Shofaring for Reservists on Duty

I have written about sounding shofar for those that are confined in hospitals, prisons, and nursing homes, confined in their homes, or otherwise unable to attend communal shofaring on Rosh Hashanah. Another group that needs to be remembered are soldiers that are on duty during Rosh Hashanah.

I am reminded of this by a web post by a member of the Israeli Army reserves, called up on Rosh Hashanah:

Two days later was Rosh Hashanah, and I had been told that I would be allowed to be home for the holiday. Everything was prepared, and I was excited to be home with the kids and friends. But then I received a phone call informing me that I would not be able to stay at home; rather I had to be on duty in case there were any more incidents...

I packed my machzor and clothes, and my wife gave me some kugel and cake. But the one thing I didn’t possess was a shofar. What would I do without a shofar? Would someone come to the base, or would it be a Rosh Hashanah sans shofar blowing?

I recall being the only religious soldier on this small base, and it was lonely having to do all the davening alone. However, the meals were eaten together with the others, and I was given the “duty” of reciting the Kiddush. The following morning I again took my machzor in hand, and went up the lookout tower...

Right before I got to the Mussaf prayer that has all the shofar blowing I heard steps, and there was one of my fellow reserve soldiers, Rav Uri Dasberg, with shofar in hand! I couldn’t believe it. Uri lived even closer to the base and was allowed to stay at home, but came especially for me. As I had done in my own shul for many years, I called out the sounds of the shofar and Uri did every note to perfection. He was my personal shofar blower.

 While many military units have chaplains, some units do not, and not all chaplains have shofar.  So if you live near a base, consider offering to sound shofar for the troops.

My Personal Shofar Blower, Rabbi Zalmen Eisenstock, TheJewishPress.com, September 20th, 2012

Hearing Shofar along Two Axes

On Erev Rosh Hashanah this year, at Metiva in Los Angeles, Rabbi Andrew Hahn, "The Kirtan Rabbi", made a distinction between the work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Paraphrasing, he asked us to imagine a vertical axis connecting each of us to God. "The work of Yom Kippur is to seek realignment with God." But Rosh Hashannah, he continued, "is a horizontal axis, and our work is to repair relations with our fellow human beings."

This distinction came to mind during Torah reading the following morning. I am familiar with the first part of the Rosh Hashanah parsha and its dramatic story about the triangulated family of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar and their sons. Indeed, I have written about how Hagar's tears and God's reassurance that "I will hear the boy where he is" continue to resound in shofar's call.

Abraham and Abimelech at the well.

Metiva, however, also read the rest of the parsha, describing the oath between Abraham and Abimelech at the well. What a story! Woven into Torah's earlier story lines about Abe, Abi, and Sarah (Genesis 20) - another triangle - and the well of Hagar, the whole fabric deserves more Rosh Hashanah sermonizing than it gets.

We also read the maftir at Metiva, and that is when Rabbi Hahn's distinction came into relief.

The parsha, as part of the covenant between the leaders of the two tribes, says,

And Abraham set seven ewe-lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said unto Abraham: 'What mean these seven ewe-lambs which thou hast set by themselves?' And he said: 'Verily, these seven ewe-lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that it may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.'

In the maftir, as part of the commandment to observe Rosh Hashanah, we are told,

You shall present a burnt offering of pleasing odor to the Lord: one bull of the herd, one ram, and seven yearling lambs, without blemish.

There is an important distinction between a yearling lamb and an ewe-lamb. In a shepherd society, most yearling male lambs could be sacrificed, turned into incense, because only a few are needed for mating. We could afford to turn them into incense that rises along the vertical axis connecting us to the Divine.

A ewe-lamb, however, has economic value. It will grow to give milk and to bear offspring.  If Abe had presented male lambs to Abi, the Philistines could have eaten a feast. By presenting ewes, however, Abe was helping to feed future generations of little Abimelechs;* a gesture more fitting for a covenant between patriarchs, and one that works along the horizontal axis between people.

When we hear shofar on Rosh Hashanah, we will of course, be listening for the still small voice that traverses the vertical axis. Even more, we must also hear shofar as the call to repair our relationships along the horizontal plane of life.


* This multi-generational covenant is expressed when Abraham swears he will honor Abimelech's request to "not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son".

