A Rhapsody in Green

From The Jerusalem Post:

The shofar - a rhapsody in green

EDMON J. RODMAN / JTA

The shofar is the most eco-friendly way to reach Jews with a vital message.

Is green the theme of the shofar this High Holy Day season? In a year of sustainability and carbon footprints, high gas and hybrids, the shofar is the simplest, most eco-friendly method of reaching the Jewish community with a vital message. The shofar, if you pause to think about it, is a rhapsody in green. Lightweight and easily transportable, it sports no moving parts - the shofar blower, or ba'al tekiah's, own mouth becomes the mouthpiece. Yet it's dependable enough to deliver the complex musical message required to begin a new Jewish year. 

 

A totally natural product, its availability is a byproduct of an already ongoing ancient enterprise - sheep herding. Powered by one human, and empowered by a congregation, the shofar requires no batteries, power cord or transformer. When we hear it, we are the ones who become transformed. An instrument conceived thousands of years ago, in by today's standards a near noise-free environment, the shofar still has the power to hold our attention. In urban and suburban settings, it competes against pagers, jet noise, sirens and car alarms, holding its own without mike, amp or speakers. Yet sans headphones or ear buds, the shofar delivers a sound like no other, penetrating our kishkas and our consciousness. 

 

It's the great proclaimer, announcing in a low-energy way some high-energy concepts. In Israel, the shofar's call also was used to introduce the Torah concept of the jubilee year: Historically, on Yom Kippur, the shofar announced that the land was allowed to lay fallow while also proclaiming "liberty throughout the land" and the release of all servants. The jubilee in Hebrew, yovel, is derived from the Hebrew word for ram's horn - yobel. Yovel and the related concepts of shmitta, a Shabbat of rest and rejuvenation for the land every seven years, are land-use concepts practiced today through crop rotation and organic farming. Each year we are commanded to hear the sounds of the shofar - we cannot celebrate Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur without hearing them. But what is it that we are supposed to hear? 

 

The shofar, held high for us to hear and see that day, presents an under-heard and overlooked message: Jews, now and in the future, will always need to have a relationship with the natural world, with the world of animals and their environment. A relationship that will need to run far deeper than what "my daddy bought for two zuzzim," as the traditional Passover song Chad Gadya proclaims. When issues of treatment of livestock to be used for kosher slaughter come to light, the sound of the shofar can remind us that the horn that announces the times of our lives comes from something that also was alive - an animal that must be sustained with compassion, with humane treatment, fed even before we feed ourselves. We cannot beg the question of our treatment of animals by using an artificial shofar. Substitutes are not kosher - plastic and metal are not allowed. 

 

Also, shofars do not last forever. They crack, break and develop holes, rendering them ritually unusable. The replacements, like all shofars, can only be fashioned from a ram, antelope, gazelle or goat. A world where the environment is so polluted - where there is no clean water, no toxin-free feed, no land available - will be a world that will not hear the blast of the shofar. On that day, the day of the blast will be our "silent spring." In a midrashic moment we can imagine a Jewish traveler, a Rip ben Winkle who after a bit too much kiddush wine sleeps for 200 years and awakens in Elul, the month preceding the High Holy Days, only to find that the shofars are all made of carbon fiber - perfectly pitched with lustrous sheen - and practically play themselves. To what kind of world has our traveler awoken? 

 

Like our traveler, at some point, we, too, must awaken, or be awakened by the shofar's call. According to the Mishneh Torah, the shofar says, "Wake up from your sleep. You are asleep. Get up from your slumber." This year as you stand to hear the blasts, wake to a green meaning in the tones: Tekiah, the long blast: the wake-up call. Understand it to announce the stewardship we have been given over the earth and the responsibilities thereof. Shevarim, three short blasts: a warning that change is coming. The crack, crack, cracking of polar ice due to gobal warming. Teruah, nine quick notes like ticks of the clock: Reminding us that when it comes to the environment, the day is short and the task is great. 

 

Saadia Gaon gave us 10 things we should hear in the shofar's call. He tells us that "the sound of the shofar is reminiscent of the exhortations of the prophets whose voices rang out like a shofar in calling the people to do justice." This year, we can be the prophets of change, shaping in short bursts and long beautiful curves and spirals, our actions and intentions to green and repair our world. 

