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The call of the shofar
Ancient instrument reminds us to open hearts, make a new start
CHANA FALIK
World Zionist Press Service
In the seventh month (of Passover), on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: ... You shall observe it as a day when the horn is sounded" (Numbers 29:1).
The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana, celebrated this year Sept. 20-22) is characterized by one of the most mysterious mitzvot, commandments, in the entire Torah - blowing the shofar, or ram's horn.
The shofar is one of the earliest musical instruments known to man. It is made from the horn of a kosher animal - except for cows, which lost out on the "privilege" following the infamous sin-of-the-golden-calf escapade. Shofars tended to be made from the horns of the animal most prevalent in the country Jews lived in: in Ashkenazic Europe, for example, they were usually made from rams' horns, whereas in Ethiopia they were made from the horns of kudus, or African antelope.
The size of a shofar doesn't matter, as long as it is bigger than the width of a man's hand. The largest curlicued kudu horns stretch the length of an entire arm. Each shofar has its own distinctive sound. According to professional musician and shofar blowing instructor David Lloyd Perkins, the longer the shofar, the easier it is to play and produce harmonics.
"On a short ram's horn I can get three harmonic tones," says Perkins, "but on a long kudu shofar I can produce between nine and 12 harmonics."
Perkins has blown his shofar in such diverse locations as the roof of the Vatican in Rome, and in Seoul, Korea, on Israel Independence Day 1995, when he was an official representative of the Israeli government. According to Perkins, playing the shofar is not difficult at all. "Even the 3- and 4-year olds in my classes play the shofar wonderfully," he says. Sometimes, though, he says, "the mouthpiece cut into the shofar is too small, which is very often the case with the factory-produced shofars." What should the correct mouthpiece size be? "Big enough to be comfortable for human lips," says Perkins, who heats the ends of his shofars in order to enlarge the mouthpiece.
Harmonics, note range, and tone are very important when the Rosh Hashana shofar sounds are taken into consideration. There are four distinct shofar sounds for the Rosh Hashana service. The blast (tekiah), one long blast with a clear tone; the broken (shevarim) sighing sound of three short calls; the alarm (teruah), a rapid series of none or more very short notes; and the great blast (tekiah gedolah), a single unbroken blast, held as long as possible.
In fact, no one really knows what a teruah sound should be. It could be a shevarim, a teruah or a combination of both. On Rosh Hashana, several combinations are used to accommodate the various rabbinic opinions. Says Perkins: "The more a shofar's mouthpiece permits the blower a wide-range of harmonic sounds, the more sincere and profound the shofar experience is for the listener."
To add to the irony of the shofar-blowing mitzvah, the command is given to us in the Torah without explanation. Thankfully, Torah sages throughout history have provided many interpretations on the meaning of blowing the shofar. Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher and physician, likens the reason to a wake-up call to all Jews. In his Laws of Repentance, Maimonides writes: "Awake, sleepers from your sleep! Arise, slumberers from your slumber! Scrutinize your deeds, return to repentance and remember your Creator. Those forgetters of the truth in the vanities of time and those who stray all their year in vanity and emptiness which can neither help nor save, look into your souls, better your ways and deeds! Let each of you abandon your evil ways and your thoughts which are not good."
The famous List of 10 Symbolic Meanings of Rav Sa'adia Gaon (Rabbi Sa'adia the Genius) is still studied today - more than 1,000 years after it was first published in the early 900s. Among them are:
ù The shofar sounds remind us of the revelation at Mt. Sinai, where the children of Israel in perfect faith told the Lord, "We will do and we will understand."
ù The shofar sounds remind us of the words of the prophets, which in the book of Ezekiel were compared to the sounding of a shofar. "If anybody hears the sound of the horn but ignores the warning, ... his blood shall be on his own head" (Ezekiel 33:4).
ù The shofar reminds us that the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is just around the corner, only 10 days away. Time to get down to the eternally important business of repentance!
Rosh Hashana is a return to beginnings - the birthday of man, the beginning of the yearly cycle, the beginning of autumn - and the shofar, with its otherworldly calls, unlocks our heart to God and to ourselves by allowing us to make a new start. With this comes the knowledge that the mitzvah of the shofar, in the end, isn't as mysterious as we thought it to be.
Chana Falik writes from Jerusalem.
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