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Illustration: Maerten de Vos (1532-1603), http://www.kunstpedia.com/articles/drawings-by-maerten-de-vos-designs-to-ornament-an-ortelius-map.html 2012-Sep-21.

Shema has same rhythm as Shofar blasts

In shul today, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, I notice that the Shema prayer has a rhythm similar to the Tekiah Shevarim-Teruah Tekiah (tashrat) shofar sequence:
 
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד 
Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad 

[Sh]ma 
     _______    (tekiah)

Yis   ra    el 
___ ___ ___   (shevarim)

A   do  nai Elo hei nu  A  do  nai 
_    _    _    _    _    _    _   _   _    (teruah)

[E]ḥad
     _______   (tekiah)

The match is not exact, and the Shema is not typically recited with this phrasing. Yet meditating on this can lead to new meaning or insight (inhear) to the Shema or the shofar. For example, meditate on the Shema while hearing shofar as a reminder to shema, listen.

Or, chant the Shema to the tashrat rhythm. This could be especially powerful when Rosh Hashanah in on Shabbat, as an alternative to sounding the horn.

The full sequence of blasts would be:

Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad 
Sh'ma Yisrael Eḥad
Sh'ma Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad  

Teruah of the King

A teaching by Rabbi Alex Israel from his blog:

Rosh Hashanna 5773 

Shofar and God's Love of Israel

...And so, looking towards Rosh Hashanna, I found myself seeking an insight that will generate new kavanna, a fresh perspective to inspire the powerful davening experience of the day. I would like to share the following idea which has excited me this year. I hope it will affect you as well.

Parashat Balak records the famous blessings (that might have been curses) uttered by Bilaam. In those blessings Bilaam praises the unique relationship between God and Israel:

לֹא הִבִּיט אָוֶן בְּיַעֲקֹב וְלֹא רָאָה עָמָל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהָיו עִמּוֹ וּתְרוּעַת מֶלֶךְ בּוֹ.

“He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel; The Lord his God is with him, And the shout of a king is among them.” (Bamidbar 23:21)

This passuk is particularly applicable to Rosh Hashanna as it features in the series of ten pesukim recited in the malkhuyot section of Musaf. On first reading it seems pretty straightforward in expressing God’s love of Israel in that He overlooks our sins and faults. The verse’s four clauses tell us that 1.) God ignores our sins, 2.) He is oblivious to our flaws, moreover 3.) “The Lord God is with him” i.e. with Israel, in other words He actively associates His identity with the Jewish people. But then we have the concluding phrase – “Teruat Melekh” – “and the shout (Terua) of a king is among them” – and this is difficult to understand. What is this “shout” or “fanfare” of the king? And how does it feature in connection with Israel?

Ibn Ezra writes:

 ותרועת מלך בו: במחנה ישראל וזה ותקעתם תרועה

“The Terua of the king is within him: In the camp of Israel, and this is what is indicated by ‘And they shall sound the Terua.’(Bamidbar 10.5).”

Ibn Ezra is quoting a passuk that describes how trumpets were sounded when the Israelites journeyed in the wilderness. But how is this shofar blast demonstrative of God? In fact, when we read the context in Bamidbar, it seems like a signal, indicating to the throngs of Israel announcing that they would be breaking camp. Why is the pre-travel alarm signal defined as “the Terua of the King?”

Sephorno’s reading offers one line of interpretation:

הם תוקעים תרועה בנסוע המשכן לשמחה שיגילו במלכם
“They sounded a [trumpet] blast when the Mishkan traveled to express joy, delighting in their King [God].”

In other words, this was a “blast of the king” because the Terua sound heralded the movement of the Mishkan, not the nation. This fanfare underscored God’s presence amidst them. Israel’s honor was the fact that God established His earthly residence amongst them, so that even when they journeyed, God’s presence traveled with them.

These commentaries share the interpretation that the verse refers to an actual trumpet blast blown in the camp of Israel. However, this reading creates an imbalance in the passuk as the first 3 clauses refer to God’s action, whereas the 4th clause depicts Israel’s act (of sounding the trumpets.)

The Ramban however reads this phrase as God’s action rather than Israel’s:

 “ותרועת מלך גבור בו שלא ינוצח לעולם”

“The mighty King’s war-shout (Terua) is amongst them, that they will never be defeated.” 

In other words, the “Terua” is not a trumpet blast at all, but it refers to the sounds of war. This phrase states that God will ensure Israel’s victory on the battlefield.

