Chaptzem Blog!      

LEVI MEISNER’S SHOFAR SHOP is really the corner of the living room of his third-floor apartment on 12th Avenue, and it is open for browsing for the Hebrew month of Elul. That month leads into Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which this year begins at sundown on Sept. 8. Mr. Meisner, 27, has a full-time office job, but every fall he sells about 100 shofars, the ram’s horns turned into musical instruments that are a signature of High Holy Day services. His customers, often rabbis, come through word of mouth and fliers posted on streets. Mr. Meisner’s horns, purchased from a dealer in Israel, are made under rabbinic supervision — hologram stickers affirm they are kosher — according to biblical and Talmudic law: softened by heating and partially straightened before a hole is drilled in the tip. They range in price from $30 to $300. On Wednesday, Mr. Meisner selected a huge spiral horn from dozens in a Dole banana box and blew a series of long and short blasts that sounded like an operatic ram stuck in a trap. “It’s not an impulse purchase,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/nyregion/15open.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion