14000 year old horn tools found

I am unaware of any shofar that is more than a few hundred years old. It is my understanding that the proteins in horn decay rapidly, unlike bones that are mineralized.

But now I learn about a horn tool, a sickle, that is "at least 14,000 years old," according to archaeologist Phillip Edwards. It was part of a kit of neolithic tools found in an area called Wadi Hammeh 27, near Pella in the East Jordan Valley, an area occupied by an ancient people were known as Natufians.

The sickle in the toolkit was probably used for harvesting wild grains. It was made of two pieces of animal horn and 10 small stone blades, which had been placed in two rows.

If a horn tool can exist for this long, why not a horn musical instrument?

Dr Edwards’ finds at Wadi Hammeh 27 are outlined in the February 2008 issue of the journal Antiquity.





Based on reports at http://sue-cartledge.suite101.com/neolithic-toolkit-found-in-jordan-a44691#ixzz1nMgotxL0 and http://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/archive/2007/mediarelease_2007-85.php, accessed 2012-Feb-24

Lift a Banner, Blow Shofar

Some Christian congregations have embraced the use of banners and flags as part of their worship services. Many of the same groups also are enthralled by shofar. And in some cases, they use them together.

This makes sense, as flags and blasts of a horn are each used as signals. it is written:

Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the shofar among the nations!
Jeremiah 51:27
Sound the shofar throughout the land!… Raise the banner to go to Zion! Jeremiah 4:5-6 

The same concept is express in the Amidah prayer:

“Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and gather us together from the four corners of the earth.”

I don't expect Jews to start waving banners during shofar sounding on Rosh Hashanah. Such a visual display could distract from the focus on hearing shofar. Yet on other shofar blowing occasions -- why not!

Photo from: www.worshipbanners.org/shofar_horns.php, 2012-Feb-24

“Once upon a time, there was a Holocaust… and some people lived happily ever after.”

"When all else fails and words lose their meaning, when the human condition renders us not just speechless, but utterly mute, even beyond tears, we can only turn to the primordial scream of the ram’s horn to say the unsayable."

This image is by Stan Lebovic from his website http://blackisacolor.com/, a collection of illustrations and meditations on the Holocaust. We see the empty cans of poison gas on the floor, as the souls of the murdered - a rib cage of asphyxiation - burst the sides of a shofar that screams to Heaven through the "shower" head through which the poison was administered.

The artist explains:

As the son of a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, I grew up hearing the first-hand testimony of a witness to humanity’s darkest moment. Dr. Mengele supplanted Dr. Suess, and the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ did a lot more than huff and puff. Sleeping with the lights on might keep the Boogie Monster at bay, but nothing could beat back the horror of being tucked under the covers by an arm branded with death camp numbers.

As my father left my bedside and headed out the door, he would pause and turn back toward me. “Did you say your prayers?” he would invariably ask.

“Did I what?!”

How can you bequeath me such an encounter with the Devil, and expect me to believe in a loving God? Do you really believe in ‘a happy ending’?

Yet somehow, he did. He and countless other survivors experienced hell on earth, and still found the strength to believe.

What happens when a generation grows up in comfort on the heels of so much horror? How do I make peace between my tranquil existence and my father’s brutal past? What's more, I am raised to believe in the very God responsible for the atrocities of my father’s generation!

It is this struggle to have faith in the midst of madness, and the unique Jewish response to it, that is the subject of Black is a Color, a series of artwork and narratives that express how traditional Jews found – and still find – hope and faith in the midst of the deepest darkness. It is an illumination of man’s post-Holocaust spiritual stature; a search for the happy ending.

His book, Black is a Color, is available online.

Image reproduced by permission of artist.

Shofar Class: Cactus Kallah, Tucsun, March 21 - 25

www.cactuskallah.org

Cactus Kallah is an amazing tribal gathering where you can be with community; re-enter into Judaism; experience Jewish renewal; learn with outstanding teachers; davven (pray); combine spirituality and social action; and more.

Michael Chusid will be teaching this class over the course of three days:

The Still Small Voice of Shofar
Shofar echos throughout time -- from the breath of Creation to trumpeting Messiah. Holy texts describe our ancestors using shofarot to communicate with God, warriors, and laborers; hold oil for anointing and wine for drinking; and mark fasts and seasons of joy. Calling in both masculine and feminine voices, shofar unifies the Four Worlds. We will reclaim shofar as a technology for prayer, meditation, tikkun olam, music, and ritual. You will craft a shofar (fee for materials) and learn to sound it, deepen your hearing, and prepare to serve the community as a master blaster.

Class: A mixed group of beginner, intermediate, and advanced will work, including those new to Jewish Renewal. No prior shofar experience required.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi calls Chusid, “The mouthpiece of the shofar.” The Los Angeles Times claims, “Chusid has the skill, control and soul of an artist.” He is author of Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram’s Horn. Michael Chusid is ba’al tekiah (master blaster) at Makom Ohr Shalom, an Aleph-affiliated congregation in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past 15 years, Michael has blown shofar for Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi during the Days of Awe; he now embodies and transmits Reb Zalman’s teachings about shofar.

