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| Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram’s Horn By Michael T. Chusid |
There has never been a book-length exploration into shofar’s many meanings, until now. This 3-volume work provides enough depth to satisfy serious students of religion while remaining accessible to curious lay reader of all faiths.
Respectful of diverse Jewish traditions, the book also advances original discoveries about shofar that add to our understanding of its call.
The book is published online in three volumes. It is offered as a free download. If you receive value from it, please make a donation to support Shofar Corps. Click to donate.
Table of Contents
Front Material
Download Formats: webpage (html) pdf (2 MB)
Title Page
Table of Contents
About the Author
Endorsements
Notices
Acknowledgements
Forward – by Rabbi Dr. Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi
Book 1 – The Call of the High Holy Days
Hear what shofar says about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Elul – the month of spiritual preparation before the High Holy Days.
Download Formats: webpage (html) pdf (9MB)Prelude
PART ONE – The Call of Shofar
1-1 An Awakening: A personal account of awakening spirituality.1-2 Five Translation Challenges: Biblical and rabbinic basis for shofar.
PART TWO – The Shofar of Elul
1-3 My Shofar is My Beloved’s: Teshuvah and preparation for the Days of Awe.
1-4 Meditations for each Day of Elul: Warm-up exercises for the spirit.
PART THREE – The Shofar of Rosh Hashanah
1-5 Blast, Break, Shatter, Blast: The blessings, the calls, and the code.
1-6 The Ram’s Midrash: What the Akedah teaches about listening.
1-7 The Ewe’s Horn: Masculine and feminine voices.
1-8 Our Father, Our King: Stories about kings and princes.
1-9 Remembering Shofar: To blow, or not to blow.
PART FOUR – The Shofar of Yom Kippur
1-10 The Dinner Bell and One Last Blast: An encore and a separation.
1-11 Azazel and the Goat that is Set Free: Two goats and two paths.
1-12 The Jubilee and the Prophet’s Words: The call for justice.
1-13 From the Belly of a Wail: Jonah revisited.
Epilogue: Elul Story
Book 2 – For the Shofar Blower
For individuals who want to blow shofar for religious and creative rituals, this is the horn’s essential owner’s manual.
Download Formats: webpage (html) pdf (24MB)Introduction
2-1 Why Shofar: Overview of shofar and High Holy Days.
2-2 Kavanah for Sounding Shofar: Whatever moves you.
2-3 Buying, Making, and Caring for a Shofar: A horn of one’s own.
2-4 Hearing Shofar: The reason for blowing.
2-5 Preliminary Exercises: First, make funny sounds.
2-6 Getting Sound from a Shofar: Giving lip service to the horn.
2-7 Sounding the Four Blasts: Uniting heaven and earth.
2-8 Tips for Common Problems: I’m sure you won’t need this, but…
2-9 Staging Shofar: Tooting al tutti or alone.
2-10 Blowing Shofar for the Sick and Confined: A double mitzvah.
2-11 Secrets of an Awesome Tekiah Gedolah: How to get to Carnegie Hall.
Appendix: Quick Reference Sheet
Book 3 – The People of the Ram
Delve into the legacy of shofar as it is woven into the history, mythology, anthropology, and culture of the Jewish people.
Download Formats: webpage (html) pdf (29MB)3-1 Shepherd Nation: A legacy of our ancestor’s vocation.
3-2 The Still Small Voice: A call to silence.
3-3 Sometimes a Shofar is Just a Shofar: Psychological perspectives.
3-4 The Shaman’s Shofar: Tikkun olam and healing.
3-5 Beyond the Days of Awe: Shofar for other holidays and rituals.
3-6 The Ram’s Horn of Passover: A shofar on the seder table.
3-7 The Silent Shofar: Including the deaf.
3-8 Iconography and Iconolatry: Visual symbolism of horns.
3-9 More Teachings from the Ram: Grazing among the Sages.
3-10 Shalshelet and Shofar: A trope and the chain of tradition.
3-11 After Jericho, Shevarim: Shofar insight from The Book of Joshua.
3-12 Would a Shofar by Any Other Name Smell So Sweet?: Insights from etymology.
3-13 Spirituality and “Spirality”: Spirals as a map for spiritual growth.
3-14 Blow it as it Grows: Can a side-blown horn be a shofar?
3-15 Shofar, So Good: Teachings too good to ignore.
APPENDICES
3-16 Scriptural References to Shofar
3-17 Bibliography
Notices
Website and book are copyright 2009, 2010, 2011.
Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram's Horn by Michael T. Chusid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.hearingshofar.com.
Page updated 2011-06-07
