Shofar of the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch

Shofar of the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch

Shofar of Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch.

Large, narrow, dark-colored shofar. The shofar's wide opening is carved with a serrated pattern.

Enclosed is a letter of authenticity (handwritten note in English), signed in Hebrew by Rebbetzin Chana Gurary (1899-1991), eldest daughter of the Rebbe Rayatz: "I hereby gift… the black Shofar my father used while in America in 1929-1930. Rabbi Dovid Shifrin gave it to him upon his arrival to New York in Elul. He gave it to me as a gift upon his return to Europe in 1930. It arrived in one of the shipments at the end of World War II". The letter is dated March 4, 1990.

The custom of Chabad rebbes was to blow the shofar themselves for the community to thereby fulfill their obligation. The Rebbe Rayatz recounts how three different shofars were set on the table of his father, the Rebbe Rashab, before and after the blowing of the shofar. "Every Rosh Hashanah, my father the Rebbe would line up the shofars before the blowing. On the reading table were set three shofars. One was very long; this was the shofar of the Maharal of Prague…" [Sefer HaSichot, Hebrew translation, p. 14].

The Lubavitcher Rebbe was known to have possessed three different shofars: one light-colored one from his grandfather the Tzemach Tzedek, one black one from his father R. Levi Yitzchak attributed to the Rebbe Maharash, and one from his father-in-law the Rebbe Rayatz.

The visit of the Rebbe Rayatz to the United States

Some two years after his release from the Soviet prison and settling in Riga, the Rebbe Rayatz traveled to the United States. The purpose of the visit, which lasted for close to a year (Elul 1929-Tamuz 1930), was to muster public support for Russian Jews and to encourage and strengthen American Jewry. Wherever he went, the Rayatz campaigned to strengthen and fortify Torah observance, and promote Shabbat observance, laying tefillin and establishing Torah and Chassidut classes. He founded Agudas Chassidei Chabad and women's societies to promote family purity. On Shabbat, he would hold gatherings and deliver Chassidic teachings, and on weekdays, he would convene various meetings and receive people in private audiences. Towards the end of the trip, the Rayatz met with Herbert Hoover, president of the United States, in the White House, and thanked the president for the freedom of religion given to American Jewry and for the help his government provides to Jews throughout the world. The Rayatz ended his visit on Thursday, 21 Tammuz, 1930. He set sail from the port of New York on SS Bremen, and after spending several weeks in the Marienbad health spa, he returned in the middle of Elul 1930 to his home in Riga.

The Chassid R. David Shifrin (d. 1943) was one of the first Chassidim of the Rebbe in the United States, a founder of Agudas Chassidei Chabad in the United States in 1924, and secretary of the Agudah. He also kept the company of the Rebbe Maharash.

Length of shofar: 33 cm. Good condition. Cracks and damage.

Included is a wooden box that may have also been used by the rebbe or his family (the box was given along with the shofar, but it is not mentioned in the letter of authenticity).