 I hope to see you there.

Tzedakah

"The sound of a few coins clinking into a pushke is as Jewish a sound as the call of the shofar." 

Quote and image by Matt Fenster Executive Vice President of Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverside in an essay on "Tzedakah," http://sites.google.com/site/csairmensclub/events3225243, accessed 2012-Feb-16

 

Shofar Trio: Beautiful Fanfare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb4gKuoxXxI&feature=related

Shofar during Passover Sacrifice

I have written about the relevance of shofar to Passover in this blog and in Chapter 3-6 of Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram's Horn. Here is another example, from Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 64a:

Pesach is slaughtered in three groups... The first group entered and filled the Azarah (Temple Courtyard); they locked the doors and blew the Shofar - Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah.... The first group left and the second entered; when the second group left the third entered. The latter groups did like the first did.

The following excerpt from A Virtual Passover* sheds more light on the Paschal sacrifice and its relationship to Shofar.

When God instituted Passover, He stipulated strict guidelines governing the selection and manner of killing, cooking, and eating the Paschal Lamb... The lamb was to be a male, one year old, without blemish. (Exodus 12:5) Because the English rendering of lamb is in fact representative of a Hebrew word that may refer to a lamb or kid, one year old goats were also acceptable provided they also met the other requirements.

Unlike many symbols of Passover whose meanings were later assigned in the Rabbinic Period, the Lord Himself gave the meaning of the Paschal sacrifice. In the words of Moses, “And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.” (Exodus 12:26-27)

It is thus clear that from the very origins of Passover, the Paschal sacrifice was to be the central focus. During the Second Temple Period (516 b.c.e. – 70 c.e.), it remained so and was given even heightened significance as the tradition developed to perform the sacrifice at the Temple... [This] sacrifice unique was that it was actually performed by the household representative rather than the Levites at the Temple...

Because of the large crowds that would inevitably gather in Jerusalem and at the Temple Mount during Passover, several measures were taken to accommodate all who wished to participate. [Israelites] would enter the Temple grounds and form rows facing identical rows of Levites. The gates would be closed and the shofar sounded. The Israelites would then slaughter the lamb or kid-goat, and the Levites would catch the sacrificial blood in gold or silver bowls. They would quickly pass these bowls down a brigade-like line and the priest nearest the altar would sprinkle blood from each bowl onto the base of the altar.

After the destruction of the Temple in 70 c.e., the Paschal sacrifice was discontinued. Over time it gradually lost its prominence in the Seder so that today it is represented by several items of the Seder. These items include the roasted shankbone, the egg, the Afikomen, and the Hillel sandwich.

Here it is described by another writer:

Passover in Temple Times

The construction of the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem lent new significance to the festival of Passover. A Talmudic passage (dating from the period of the Second Temple [515 BCE - 70 CE]) describes the Temple ritual on the 14th of Nisan. The description reflects the procedure in the time of the First Temple:

The paschal lamb was slaughtered in three groups… when the first group entered and the Temple court was filled, the gates of the Temple were closed. A tekiah, teruah, and again a tekiah were then blown on the shofar. The priests stood in rows, and in their hands were basins of silver and basins of gold. … An Israelite slaughtered his offering and the priests caught the blood. The priest passed the basin to his fellow priest, and he to his fellow, each receiving a full basin and giving back an empty one. The priest nearest to the altar tossed the blood against the base of the altar. While this ritual was performed the Levites sang the Hallel [Talmud Pesachim 64a].

There are several biblical references indicating that this procedure was also followed in Solomon's Temple.

Following the rededication of the Temple by King Hezekiah, the priests are described as tossing the blood of the paschal lamb upon the altar (II Chronicles 30:16). The Levites and priests are also described as having "praised God day by day [Hallel], singing with loud instruments to God" (11 Chronicles 30:21).

At my Seder, the sacrifice is also represented by a shofar.

Talmud: http://www.dafyomi.co.il/pesachim/points/ps-ps-064.htm, viewed 2012-Feb-10

Virtual Passover: http://avirtualpassover.com/sacrifice.htm, viewed 2012-Feb-10
Image: http://www.thesanhedrin.org/en/index.php?title=File:Korban.jpg, viewed 2012-Feb-10

The Virtual Passover essay cites Klein, Mordell ed., Passover (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973) pages 26-27 as the source for the description of the sacrifice.

Passover in Temple Time excerpt from, Rabbi Ronald H. Isaacs, Every Person's Guide to Passover (Jason Aronson, Inc), /www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/History/Biblical.shtml, viewed 2012-April-07

Music - Jazz Shofar

Itamar Erez & The Adama Ensemble playing Hommage,
Yoram Lachish, shofar.

Click here for complete video.