But Rashi contributes the most creative and surprising reading:

“ותרועת מלך בו: לשון חבה ורעות כמו רעה דוד אוהב דוד ויתנה למרעהו וכן תרגם אונקלוס ושכינת מלכהון ביניהון”
“A Language of love and friendship, as in ‘The friend of David’ (II Sam 15:37), [and see Judges 15:6]…”

For Rashi, the “Terua” is not a blast of the horn at all, not for travel or in the battlefield. It is a derivative of the word רעות meaning friendship, affection, fondness for a beloved.

For Rashi, the verse as a whole expresses the love between God and Israel whereby, as in a human love-relationship, objectivity is swept aside, flaws are ignored, and closeness and companionship is sought. Rashi’s reading is highly attractive as it remains true to theme:

“He [God] is oblivious to Jacob’s sin, and fails to notice Israel’s errors, The Lord his God is with him, And the love of the king is extended to him [Israel].”

Here the word “Terua” is transformed from a horn blast to a deep emotion of love. If we can apply this to our Rosh Hashanna – the “Yom Terua;” God commands us to sound the Shofar, but that very word, and hence that gesture is symbolic and expressive of God’s friendship and love towards Israel.

Traditionally, the Terua instills a sense of dread, a feeling of fear. At Mt. Sinai, the people heard the shofar and trembled. And yet we are proposing a model which is the polar opposite. We sound a fanfare to God, but in truth God is giving us the Terua – a gift of love – which is a divine opportunity to celebrate the special relationship, the eternal love of God for His nation. And as we blow the Shofar of God’s devotion and affection, we hope that God, in his love, will overlook the sins of Israel.

Reposted, with permission, from http://thinkingtorah.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/rosh-hashanna-5773-shofar-and-gods-love.html

The Secret Signal

A Rosh Hashanah teaching from Rabbi Gershon Winkler (walkingstick.org) in email dated 2012-Sep-12:

Listen. There is a secret signal. It's sort of like a password, a code. And only we know it. We who sound the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Or at least some of us who sound the shofar know it. Others may know how to sound the shofar, how to blow their breath through the horn and make shofar sounds, but they don't know the secret signal, the password. Just blowing air through a ram's horn does not produce the secret signal. Anyone can do that. You don't have to be of the Jewish nation to be able to do that. Ram's horns and the like, the ancient rabbis remind us, abound everywhere and with most any people. And guess what? They all know how to blow it, how to sound it. And if that is the case, as it is obviously is, what is the meaning of the psalmic verse we recite before sounding the shofar on Rosh Hashanah: "Happy is the people who knows how to sound [the shofar]"? (Psalms 89:16). Excuse me? Did the writer of this psalm actually believe that we were the only people on Earth who knew how to sound a ram's horn? And that is the question the second-century Rabbi O'shia asks: "Do you really suppose that the nations of the world do not know how to sound the horn? They have countless horns, myriad trumpets and innumerable experts at sounding them, and you declare 'Happy is the people who knows how to sound the shofar?'"

And so Rabbi O'shia explains to us the meaning of that puzzling statement, that it implies a knowing that is given to us as a people from the ancients, a knowing not of how to sound the shofar but a knowing of the secrets behind the sounds and their intent (Midrash Vayik'ra Rabbah 29:4). Sounding the shofar without this knowledge and its intentions creates sound, but no different than anyone blowing a horn or trumpet. Sounding the shofar while imbuing your breath with this knowledge and intention, however, creates far more than sound. It communicates. It sends a secret signal understood only in the spirit realm, only in the Realm of the Divine Forces, and becomes part of a vocabulary known only in the God Dictionary. It is the language of spirit. It is a personal mystery communication between the soul and its Maker, between Creation and Creator, in a language that is absent any symbols or thoughts, any imagery or gesture. It is the language of דִבּוּר dibbur, of Resonance. It is the communication of breath with Breath, of רוּחַ ru'ach with רוּחַ אֶלֹהִים ru'ach elo'heem, of mortal breath with Divine Breath.