 

Edmon J. Rodman is a writer and toy designer whose most recent creation is Do-Re-Mi Musical Building Blocks.

More Gravestones

Zeugnisse jüdischer Vergangenheit in Thüringen

www.thueringen.de/imperia/md/content/lzt/1._einleitung.pdf

Wenn ein Jude ein Grab besucht, legt er einen Stein auf den Grabstein zur Erinnerung an die Zeit, in der das Volk Israel in der W�ste lebte.

Ein Widderhorn (Schofar) zeigt an, dass der hier Bestattete an den hohen Festtagen in der Synagoge den Schofar geblasen hat.
 
http://www.ks-kuen.de/Projekttage/Projekttage_02/Projekt_Judenfriedhof/Judenfriedhof.html

 

Älterer Grabstein mit Schofar

 Grabstein für Benno Nordheimer (1859-1928) mit Schofar

http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/memmelsdorf_friedhof.htm 

 

Grabstein mit den "segnenden Händen" der Kohanim und dem Schofar

 

Grab eines Cohen ("segnende Hände"), der an den Hohen Feiertagen auch Schofarbläser in der Synagoge war.

http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/kleinbardorf_friedhof.htm

 

Grabstein für Joel Hirsch Rothschild (1775-1868) mit zwei Schofar-Hörnern

http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/krautheim_friedhof.htm

   

Grabstein für den Lehrer Philipp Mandelbaum gest. 5. Adar Scheni 5676 = 10. März 1916 mit Schofar

http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/geroda_friedhof.htm

The following is from the Jewish Encyclopedia:

It was only outside Palestine that some Jews, adopting the custom of the Greeks and the Romans, began to use tombstones with inscriptions commemorating the status of the deceased. These epitaphs were written in Greek or Latin in the first centuries of the common era, and began with the name of the deceased or with the introductory phrase Ἐνθάδε καῖται (κεὶται) or "Hic j a c e t" (= "Here lies"), while eulogies recalling Biblical verses and idioms were used as final formulas, as, for instance, Isa. lvii. 2 or Ps. iv. 9. The stones were adorned with a variety of symbols in addition to the epitaphs themselves, the most common being a seven-branched candlestick (in allusion to Prov. xx. 27, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord"), a fruit from which sprang an ear of grain (probably an allusion to the resurrection of the dead), an oil-vessel, a palm-branch, or a curved horn representing the Shofar which will be blown by the Messiah to announce the resurrection of the dead. Except for the presence of these symbols, the Jewish tombstones of the first centuries of the common era could not be distinguished from those of the Christians.

Read more: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=261&letter=T#ixzz0gz5Nat1X

Casting of tombstone from Jewish cemetery in Barbados.

 

Grave Stones with Shofar

 

The German edition of Wikipedia says this is from:

Beschreibung	Essingen 016.jpg Deutsch: (Grabstein) mit Schofar im alten Judenfriedhof Essingen
Datum	28. August 2009(2009-08-28)
Quelle	Eigene Arbeit
Urheber	Dietrich Krieger
Genehmigung (Weiterverwendung)	Siehe unten

Kameraposition	49° 12' 13.02" N, 8° 6' 54.99" O

 And this one is from:

Beschreibung	Schofar auf einem Grabstein
Quelle	selbst fotografiert
Urheber bzw. Nutzungsrechtinhaber	StromBer
Datum	04.Juni 2007

A Physicist on Shofar

In my book, Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram's Horn, I relate shofar to the cosmology of the universe from both physical and spiritual points of view. In his essay, The Age of the Universe by Gerald Schroeder Ph.D., also offers thoughts on this theme, trying to reconcile the Biblical and scientific age of the universe.

"The question we're left with is, how long ago did the "beginning" occur? Was it, as the Bible might imply, 5758 years, or was it the 15 billions of years that's accepted by the scientific community? The first thing we have to understand is the origin of the Biblical calendar. The Jewish year, 5758 years, is figured by adding up the generations since Adam. Additionally, there are six days leading up to the creation to Adam. These six days are significant as well.

