Preparations One Whole Month Before Rosh Hashanah

	Preparations One Whole Month Before Rosh Hashanah Arthur L. Finkle Tisha B’av signals to me that there are 7-weeks before Rosh HaShanah. Therefore, I spiritually prepare myself by practicing the shofar at the beginning of the next month - Elul. During Elul, we customarily sound the shofar at the end of morning services. == ==Sounding the shofar at services is a practical way of preparing for the “real deal” on Rosh HaShanah. In addition, this period serves as a reminder to orient my attention to appropriate repentance. == == Being a Shofar Sounder and Shofar teacher for 30+ years, I want to share a routine is based on sound musical principals expressed (hopefully) in plain English. If you have any questions or concerns, contact me at: **Shofar221@lycos.com** Or any of the websites below: Joint Effort with Michael Chusid, an expert Shofar sounder and commentator http://www.hearingshofar.com Shofar Sounders WebPage http://shofar221.com Shofar WebPage http://shofar-sounders.com BLOGS **http://shofar-sounders.blogspot.com/** **http://hearingshofar.blogspot.com/** == == Warm-Up WE MUST WARM-UP! This should not be left to chance nor treated lightly by a serious musician on any instrument. If I do not warm-up properly, my performance certainly suffers. Most brass players have several routines. For Shofar sounding, I suggest warming up on the fundamental note. In simple terms, a noise from a musical instrument plays more than one note, called Harmonics, but the principal musical tone produced by **vibration** (as of a string or column of air) is the fundamental or most prominent tone. **http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fundamental** Then, focus on your attack (how you articulate the note). Then play the Tekiah, Shevorim, Shevorim-Teruah, and Tekiah. Your warm up should be at home because the shul does not offer privacy. In shul, you should hold the Shofar between your arms so that the horn will become the same temperature as your body because the instrument should be the same temperature or more than the room. A cold note becomes flat (off-tune or atonal). The shofar’s sound is similar to creation as that of a brass instrument (Trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba, etc) in that the lips vibrate creating a “buzzing.” You should practice buzzing; (brass players do this by playing the mouthpiece alone. In the case of Shofar playing, you can buzz by shaping your thumb and forefinger in the shape of a mouthpiece and blowing into it to stimulate your embouchure. (See The Art of French Horn Playing by Philip Farkas, The Complete Method by Milan Yancich, and Embouchure Building by Joseph Singer; there are many good resources out there.) When Should I Warm-Up? How Much Should I Practice? Professional brass players warm-up every time they get the instrument out of the case to play. The first warm-up in the morning is the most important, as it sets up your embouchure for the rest of the day. The second and third warm-ups are usually shorter, but need to be there to maintain and build the embouchure. Related issues are how much to practice, and when. I feel, if time allows, the serious brass student or professional usually practices three times a day for no more than one hour apiece. A Shofar sounder, not being a professional in the brass instrumentalist sense of the word, should practice each day at the same time of day. Practice standing up; sitting down will change your embouchure. Initially, practice the fundamental note until you feel your muscles get adjusted. Do not play too much beyond this level. If they tire, your muscles are telling you that they have had enough. By repeated playing, however, your musculature will develop into high quality sound and endurance. Ten minutes is the usual limit. Once, you have mastered the one fundamental note, you should concentrate on the attack. The quality of an attack is determined by the position of the tongue’s touching the lips. In some cases, the tip of the front of the tongue can be the part of the tongue used to tongue the attack. In other cases, you can use the side of your tongue. Some use the side of their side tongue and move it back. The technique that is most effective for the Sounder – and still allows maintenance of the correct embouchure -- is the correct way. Week 1 During the first week, work on your embouchure (muscle tone of your lip and surrounding facial muscles) by sounding the most prominent note (fundamental). How long – start with no more than 5-minutes per day; gradually increase this practice time so you will build and tone your embouchure. SHOFAR RANGE Week 2 You should begin with phrase 1. The tekiah is one blast – some end it with a small ‘up’ not (but is not necessary) The shevarim is three moaning sounds. In music we call these slurs. They begin with a low note and slide up to the dominant note. You accomplish this by tightening the lips. The Teruah – nine staccato notes. To avoid confusion, count the nine notes as three triplets, thus: xxx xxx xxx. The notes are articulated by touching the tongue to the tip of the shofar for nine times. Tonguing needs practice and repetition to become natural. Begin the play the sets Phrase 2 - T-SH-T (3X) Tekiah-SHevarim -Tekiah Phrase 3 - T-R-T (3X) Tekiah- teRuah-Tekiah You may sustain ‘lip fatigue’ – your lip will tire and will not respond the way you desire. Week 3 Continue practicing the phrases for as many times as you can In doing so, you will memorize the association of the sounds and their names . Also, you will build stamina and embouchure definition. Note that you are focusing on endurance athletics but you do need a certain amount of stamina and lip strength to beat fatigue. Learn Prayer To Be Recited On Rosh Hashanah Praised are You, O Lord, Master of the Universe who has commanded us to hear the shofar Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha-olam, asher kid-shanu b-mitz-votav Vi-tzi-vanu Lish-moa Kol Shofar. First Day Only Week 4 Work from the prayer book to practice each series of sounds. Some congregations sound thirty note; others, ninety; most, 100 sounds. On a couple of the days, I suggest you work with the kri’ah (the one who pronounces the sounds so you can coordinate your activities. You also will ‘feel each other out,’ as so often happens in musical schemes. On the day before Rosh HaShanah – do not practice. Although Jewish law forbids such practice, the musical reason is to enable your embouchure to rest on the day prior to performance, such as soloists do prior to musical recitals. Shofar Practice Guide To watch video on Shofar Practice Guide go to: http://tinyurl.com/29qhh3g Or in writing http://tinyurl.com/27ykf94 Arthur L. Finkle Musical Notes Special thanks for significant input of premier shofar Sounder Michael Chusid, RA FCSI

