p. (>.").) 



The shofar was not the only natural horn used by the Israelites as a 

 nuisical instrunuMit, but lu) copies or representations of the other instru- 

 nuMits liaM' come down to us. 



Some commentators are of theopinion that the instrument known in 

 the P.ible by the geiu'ric name of ^ocw, was also made of ram's horn, 

 and was very uearly identical with the. s7<()/Wr, the only difterence beiiiij 

 that the latter Avas more cur\ed than the former. (I'hijiel., p. 24.) 



:MKrii()i) OF SOI ^;l)l^;u. 



The method of soundiuii' the shofar has been handed down by tradi- 

 tion, thoujihit varies slij;htly in ditferent <'ommuiiities. Three sounds 

 are employed: the shortest, or /cy/vf, a broken or interrupted sound, 



