Sound the Shofar Exhibition – Bible Lands Museum

The popular Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has a new exhibition running – Sound of the Shofar.

About the Shofar

The Shofar (Ram’s Horn) is one of the most dramatic, inspiring and poignant of Jewish religious items in the annual cycle. It’s origins go back to the Binding of Isaac by Abraham in Genesis. Isaac is spared by Heavenly intervention and a ram is offered instead. From this moment on the Shofar has been associated with seeking Divine mercy. The Shofar is blown on Rosh HaShana (the New Year and beginning of the High Holidays – when the world and individuals are judged in the Divine court) and again at the conclusion of the holiest of days – Yom Kippur.

In the Bible we are instructed to blow the shofar in the Temple and in times of national distress and triumph.

Over the generations each community has blown the shofar on festivals and on other occasions. When the Old City of Jerusalem was reunited and  The Kotel (Western Wall) returned to Israel in the Six Day War of 1967 the shofar was famously blown by military Chief Rabbi Goren.

Sound the Shofar Exhibition

The Sound the Shofar Exhibition traces the shofar throughout history and the Jewish world. There are a series of Shofars (Shofarot in Hebrew) on display – each with its own story. Also on display is the famous shofar blown by Rabbi Goren in 1967.

Sound the Shofar Exhibition – Details

The Sound the Shofar Exhibition is at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem’s Givat Ram area (directly opposite the Israel Museum). There are daily guided tours of the exhibition:

  • English 10:30, Hebrew 11:00.
  • Additional tours on Wednesdays: English 17:30, Hebrew 18:00.

The Sound of the Shofar Exhibition is due to run until 29 February 2012.

The Bible Lands Museum – general info

The Bible Lands Museum is an archaeological museum in Jerusalem. Established in 1992, it explores the culture and lifestyle of the people mentioned in the Bible, among them ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, Arameans, Hittites, Elamites, Phoenicians and Persians. The museum aims to put these groups of people covered into historical context and attempts to connect the dots between archaeological finds to events mentioned in the Bible

This sizable museum is located in the neighborhood of Givet Ram, between the Israel Museum, the National Campus for the Archaeology in Israel, and the Bloomfield Science Museum.

The main gallery displays various artifacts that range from ancient documents to idols and statues to weapons. It also displays the scale models of Jerusalem’s ancient sites and others (such as pyramids at Giza).

The museum holds some of the most unique, interesting and exquisite items. Among them include the richly decorated sarcophagi and blue-glazed jewelry from the Egyptian collection; Babylonian “magical books” written in a spiral direction (in Syrian and Aramaic) designed to “capture” demonic spirits; Neolithic-era Syrian fertility figures; and a vessel with a carved lettering which enabled historians to decipher cuneiform scripts

See also the Bible Lands Museum Website