"Of course, what the question sould be is where we make the zero point. On Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, we blow the Shofar three times during the Musaf service. Immediately upon blowing of the Shofar, the following sentence is said: "Hayom Harat Olam - today is the birthday of the world."

"This verse might imply that Rosh Hashana commemorates the creation of the universe. But it doesn't. Rosh Hashana does commemorate a creation, but not the creation of the universe. We blow the Shofar three times to commemorate the last of the three creations that occurs in the Six Days of Genesis. First, there's a creation of the entire universe and the laws of nature. Then on Day Five, there's a creation that brings us the Nefesh, the soul of animal life. Finally, at the end of Day Six, there's a further creation that brings us the Neshama, the soul of human life. Rosh Hashana commemorates not the first or second of the creations, but the creation of the Neshama, the soul of human life. Rosh Hashana falls right here. Which means that we start counting our 5758 years from the creation of the soul of Adam."

The entire essay is worth reading. I found it in comment #150 at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/07/any_5_year_olds_want_to_explai.php#comment-1786529. 

I had not realized that the the word "creation" was used only 3 times in Genesis Chapter One. 

I am not clear to what he is referring when he says "we blow the shofar three times." Is he referring to:

• Malchuyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot,
• Tekiah, Shevarim, Teruah, or 
• The shofar blast patterns of Tekiah SHevarim-teRuah Tekiah (TaSHRaT), Tekiah Shevarim Tekiah (TaSHaT), and Tekiah teRuah Tekiah (TaRaT).

Still, the teaching is very interesting.

After Rosh Hashanah

The following excerpt from The Autobiography of God: A Novel by Julius Lester, describes tensions I often feel living in two worlds - the Jewish and the secular. This passage tells about a woman from an observant background entering a secular university:

"The learning began at once. She sat in her first class on returning to school after Rosh Hashanah. Before the professor came in, she listened to students talking about their roommates and what classes and professors they had, and the football game that past Saturday. Something was wrong and she did not know what until she realized that the sound of the shofar was not still beating at their souls

TERUAH

TATTATTATTATTATTATTATTATTAT

"They didn't know it was now 5731. For them, it was still 1971. For her, it would never be entirely. For them time was only 1,971 years old. They did not know how young they were to her."

Be Terrified - And Blow

"I am reminded of the story about the synagogue in a Polish town. It was getting close to Rosh Hashanah, the new year. On each of the two days of Rosh Hashanah, the shofar - the ram’s horn – is blown one hundred times throughout the service. In this particular town, the man who had always blown the shofar died suddenly. What were they going to do? Finally, someone remembered there was a peasant who used to blow the shofar. The rabbi sent for him. The peasant came to the synagogue and after listening to the rabbi express the community’s need for a shofar blower, the peasant shook his head. 'Rabbi, I’m sorry but I can’t blow the shofar.' 'Why not?' the rabbi wanted to know. 'I’m terrified!' the peasant admitted. The rabbi thought for a moment, then said, 'So be terrified, and blow.'"

This gem comes from a Speech at a University of Massachusetts Perspectives in Children's Literature Conference, March 31, 2007, by Julius Lester, ©2007 by Julius Lester

R. Shraga Feivel on Shofar

R. Shraga Feivel (1886-7 September 1948) was an early leader of American Orthodoxy.  The blog, Heichal HaNegina, features two of his teachings that relate to shofar.

The first is excerpted from an essay by Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen, titled “Enlightenment Through Music,”

"He [Reb Shraga Feivel] taught his students to appreciate the beauty in the Divine creation, yet no beauty so stirred his soul as that of music. He would quote the Baal HaTanya, a noted Chassidic sage, that "anyone who lacks appreciation of music also lacks an understanding of Chassidus."...

"On Rosh Hashana, we yearn for the day when a corrupt and oppressive world will seek spiritual enlightenment through sacred music and song. This yearning is expressed in the words of Psalm 47, which many communities chant before the blowing of the shofar. The psalm opens with the following universal call: "Join hands, all you peoples - shout to the Just One with the voice of joyous song." In the middle of the psalm, the author calls out again to the peoples and proclaims: "Make music for the Just One, make music; make music for our Sovereign, make music. For the Just One is Sovereign over all the earth; make music, O enlightened one!" (Psalm 47:7,8)

"Who is the "enlightened one" that is specifically being addressed at the conclusion of the above verse? The classical biblical commentator, known as "the Radak," answers: "Every enlightened person, whether among the People of Israel or among the nations of the world should make music for the Blessed G-d." And he adds: "For the ability to compose songs and melodies is found only among the enlightened ones." The Radak is revealing to us the following insight: Although music has the power to increase enlightenment, the ability to compose music is given to those who are in a certain way already "enlightened." They have a special Divine understanding in their souls which enables them to compose music which will increase and deepen the Divine understanding in the souls of all human beings."

The second, from R. Yonasan [Jonathan] Rosenblum's book, Reb Shraga Feivel, contains the following:

"He [Reb Shraga Feivel] used to explain that each of the instruments mentioned in the final psalm -- shofar, psalter, harp, timbrel, stringed instruments, flute, loud-sounding cymbals, and stirring cymbals -- arouses a different emotional response: This one arouses tears, another happiness, and yet another encourages deep reflection. Taken as a whole, the message is that one must serve Hashem with every emotion."


Thank you to Joy Krauthammer for bringing these teachings to my attention.

Details: Mouth of Shofarot

The ends of a shofar are places for aesthetic ornamentation, especially the wide end, also known as the "mouth" or "bell" end. Here are a few examples:

Above:  Judaica by Daniel

Above: Shofar of Dr. Illés Adler, chief rabbi of the Budapest, Rumbach Street Conservative (status quo) Synagogue (1868-1924). Hungary, beginning of 20th Century, 30 cm length. It was sold at auction in 2005 for 22,000 Hungarian HUF (about $115).

Sounding of the Shofar or Trumpet?

This essay is by my fellow shofar scholar, Arthur L. Finkle. His articles appear at http://hearingshofar.com/ArthurFinke.htm and elsewhere on the internet.

If we believe archeological findings, the frieze on the Arch of Titus in Rome, depicts the captured hatzotzerot (trumpets) from the Jewish Second Temple being borne in triumph among the other sacred objects. Further, we see the symbol of the Shofar as a symbol of Judaism in the archeological record (Capernaum synagogue - 1st century CE; Ephesus 2-3rd centuries; Rome – 2-5th centuries; etc.) in the early centuries of the Common Era.

Ambiguity of Words
There are, nevertheless, several ambiguities in whether the written words a trumpet and a Shofar. A case in point are the Hebrew words “Keren” (Horn) and Jubal (Jubilee)

The word ‘Shofar’ comes from an old Semitic root (cf. Akkadian ‘sapparum' meaning wild sheep or goat). At first, as has been indicated, the word ‘karen’ does not seem to have been used by itself. Later through the explanation of the Mishnah c 200 CE), a horn could become a Shofar if it were constructed according to Mishnaic and later Talmudic direction.

The hatzotzerot, in contrast, seem to have been interchanged with the Shofar. In Tractate Rosh HsShanah, it termed when 'duty days' were taken in turns, the Shofar and trumpets played the same calls.

Confusion by Performing the Same or Similar Tasks
The Babylonian Talmud Eruvin 54 provides a description of the priests lowering trumpets during pauses in the Levitical singing n the Second Temple, signaling to worshippers to prostrate themselves.

Further there is a curious reference in I Chron. 5:13 instructing the trumpeters and singers being 'as one, to make one sound.’ It bespeaks the possibility that  the trumpets played a sustained note over which the singers chanted as opposed to the trumpets and singers having separate parts. Moreover, one of the common words for 'fanfare' is “ter'uah” meaning 'a shout'. Accordingly, this fanfare could be described to have been the imitation of a shout. Sometimes this ambiguity between a vocal or instrumental meaning  is difficult. A case in point is the famous passage in the Vulgate edition (Official early church version of the Holy Scriptures) of Joshua 5 , ‘where the priests were to blow the Shofars, while the peoples shouted: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound (kol) of the Shofar the peoples shouted with a great shout (teru'ah) so that the wall fell down flat.’ The Vulgate cannot be blamed for glossing because, by this time, there was a lack of distinction between the Shofar and trumpet.

