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| Photo by Mark Reden. |
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| Painting by Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert, 1927. |
My name is Gerson and I am 12 years old. My father is the cantor of our synagogue in New York City. He leads the singing of the Jewish prayers during the religious services. He has a booming voice, and people are enchanted by the quality of his voice when he sings the Hebrew chants.
The Jewish calendar is quite different than the calendar that most people follow. It begins thousands of years ago when God handed Moses the Ten Commandments. I learn a lot about Jewish history and traditions at my Hebrew school. I am preparing for my bar mitzvah at the age of 13. At that time, I will be considered a man.
I heard my mother tell my father that dinner was ready. My father was in his study, and I could hear him practicing on the shofar. The shofar is a very important part of this high holy holiday. The shofar, which is blown like a trumpet, comes from the horns of kosher grazing animals. The horns must not have any holes. They can't be painted in color, but they can be carved with an artistic design. The shofar is a musical instrument that has not changed in 5000 years. The sound of the shofar is supposed to call to mind the creation of the world as well as the start of the Jewish New Year. It is said to have been sounded during the greatest event in all of Jewish history, the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai. It was also blown when a war began or the coming of peace.
As we all sat down to dinner, my mother sliced the challah, which is a sweet golden eggy bread. My sister served us chopped liver, then came the chicken soup with a large matzoh ball (a dumpling). After the soup, we had the boiled kosher chicken along with mashed potatoes and carrots. Each glass was filled with clear, bubbly seltzer water, which came from a bluish tinted squirt bottle. There was no milk or butter on the table because kosher Jews are not allowed to mix meat and dairy products. My father and I wore skull caps (or yarmulkes) on our heads at all meals.
The time was now 6:30 and we left to go to the synagogue. My father asked me to carry the shofar, which was a great privilege. I cradled it in my arms, guarding it as if it was a valuable treasure. We all walked to the temple since our religion does not allow us to ride in any sort of vehicle on holidays. In fact, Jewish people are not allowed to work on any Jewish holiday.
About three blocks from the synagogue I stopped in front of our neighborhood toy store and peered into the window. I did not notice when two boys stood next to me. Without warning, one of the boys grabbed the shofar and began running. The other boy pushed me to the ground and took off as well. I was in shock.
I looked for my family, but by they were out of sight. I looked in the direction the two boys were running. I got up and began running after them. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and I watched them enter a very rundown old tenement. When I reached the entrance, I searched for them in the dark hallway, but saw nothing.
I looked up and saw a light turn on. I counted the stories, and saw that it came from a third floor apartment. Did I dare confront those two boys by myself? Should I call for the janitor and ask him to help me? Should I look for a cop? By this time I was in a panic and started to cry. My family would be wondering where I was. The start of the holiest day of the year was approaching, and worst of all, my father had no shofar to blow. I stood there shaking with fear when I felt a tap on my shoulder. As I spun around, there standing behind me, was a priest from the neighborhood Catholic church. He noticed how distraught I was and asked me what the problem was.
After telling him my story, we both entered the building and walked up the three flights of stairs. I stood behind the priest as he knocked on the door. A gruff and unfriendly voice asked who was knocking.
When the priest mentioned his name, the door opened immediately. Standing there was a large unshaven man. He smiled at the priest meekly and asked what he wanted. When the priest told him the story of the stolen shofar, the big man yelled out some angry words and the two boys came walking towards us. In one of the boy's hands was the shofar. My eyes searched the shofar for damages, but I saw none. My worried face relaxed, and as the priest handed me the shofar I took his hands and shook it gratefully.
He then said, ''I know how important this shofar is to your religion and I know that as your father blows this horn bringing in your new year, he will be praying for a better and more peaceful world."
I ran down the stairs and headed towards the temple. If I hurried, the shofar would be there in time to welcome the new year!
I share the letter here in case it will help others who may be considering turning their shofar back into a keren - an ordinary horn.You mentioned that you had a horn that is being refit with a mouthpiece. The Jewish tradition is that a shofar should not have a mouthpiece attached to it; that the blower’s lips should be in direct contact with the horn. One can imagine a variety of spiritual explanations for this. For example, one should have as authentic experience as one can of the shofar, and a mouth piece acts as an intermediary. When we can consider the symbolism of the ram (lamb) in both of our faiths’, we can understand the importance of hearing the voice of the ram (lamb) without an intermediary.
If you are considering a mouthpiece in order to make the horn easier to blow, I may be able to make your shofar easier to blow. Often, a simple modification of the blowhole will make a big difference. Similarly, I may be able to show you techniques that will make the shofar easier to sound.
Your skill and zeal for shofar blowing is amazing! It is a delight to unite with a Jewish brother who loves HaShem and desires to be His instrument!
Thank you for contacting me. There are hundreds of legends described in my book and blog -- see www.hearingshofar.com and www.HearingShofar.blogspot.com. Call me so we can discuss age of children and type of setting.Send my your suggestions about shofar and teaching children.
I like to teach children to blow shofar. Even young children can do this. I have cardboard tubes -- Shofarettes(tm) that make a great practice horn.
Last year I taught a young audience about blowing shofar when the moon is hidden, and how the noise helped give us strength when we lived without electricity. Comparing them, for example to firecrackers on secular new years, and the importance of seasons in the Jewish cosmos. It takes them back into the primitive world of our parents.
If you want to introduce an Akeidah theme, talk about how the Ram was created at twilight of eve of the first Shabbat.
There is much to learn from Gideon - do a search on that term in my book.
Discuss the laws of blowing shofar at times of crisis, and relate it to climate change, oil spills, and how it is important to sound the alarm.
R. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi tells how his young daughter asked, "Abba, when we are asleep, we can wake up. When we are awake, can we wake up even more?" Use shofar listening as a chance to introduce children to meditation -- what wakes up inside you when you hear?
If you want to stress Jews facing adversity, the Google "secret sound of shofar" and tell the story about how the Jews of Spain got to hear shofar in public dispite the Inquisition.
If you can get them out of shul, take them to a nursing home to sound shofar -- and teach bikur cholim - the mitzvah of visiting the sick.
Tiku va-chodesh shofar
bakesse
le-yom chageinu
Make a tekia on the new moon with the shofar
when it is hidden
on the path to the day of our chag [Sukkot]
“was quiet and seemed content to just listen, but after we read a story about a rabbi who blew the shofar on a ship that was heading for disaster, he slowly began to open up, Amazingly, he was on a ship being deployed to Korea during the Korean War on Rosh HaShanah, and landed in Korea on Yom Kippur... When I blew the shofar, I could see his face light up with joy. He seemed very happy and I thought I saw him start crying when we finished our service.... I believe I truly realized how meaningful our gesture of sounding the shofar was at that moment. Until then, I’m not sure I fully appreciated what we were doing and how important it was for these people.”When visiting a Holocaust survivor,
“It was great to see her face light up each time the kids sounded the shofar. She told us that the Auschwitz portion of the readings reminded her of her childhood…. She briefly recounted her youth while on the run [from the Nazis]. Before leaving she asked for the kids to blow another tekiah gedolah.”And another,
“I went to the same house that I went to last year, with a woman who was on oxygen and could not get around very well. She said that she couldn’t wait to see us again next year, and how much she enjoys our visit. I hope I get to visit her again.”
...The fundamental aspect of Rosh Hashanah is the idea of God's kingship. It is a day of coronation, and we are called upon to take our role in this coronation. The main theme is Kabbalat Ol Malchut Shamayim – accepting the kingship of Heaven, as heroically demonstrated by Avraham, who was prepared to follow the divine command [of the akeida] even though it contradicted his every emotion, every sensibility...From an essay by Rabbi Ari Kahn www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/48950996.html
God regarded Avraham's willingness to obey as equal to actual performance of the deed; He regarded the willingness to comply as fulfillment of the letter of His command.
...When Rosh Hashana falls on Shabbat and the Shofar is not sounded, we experience another intriguing repercussion of the akeida and of the sacrifice that was not made. The slaughter of Yitzchak was voided, yet God considered it as having been performed in full. Similarly, when we do not blow the Shofar, we are essentially performing an identical gesture and hoping that God accepts our lack of performance of the Mitzvah in a similar vein. This, too, is Kabbalat Ol Malchut Shamayim; in fact, it is an even more profound acceptance of God's rule. For when we blow the Shofar, we hear and accept God's Word, but when we desist from blowing the Shofar on Shabbat, we show concern for God's Shabbat, and we are effectively accepting not only the words of the Torah, but the words of the sages as well.
...Therefore, it is even more important when we don't blow the Shofar to concentrate and focus on how we accept God as King, how we adore and safeguard Shabbat, how we unswervingly accept the words of the Torah and the authority of the Rabbis. By not blowing the Shofar, we can bring about even greater Kabbalat Ol Malchut Shamayim.
An Israeli rabbi narrowly escaped arrest after being stopped by security officers at Munich airport for carrying a shofar. Airport officials pulled aside the man, in his late 50s, and asked him to explain the religious article while arriving on a flight from Tel-Aviv on Monday night. He was visiting his daughter who lives in Nuremberg and works as an Israeli emissary in the city.”He was in a bit of a panic,” said Gigi Mechlowitz, a fellow Jewish passenger from Manchester, who stopped to help.Most of the comments following this post continued along the lines of "What do you expect from Germans?"and sarcasm about airport security. But a comment by Velevel gives a different perspective:
“They told him to open his bag and loads of security guards came around. The rabbi asked me how to say shofar in German.”
Mr. Mechlowitz said: “Officers escorted the rabbi to a customs area suspicious the ram’s horn was a trophy from a protected animal.
“The rabbi told them in English ’sixty years ago you knew exactly what it was and we got liquidated because of religious items’.
“I thought he was going to be arrested,” added Mr Mechlowitz, who defused the situation by suggesting the customs officials Google the item.
After some investigations airport guards returned and asked the rabbi one final test to ensure the item was safe - a full blowing of the shofar.
Mr. Mecholowitz said: “He didn’t just give a quick toot, but a whole tekiah teruah thing. About 20 to 30 people, mainly airport staff and a few passengers, looked up in awe.
“It got a nice round of applause from everybody.”
Wow! What Hashgacha! [devine oversight] Someone needed to hear that Shofar blown. I’ll bet that one day we will hear the story about what that Shofar blast produced in the life of a Jew or a German.What a beautiful way of seeing the hand of God in everything.
