Dancing in the Rhythms of Life

 During Cactus Kallah last month in Tucson, I taught how to blow and to know shofar, and other teachers invited us to be introspective, build community, delve into scripture, and weave our souls with prayer and music. Guided by Rev. Gabbai Eli Shirim Lester, attendees* composed the following:


     Verse 1
When I see a blazing sunset
Or touch the dew on blades of grass
When I see a double rainbow
Or stop to smell a rose
I become aware that I am part
Of HaShems’ grand design

     Verse 2
All things in nature, dance to a rhythm
Rhythms of their very own, set in motion by creation,
Sacred, holy, moving sounds
It feels so good to share the dance, sharing love I co-create
Being part of all that is, I want to celebrate

     Chorus
So blow the shofar loudly, on every fresh new moon
Remind me that the hills and mountains dance like rams and ewes
Wake me up so I will notice, break me from my trance
So as I hear the shofar blasting, my own rhythm starts to dance
Holy sparks within me dancing, awesome truth and gratitude
Touched by holy divine presence, shouting hallelu

     Verse 3
When I stand before expansive vistas
Desolate desserts or grand canyons
When I hear the song birds singing
Or feel the power of the ocean
I become aware that I am part
Of HaShems’ grand design

     Verse 4
Earth-shaking, wind-blowing, raining for so long
Always dancing, always moving, always singing, their own song
Never-ending energy, praising all that is
This, the source of shofar sounding

     Chorus
So blow the shofar loudly, on every fresh new moon
Remind me that the hills and mountains dance like rams and ewes
Wake me up so I will notice, break me from my trance
So as I hear the shofar blasting, my own rhythm starts to dance
Holy sparks within me dancing, awesome truth and gratitude
Touched by holy divine presence, shouting hallelu

     Ending
I rejoice in dance and song
I celebrate the One we are
Blissful, holy, syncopation
dance in joy to the shofar

Words by attendees of 2012 Cactus Kallah, 2012-March-15, based on Psalms 81 and 114
Music by Eli Shirim Lester
Limited Reproduction Licensed by Eli Shirim Lester

Copyright 2012, Wellspring Circle Publishing, BMI, all rights reserved

* I had had to leave the gathering before the song was composed.

Horns used for "Cupping" Therapy

Cupping is an ancient technique used in many healing traditions. In it, the agents causing illness are removed by applying suction to the body. Horns are one of the instruments used to apply the suction, including horns that, like shofarot, have been trimmed to have an opening at their narrow end.

We know that cupping was used by Maimonides and by Eastern European Jews.  Did our ancestors use there shofarot for cupping?  Let me know if you have any insight.

In this collection of cupping implements belonging to Bruce Bentley, #2 is identified as a yak horn acquired in Tibet during the 1980s. From http://www.healthtraditions.com.au/essays/the-subtle-cup.htm, accessed 2012-04-07.

Practitioner Bruce Bentley describes:

Way back in time, long before any historical or archeological evidence had been uncovered to support the application of cupping instruments to the body as a therapeutic procedure, prehistoric humans relied in part on their ability to suck and draw to the surface any irritations such as stings and thorns. Early humans also developed conceptualisations concerning their place in nature and the universe and the causes of ill health.

In their efforts to explain sickness, they held beliefs about that which could enter the body or mind such as evil spirits and cause pain and suffering. Many researchers including anthropologists have described how healers of these supernaturalistic traditions of illness causation applied oral suction to the surface of the body to withdraw the effects of these malevolent influences.

In time, various natural resources began to be used to effect suction - which makes good sense because indigenous groups could exploit their natural resources. For example, natives along the west coast of North America, in the vicinity of Vancouver Island, used shells. In Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, hollow animal horns were fashioned to provide an effective cupping device. In North America, the natives made their cupping implements by slicing off the point of a buffalo horn. They would then place the base of the horn on the body and suck the air out through the opening at the tip. When a vacuum was achieved, a wad of dried grass would be immediately thrust into the opening by the nimble workings of the tongue. By this method the medicine men, with their powerful facial muscles and considerable agility, can make a very successful job of cupping. (Brockbank, 1987:22). Another technique used to withdraw disease was by sucking through a bone tube. During the Babylon - Assyrian Empire (stretching from Iraq to the Mediterranean) massage was practiced as well as 'cupping by sucking, with the mouth or by using a buffalo horn' (Mettler, 1947:320). The source of this information was presumably found inscribed on clay tablets, written in one of the earliest written languages, i.e. cuneiform script around 700BC. 

http://www.healthtraditions.com.au/course-details/cupping/the-history-of-cupping.htm accessed 2012-04-06

As to the antiquity of the practice, he cites pictorial evidence from 1500 BCE in Egypt.

Ceramic Rython

Beautiful ceramic rython from collection of Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Their catalog notes say, "During the 26th Dynasty, the Greeks established merchant colonies in Egypt. Faience workshops in these towns produced goods for the local population, as well as products in an Egyptian style for export."

The 26th Dynasty of Egypt was was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BCE.

See http://art.thewalters.org/detail/31798/rhyton-with-griffins/ accessed 2012-04-03, under Creative Common license.

Shofar in Theresienstadt

The Nazi's ran Theresienstadt, a model "resettlement center", as propaganda to show that deported Jews were not suffering. Yad Vashem's website says, "From other testimonies we learn that many communities brought with them Torah Scrolls, Megillot, Shofarot, Menorahs and Kiddush cups and that religious services were held in many places in the ghetto."

This shofar was among those brought to the camp. It belonged to Avraham-Adolf Hellmann, born in 1882 in Poland. He settled in Nikolsburg (today Mikulov, Czech Republic) and served as Head Cantor in the community as well as being the founder of the Jewish Museum of Bohemia & Moravia.. In 1938, the Hellmann family along with their community, was given twenty four hours to leave their homes, and were taken to Theresienstadt. Hellmanm continued to serve as a, leading religious services and providing leadership to Jews in the camp. He was deported to a deathcamp in 1944.

His wife, Charlotte, survived the War and donated the shofar and donated it to Yad Vashem. Along with other shofarot from the era, it bears witness about those who suffered and died in the camps.

Photo and information from From the Yad Vashem Website: http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/bearing_witness/life_ghettos_hellman.asp accessed 2012-04-03

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The shofar is of an interesting type. It had been straightened as have other 19th Century European horns, yet the workmanship is not as fine as many of the examples from the period that I have seen.

Holocaust Memorial - West Hartford, CT

Photo by Jack, http://hartforddailyphoto.blogspot.com/2012/01/holocaust-memorial.html 2012-03-20

http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=f08e12df-703c-4835-8a23-ae4e029d1636 2012-03-20

Holocaust Memorial, 1981, by Elbert Weinberg, outside the Jewish Community Center on the West Hartford-Bloomfield line.

K'lee and Klippot

In Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram's Horn, Chapter 1-5 – Blast, Break, Shatter, Blast, I wrote,

"...our sins are like klipot, Hebrew for shells or husks; like barnacles, they have a hard shell and grip our souls tenaciously. Shofar can remove them by immersing us in a sonic mikvah (ritual bath)."

Rev. Gabbai Eli Shirim Lester recently pointed out that klipot shares the same root as k'lee, a term that can mean a container, vessel, or musical instrument. I have previously pointed out that k'lee is also used in Tanach to refer to vessels made from horn and could also indicate a shofar.

This means we can use a k'lee to remove klippot to do teshuvah.

Shofar Havdalah

In Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram's Horn, Chapter 3-5 – Beyond the Days of Awe, I discuss the long-standing practice of sounding shofar to announce the coming of Shabbat. I did not realize, until recently, that shofar has has also been announcing the end of Shabbat since at least the time of the Second Temple.


Josephus (Wars iv, 9), "testifies that a priest used to blow a trumpet at the termination of the Sabbath to distinguish between the holy and profane).

This is expanded in Footnote 82:

"With regard to the blowing at the termination of the Sabbath cf. M. Hullin i, 7 and Tosefta ibid i, 26. But Maimonides rules ('Hilkhot Shabbat' v, 20) that the Shofar is also blown at the end of the Sabbath.* Apparently he deduced this Halakha from T.B. Shabbat 114b (cf Maggid Mishne [Don Vidal di Tolosa], Hilkhot Shabbat, loc. cit.), but the Early Authorities (Rishonim) differ from him (cf. Nachmanides, R. Solomon b Adret, R. Yom Tov b. Abraham [of Seville], and Tosafot of Ris on this Talmudic theme and Maggid Mishne, loc. cit.)."

Even without checking all these citations, this practice makes sense for the orderly regulation of commerce in the city; a broadcast signal would announce to everyone that the markets could reopen.


I have not used shofar in a contemporary havdalah ritual. During havdalah, I like to cling to the lingering fragrance of Shabbat; a shofar blast might be too jarring and a too abrupt break from the quiet and peace of Shabbat. But I observe Havdalah at home and in small gatherings. I suspect that I would feel differently, however, about hearing shofar calling from across the city and creating a common stirring among the citizens.

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TRANSLATION NOTE
Maimonides's Mishneh Torah on "Halachot Shabbat" does not use the word "shofar". Instead it uses forms of the word "tekiah" meaning blast. It is understood to refer to shofar, but could also be a metal trumpet.


Quotations from Jews, Judaism, and the Ancient World, Gedalyahu Alon, page 129 (Varda Books, 2008) http://publishersrow.com/ebookshuk/ accessed 2012-04-02.

The Spiral Nature of Time

Chapter 3-13   of Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice is called "Spirituality and 'Spirality': Shofar’s spiral shape as a map for spiritual growth." The following image is a clever whimsy on the spiral of time.

Artist Unknown