History of the Uses of the Trumpet and Shofar Reverse Roles
The marshalling signals are described in Numbers 10, though in war the Shofar seems to have been the signaling instrument par excellence. All these functions, and their calls, seem later to have been appropriated by the Shofars. The encyclopedic Psalm 150, for example, makes no mention of the trumpet. Only lately (in the last century or so B.C.) do trumpets appear to come back into their former favor; but now, due to Greco-Roman influence, their use is primarily military. Indeed the roles of the two instruments seem to have become reversed; the Talmud says 'what was called a trumpet has become a Shofar, and what was called a Shofar has become a trumpet' (Bab. Talmud Shabbat 36a; also Sukkoth 34a; and Rosh HaShanah 36a; Targum version of Hosea 5:8). A passage in the Mishnah (Gittin 3:6) indicates much the same thing, in saying that a 'trumpet' can be made of animal horn. So the Shofar eventually took on the ceremonial function originally performed by the trumpet.

This confusion of usage makes the task of reconstructing the trumpet and Shofar calls simpler rather than the reverse, for the instruments and their traditional signals may be treated summarily. Since the Shofar calls themselves are the subject of some differences in our own times and were disputed in Talmudic times.

The Shofar had specifications according to the Mishnah. For example, it could not have holes; it could be valid if there was a split in the horn. The horn should be from a preferably kosher animal but never a cow (reminding one of the worship of the Golden Calf during Moses’ journey to receive the Ten Commandments for the first time.) It should be sounded from the small end of the horn. Horns could not be placed inside other horns; and there were restrictions as to decorations on the Shofar itself. (See Rosh HaShanah Mishnah and Talmud) Further it is not clear whether the Shofar was used originally for ritual (as Leviticus 25 suggests) or for war purposes (Joshua 6). We do know, however, that Tractate Shabbat 35b provides that the Shofar sounded six times to prepare for the Sabbath. Eventually, after the destruction of the second Temple, the Shofar was identified with Rosh HaShanah (the beginning of the religious year, sometimes known as Yom Teruah (Day of the blast) or Chag HaShoforot (the Shofar festival).

In addition, no minor authority, Cyrus Adler, indicated that cornet (a type of trumpet) and Shofar were used interchangeably.

Further Confusion
In “Sound The Shofar - "Ba-Kesse" Psalm 81:4,” Solomon B. Freehof follows the strange history of translation. The preponderance of traditional (Jewish) commentators agree on one translation of it and all the non-traditional commentators (non-Jewish) unanimously agree on another. One partial exception to this strange lineup is Rashi (11th century commentator), who translates "Ba-Kesse" here and in Proverbs 7:20 as "the special day," or "the appointed day." But he, too, in his commentary to Rosh HaShonah 8a-b, agrees with all the traditional commentators, beginning with the Talmud and the Midrash, Leviticus Rabba 29:6, taking the word to be a synonym of the word "Chodesh" in the first part of the sentence, meaning: The New Moon.

However, the non-traditional commentators of the 19th century, Wellhausen in Proverbs, Duhm in Psalms, and Briggs and Toy in the International Critical Commentary, and our modern English translation, all agree to translate the word "Kesse" not as "New Moon" but as Full Moon.

Accordingly, the evidence seems to be on the side of the tradition commentators who legitimized the appearance of the New Moon in the Seventh month as the Rosh HaShanah (Beginning of the Religious New Year)

References
Cyrus Adler, The Shofar - It's Use and Origin
Published in 1893, Government Printing Office (Washington) , pp
287-311.

Solomon B. Freehof, “Sound the Shofar: ‘Ba-Kesse’ Psalm 81:4, The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 3 (Jan., 1974), pp. 225-228, University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454132 Accessed: 04/01/2010 20:37

Sidney B. Hoenig, “Origins of the Rosh Hashanah Liturgy.”The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 57, The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly Review (1967), pp. 312-331, University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1453499 Accessed: 04/01/2010

David Wulstan, “The Sounding of the Shofar,” The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 26 (May, 1973), pp. 29-46, London: Galpin Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/841111