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The Mystical Meaning of Shofar

The Mystical Meaning of Shofar 

Arthur L. Finkle

Several articles address the religious, social, political, cultural and philosophical meaning of Shofar. No articles currently in circulation address the mystical tradition of Shofar. Jewish mysticism is rich in tradition, citing Shimon Bar Yochai as a founder. In 1176, the Bahir was published by the Provence (Southern France) School of Kabbalists). However, it is ascribed to R. Nechuniah ben HaKana, a disciple of bar Yochai. It is mentioned by the Ravaad, the Ramban and the Zohar. Then xx’ Moses De Leon in the 13th century claims to have found the Zohar, a masterly mystical treatise. Then mystics flourished in Spain during its Jewish Golden Age (Ramban, Abulafia, R. Moshe Cordevero, etc.). Primary Jewish Mystical Texts Sefer Yetzirah ("book of creation") was the first historically recorded book on Kabbalah. Meaningless to those not schooled in mysticism, student could understand it only with a competent mentor. The second of the important Jewish mystical works is the Bahir ("the illumination"), also known as "The Midrash of Rabbi Nechuniah ben haKana". It is some 12,000 words long. First published in Provence in 1176, many Orthodox Jews believe that the author was Rabbi Nehuniah ben haKana, a Talmudic sage of the first century. Historians have shown that the book was likely written not long before it was published. The Zohar (זהר "the radiance") is arguably the most important book written on Jewish mysticism. Attributed to Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, a 2nd century Talmudic commentator, it is generally assigned to a 13th century Spanish Jew, Moshe de Leon. There are those (mostly non-religious) who doubt that the Zohar was written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Moshe de Leon was in possession of the manuscript and claimed it was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s work. Other sages authenticated this (possibly Abulafia, or Rabbi Levi ben Gershon aka Ralbag). The Zohar contains and elaborates upon much of the material found in Sefer Yetzirah and Sefer Bahir, and without question is the Kabbalistic work par excellance. Kabbalistic Teachings about the Human Soul The Zohar posits that the human soul has three elements, the nefesh, ru'ah, and neshamah. The nefesh is found in all humans, and enters the physical body at birth. It is the source of one's physical and psychological nature. The next two parts of the soul are not implanted at birth, but are slowly created over time; their development depends on the actions and beliefs of the individual. They are said to only fully exist in people awakened spiritually. A common way of explaining the five parts of the soul is as follows: • Nefesh (נפש) - the lower part, or animal part, of the soul. Is linked to instincts and bodily cravings. • Ruach (רוח) - the middle soul, the spirit. It contains the moral virtues and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. • Neshamah (נשמה) - the higher soul, or super-soul. This separates man from all other lifeforms. It is related to the intellect, and allows man to enjoy and benefit from the afterlife. This part of the soul is provided both to Jew and non-Jew alike at birth. It allows one to have some awareness of the existence and presence of God. • Ha’tah – Higher spiritual plane • Yichuda – unite with HaKOM In addition, there are five “realms” through which the “soul” travels. From lowest to highest: • Asiyah (World of Activity, Making or Physical Manifestation). • Yetzirah (World of Formation), and • B'riyah (World of Creation), • Atziluth (World of Emanation), • Atziluth is also called the "Supernal World." • It is rooted in the Sefirah Crown/Above and correlates with the letter Yod in the Name YHVH. In