In one of the most ancient of our Kabbalistic source texts, we are taught that Sound, Breath/Wind, and Resonance are the qualities of the Life Force that weaves the Divine Intent through all of Existence (Sefer Yetzirah 1:9 [oldest version]). The drama of these three qualities is played out in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where it is written: "And they heard the Voice [sound] of God journeying toward the Wind [breath] of the day.... And God then called [resonance] to The Adam" (Genesis 3:8-9). Thus you have קול ורוח ודבור -- Sound, Breath, and Resonance. Sound is carried by Breath toward Resonance. By Sound, writes the 12th-century Rabbi Eliezer of Worms, is meant primal expression, not sound as we know it in the mortal sense. קול [ko'l-sound] is inaudible to the human ear until it is enwrapped in Breath or Spirit or Wind - all the same meaning of רוח [ru'ach]. And then it becomes graspable, translatable, when it is further manifested in דבור [dibbur-resonance]. And that quality of the Life Force that is Resonance, this is the Holy Spirit -- the flux of the Divine Spirit that is weaving through all.

That aspect of God that is involved within the fabric of existence in a transcending way, is referred to as the ineffable י-ה-ו-ה. This is the weaving Name of God, and it is un-pronounceable because it is always in flux, constantly weaving. It is what some of us are hopefully referring to when we glibly declare that "God is a verb." God itself is not a verb. That particular aspect of the unknowable, un-nameable, un-peggable, un-fathomable mystery behind it all that we refer to as God that God chose to reveal of Itself and that is continuously weaving the Divine Intent for Creation to become - is verbish. But God Itself is nothing we can grasp, let alone define or label. So deal with it. You don't even know how many teeth are in your mouth! (Talmud Bav'li, Sanhedrin 39a).

The particular aspect of God that is immanently involved in the life of all beings is that very aspect of God that was active at the time of Creation, the only name of God mentioned in the genesis of Genesis: אלהים Elo'heem, which, according to the mystics is a plural word that implies "בַּעַל הַיְכוֹלֶת וּבַּעַל הכֹּחוֹת כֻּלָם Ba'al ha'ye'cho'let u'ba'al ha'ko'cho't ku'lam -- The One Who Masters All Possibilities and Who Masters All the Forces" (16th-century Rabbi Yosef Karo in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayyim 5:1).

We are also taught that the difference between these two primary qualities of the revealed aspects of God, י-ה-ו-ה and אלהים -- besides one being God Transcendent and one being God Imminent - is that the quality of אלהים is about judgment and the quality of י-ה-ו-ה is about mercy. Just like in the story of Abraham and Isaac, where the voice of אלהים resonates in Abraham as a request that he sacrifice his son (Genesis 22:1), and the voice of י-ה-ו-ה resonates in Abraham as a demand that he desist from so much as nicking him (Genesis 22:11).

Now to the point.

Another psalmic verse we recite before blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah goes like this: "אלהים has ascended in the blowing; י-ה-ו-ה [is] in the sound of the shofar" (Psalms 47:6).

The intent of the one who sounds the shofar is to bring the sound of silence, the primal sound the mystics spoke of that precedes audible, vocal sound, the sound that precedes the breath that then translates the primal intent into resonance. The intent? A plea, a signal, for the overriding of the Divine quality of Judgment - אלהים -- with the Divine quality of mercy -- י-ה-ו-ה -- the sacred blend of both qualities in a unified balance, thus re-creating the First Sound ever mentioned in the Torah, which is described as the Sound of י-ה-ו-ה אלהים (Genesis 2:8).

You see, Rosh Hashanah is a ritual of re-doing the Adam and Eve scenario a little differently. They heard the sound of both י-ה-ו-ה and אלהים, but - when asked "Where are you?" they chose to surrender to their sense of shame and respond only to the quality of אלהים. The question was a challenge to them: "Where are you?" as in which voice are you responding to? That of judgment or that of mercy? They chose the voice of judgment, and thus did the voice of judgment respond in kind and kick them out.

On Rosh Hashanah, through the secret rite of the shofar, we endeavor to turn that around, to begin our new year with transforming that Karmic consciousness of judgment to one of compassion.

Thus, the secret of the Secret Signal. And so may it be!

An Audience of One

Rosh Hashanah
By Yakov Azriel

"And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sacred convocation; you shall do no manner of servile work; it is a day when the shofar is blown." (Numbers 29:1)

The play will soon begin — eleven, ten,
     Nine, eight, seven, six — soon the chatter dies,
     Quite soon you'll stand upon the stage, all eyes
On you alone. You read the script again
In hope you won't forget its wording when
     The spotlight shines — five, four — it is unwise
     To worry, but your costume can't disguise
Your trembling, so you say a prayer, amen.

A shofar blows. The curtains rise. Within
     The confines of a narrow stage, you go
          To say your lines the best you can. The sun
And moon, the day, the night, are actors in
     The drama of your life — three, two — you know
          You stand before an Audience of One.


Yakov Azriel was born in New York in 1950, and has lived in Israel since 1971. He has published four full-length books of poetry in the USA: Threads From A Coat Of Many Colors: Poems On Genesis (2005), In The Shadow Of A Burning Bush: Poems On Exodus (2008), Beads for the Messiah's Bride: Poems on Leviticus (2009) and Swimming In Moses' Well: Poems on Numbers (2011), all published by Time Being Books. Over 180 of his poems have been published in journals in the USA, the UK and Israel, and his poems have won thirteen awards in international poetry competitions, as well as two fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. 

Reproduced with permission from "Rosh Hashanah" from Swimming In Moses' Well: Poems on Numbers, by Yakov Azriel. Copyright © 2011 by  Time Being Books. 

Olifant and Triceratops

Rabbi Natan Slifkin posted the following at www.rationalistjudaism.com on 2012-Sep-04:

As with every year at this time, I would like to announce that my monograph "Exotic Shofars - Halachic Aspects" is freely available. Each year I add some new material to it. This year's addition is to the section discussing a shofar made from a non-kosher animal. The halachic status of such a shofar is the subject of considerable discussion amongst Rishonim and Acharonim. But does this dispute have any practical relevance? Is there such thing as a shofar from a non-kosher animal?

In this latest version of the monograph, I discuss two new potential candidates. One is the olifant, which is the name given to a horn made out of the tusk of an elephant. But while an interesting candidate, it seems to be halachically invalidated for separate reasons that I discuss in the monograph.

Another candidate which, it seems, would indeed potentially be a viable shofar, and would be the sole case of a shofar from a non-kosher animal, is a triceratops (pictured above). However, the keratin sheath from which the shofar is made would only be found on a living specimen. Thus, short of radical advances in cloning technology, à la Jurassic Park, this would not appear to present a practical situation for the halachic discussion.

 You can download the monograph at this link. 

The Inanimate Shofar

Kabbalah explains that the world is broken down into four parts: the human being, the animal, vegetation, and the inanimate. Why, or better yet, HOW can we expect the lowest of the four categories (when the shofar is removed from the animal, it is considered an inanimate object) to inspire the highest of the four, us, the human beings?

The answer lies in the fact that the human being has a part of him that can be inanimate and distant. For whatever reason, this part of our lives seems locked and just beyond our reach. In order to resuscitate this sleeping part of ourselves, we need to go beyond the sophistication of speech, or the ornate, expensive instruments; we need to draw from a source which is basic, uncomplicated, simple, pure, and unaffected by the context of any individual that may put their bias or influence on it.

By Rabbi Mayshe Schwartz from The Chabad Chai Center of Brookline. From www.jewishboston.com 2012-Sep-04

Kelphorn Identified

In Chapter 3-4 "The Shaman's Shofar" in Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram's Horn, I describe blowing kelp as if it were a shofar. I have identified the species used as Nereocystis.

Nereocystis (Greek for "mermaid's bladder") is a genus of kelp. It forms thick beds on rocks, and is an important part of kelp forests. There is only one species, Nereocystis luetkeana. It can grow to a maximum of 74 meters. Nereocystis has a holdfast of about 40 centimeters, and a single stipe, topped with a pneumatocyst containing carbon monoxide, from which sprout the numerous (about 30-64) blades. The blades may be up to 4 meters long, and up to 15 centimeters wide. It is usually annual, sometimes persisting up to 18 months. Nereocystis is the only kelp which will drop spore patches, so that the right concentration of spores lands near the parent's holdfast. It is common along the coast of the northeastern Pacific Ocean, from about Monterey, California to Aleutian Islands, Alaska.
Some common names include edible kelp, bull kelp, bullwhip kelp, ribbon kelp, giant kelp, bladder wrack, and variations on these names.^[1]  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereocystis 2012-Sep-01)

Hollow stalk (http://ian.umces.edu/imagelibrary/displayimage-lastup-18-7048.html 2012-Sep-01)