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October 03, 1986 - Image 64

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1986-10-03

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

len

0111

Birmingham podiatrist Marc Lindy
looks at his hobby of
shofar-making as a mitzvah

VICTORIA BELYEU DIAZ

Special to The Jewish News

arc Lindy's hobby involves
"I started doing this about three
a lot of pushing and
months ago," says Lindy, whose
pulling and . gouging and
high-tech office surroundings and
scraping and cutting and
trendy, shirt-and-sweater garb seem
twisting and just plain
in striking contrast to this ancient
working hard. But he's not
craft to which he's become so de-
complaining. In fact, he loves it.
voted. Some of my father's friends
After a day at his 'office in
happened to mention to him one day
Southfield, the 33-year-old podiatrist
that their congregation had no
goes home to wife Nanette, and
shofar."
daughter, Hannah, 3, and unwinds
Lindy's father took that as a cue
by getting 'out the picks, the chisels,
to reassure the gentlemen that his
the saws, the washtubs, and what-
son, who had sounded the shofar at
ever else is necessary to craft the
Temple Israel for many years, could,
horns of African antelope into
with little trouble, process one of the
shofars, the instruments now
instruments for the congregation.
sounded during the High Holidays,
"So, what could I do? I made
which are patterned after the ram's
one," says Lindy, adding that, at the
horn trumpets of the ancient He-
time, he had not the slightest idea
brews.
where to begin.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
64 Friday, October 3, 1986

11(1

First, there was a decision to
make about the type of horn best-
suited for the situation. Lindy, after
some reading on the subject, and
examination of the shofars at Tem-
ple Israel, chose to Work with the
spirally-curved horn of an African
antelope, the Kudu. Only the horns
of sheep, goats, antelope and gazelles
can be used as shofars. Not only
would the horn be less complicated
to work with than the more
commonly-used ram's horn, but
Lindy also preferred the sound and
the more dramatic look of the larger
shofar.
Then, after conferring with a
couple of local taxidermists, and
examining some outdoor magazines,
Lindy decided to place a call to Mack

the Skin Man in Dousman, Wis.,
who seemed to be one of the leading
taxidermists in the United States.
Though Mack was no expert on
shofars (he didn't know what they
were), he did have exactly what
Lindy was looking for: a pair of Afri-
can kudu horns about three-feet
long.
Within 48 hours after Lindy had
placed his order via that telephone
conversation, he had the raw mate-
rials in hand. The coffee-colored
kudu horns were in good shape and,
at $150 per pair, reasonably-priced,
thought Lindy. He couldn't com-
plain, even though, with part of the
animal's skin still attached to the
recently-cut horns, the large UPS
parcel was more than a little

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