no. 1630. JEWISH CEREMONIALS—ADLER AND CASANOWICOZ, 723 
contained in the tablet form part of the liturgy during the time from 
Passover to Pentecost. | 
This tablet is used in the synagogue for reckoning the period - 
between Passover and Pentecost. The tablet is in Hebrew. It con- 
tains the words: “ Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the 
universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and com- 
manded us to count the Omer.” ‘Then follows the count (in Hebrew), 
and below it the words: “ May the Lord restore the worship of the 
temple speedily in our days,” and Psalm Ixvu. The letters H, S, and 
D on the left, mean, respectively, Omer (written Homer by the 
Spanish Jews), week (Sabbath), and day. The figures on the right 
indicate that it is the forty-seventh day of Omer, i. e., six weeks and. 
five days. Measurements, height, 2 feet 6 inches; width, 2 feet. 
(Plate XCIT, Cat. No. 154404, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Mr. David Sulzberger. 
NEW YEAR (ROSH HA-SHANAH ) >; THE PENITENTIAL SEASON. 
98. Ram’s Horn (shofar).—In ancient times the horn or shofar 
was used, according to the Pentateuch, for the announcement of the 
New Moon and solemn festivals, for the proclamation of the year 
of release (Sabbatical year),? and above all for military purposes, 
like the modern bugle, to give the signal for going out to battle, for 
the announcement of a victory, and for a recall of the troops. It 
was also used as a musical instrument in religious processions.@ 
At present the shofar is especially employed during the penitential 
season, which begins with the Ist of the month Ellul (August- 
September) and culminates on the Day of Atonement (Yom kippur) 
on the 10th of Tishri (September-October). During the month of 
Ellul the shofar is sounded three times at the close of the morning 
service each day, with the exception of the Sabbaths, in some congre- 
gations and in others at the evening service. On the 1st of Tishri, 
the beginning of the civil year (Ztosh ha-shana), one of the most 
solemn of the Jewish holy days, and the “ memorial of blowing of 
trumpets,” ¢ thirty blasts, among the Sefardim seventy-two, are 
sounded on the shofar in the middle of the morning service, after the 
reading of the day’s lesson from the Torah, and before the “ addi- 
tional service” (musaf). On Atonement Day the shofar is sounded 
once, among the Sefardim four times, at the close of the concluding 
service (ne‘tdah), and on the seventh day of Tabernacles (oshanna 
Rabba) it is sounded at each of the seven circuits. The shofar is 
4 Numbers x, 10. Compare Psalms Ixxxi, 4. 
6 Leviticus xxv, 9. 
© Numbers x, 1-9. 
@TI Samuel vi, 15; I Chronicles xy, 28. Compare Psalms xeviii, 6; cl. 3. 
€ Leviticus xxxii, 24. Compare Numbers xxix, 1. 
