Shofar
date: label: Date made
content: before 1838
name: label: user
content: Sulzberger, Leopold
label: user
content: Cotton States Exposition
notes: label: Description
content: The shofar, one of the earliest known musical instruments, is usually made from a ram's horn. Used in biblical times to signal important events, it is also blown on High Holy Days (10 days in the fall of the year). It is sounded many times during the services of Rosh ha-Shanah (the Jewish New Year) and once to conclude Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).
label: Description
content: The blasts of the instrument are meant to wake slumbering souls to review their actions of the past year, to make amends, and to renew their devotion to work for the social and communal good in the coming year. This shofar is of a form typical of central European instruments, with a straightened shaft and flattened mouthpiece. It belonged to Curator Cyrus Adler's grandfather, Leopold Sulzberger, who was born in Germany. Sulzberger arrived in the United States in 1838, and died in 1881.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: Germany
topic: label: Subject
content: Judaism
label: Subject
content: Immigration
label: Subject
content: Expositions and Fairs
label: Subject
content: Family
label: related event
content: Cotton States and International Exposition
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Religion
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Grossman, Grace Cohen, with Richard Eighme Ahlborn. Judaica at the Smithsonian: Cultural Politics as Cultural Model
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of David Sulzberger, 1889
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.095142
label: accession number
content: 22131
label: catalog number
content: 95142
label: accession number
content: 25947
objectType: label: Object Name
content: shofar
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: horn, ram (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/2 in x 11 1/2 in x 1 in; 8.89 cm x 29.21 cm x 2.54 cm