Atziluth, the twenty-two Hebrew letters are yet unmanifest, In the sixteenth century, R. Isaac Luria (Arizal) (1534-72) and his fellow mystics of Safed concerned themselves Messianic Redemption consequent to the Spanish expulsion (and its mass conversions). He overturned the Talmudic restriction that before studying mysticism one had to attain the age of thirty-nine, leading to the spread of Jewish mysticism. His fast-traveling doctrines included Tzimtzum (contraction); the breaking of the vessels: and Tikkun: (restoration and repair). Simply put, Luria ingeniously fashioned a metaphor of God’s contracting the universe to create the world, among other things. The shofar is metaphor in Lurianic mysticism. The Shofar service begins with Ps. 47, which recites God’s name seven times. And the the Psalm, itself, is repeated seven times in traditional settings. Seven is mystical number often used is Lurianic mysticism. The psalm is followed by seven verses, six if which form an acrostic, ("destroy Satan"), also a Lurianic theme. Rabbi Isaac Luria Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) revolutionized the study of Jewish mysticism through Kabbalah. He married, had an family and, for seven years, meditated on the Zohar. Luria believed that deceased teachers of the past spoke to him and that he had frequent interviews with Elijah the prophet. He made mysticism available to those who were inclined the meaning of existence and one’s [lace in it.. See Shira Schoenberg , Rabbi Isaac Ben Solomon Luria, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Luria.html The Lurianic Kabbalah is an extremely complex system of thought . Like Maimonides, it speaks between the lines (occult and hidden).See M. Idel, Messianic Mystics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), p. 170 Number “7” Ancient Egyptian civilization interpreded the number “7” a representation of God. Number seven appears in the Tanach. To cites a few examples: Seven Days of Creation (Genesis 1) Anyone who dares to kill Cain 'will suffer vengeance seven times over (Genesis 4:15) Lamech in his "Song of the Sword" claims that 'if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold', he himself shall be 'seventy-sevenfold' (Genesis 4:24) Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine in Pharaoh's dream (Genesis 41) In regards to the sin sacrifice, the anointed priest was to sprinkle the bullock's blood seven times before the lord (Leviticus 4:6) Seven days of the feast of Passover (Exodus 13:3–10) Creation of the seven day week and the pattern concerning distribution and use of manna (Exodus 16) The Menorah crafts as a seven-branched candelabrum, occupying a hold p[lace in the Temple. (Exodus 25) Seven year cycle around the years of Jubilee (Leviticus 25) Jericho's walls fall on the seventh day after seven priests with seven trumpets march around the city seven times (Joshua 6:8) Seven things that are detestable to the LORD (Proverbs 6:16–19) Seven Pillars of the House of Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1) Arthur I. Miller posits that there are seven planets and that Moses heard seven voices on Mou4int Sinai (as he received the Ten Commandments). Deciphering the Cosmic Number: See Arthur I. Miller, The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli, . WW Norton Maimonides provides “seven causes that should account for the contradictory and contrary statements to be found in any book or compilation.” Regarding the last of the seven, he writes: The seventh cause. In speaking about very obscure matters, it is necessary to conceal some parts and disclose others. Sometimes in the case of certain dicta this necessity requires that the discussion proceed on the basis of a certain premise, whereas in another. M. D. Chenu, Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century, p. 103; Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, trans. H. E. Butler London, 1953), vol. 8, sec. 23. Tradition holds that God created seven before the world (Pes 54): Torah, resentence, paradise, gehinnah, throne of glory, name of God and name of messiah. In Lurianic Mysticism, the lower seven sefirot (Wisdom and Understanding) begat an offspring :Tiferet . Tiferet connotes mercy or non-rational action. In other words, the shofar not only oeeierces the façade of knowledge and understanding of the human, but it also resonates with the emotional or religious soul. See Lawrence Fine, Safed Spirituality: Rules of Mystical Language As The Vehicle Of Creation The idea that language as the vehicle of creation is present in the earliest Kabbalistic text, Sefer ha-Bahir. It proclaims the world was created through divine speech in the Primordial Ether (Avir Kadmon). Could this be the shofar? www.newkabbalah.com ©Sanford L. Drob, 2003. Sound of the Shofar The Rebbe, (Rabbi M. M. Schneerson, (t’l) posited that the sound of the shofar represents a burst of emotion beyond words There are things that are important that shake us to the core. The very core of our souls crying, "Father! Father!" http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/315559/jewish/Shofar.htm Renewal Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev taught that the central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the shofar. The sound of the shofar, heard on the first day of Tishrei, represented the re-cycling of a new year. In Hassidic terns, a this recycling is a continuation of the act of creation that the world needs this cosmic energy in order to continue. God’s Voice The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson (z’l) made another analogy that the High holy Days are based on coronation, repentance and Shofar. Coronation refers to the Kingship that humankind establishes with God, both reaching up and its reaching down to embrace humankind. Repentance (tshuvah) is a major part of the High Holy Days. Indeed, during these ten days, Jews are obligated to atone for their sins and to purify their souls. There is also an obligation (mitzvah) for sounding the Shofar. The mitzvah of the day is the sounding of the shofar."( Rosh HaShanah 27a.)] That is to say, not only does Rosh HaShanah contain characteristics that are exclusive to the theme and conception of Rosh HaShanah alone, and not only does Rosh HaShanah include shared features common to all the Ten Days of Repentance, but it also possesses its own "mitzvah of the day" - sounding the shofar. http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/chassidic-dimension-festivals-1/03.htm. ACCESSED July 5, 2009. Basically, he equates the sound of the Shofar with God’s voice, on a mystical level! Such a voice is awesome is bespeaks the solemnity and grandiosity of the High Holidays in the lives of the Jewish People. He then resolves the lulav and etrog paradox on the Sabbath by indicating that Sukkot does not require the Godliness of “delight,” which is only reserved for the Sabbath, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the announcement of the Messiah! Moreover, the voice of God is mentioned in the Bible as God’s voice and as God’s voice cessation [In Sedra Yitro, Gen. 18:1-18], The sound of the shofar grew increasingly stronger; Moses would speak and God would answer him with a voice. יט. וַיְהִי קוֹל הַשּׁוֹפָר הוֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק מְאֹד מֹשֶׁה יְדַבֵּר וְהָאֱ־לֹהִים יַעֲנֶנּוּ בְקוֹל: grew increasingly stronger:

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Rabbi Larry Freedman http://www.templesinaipgh.org/Door-columns/sermons/HH2005/RH1-LF.pdf

For full explanation of Shofar

For full explanation of Shofar, its influence on prayer and its historical antecedents going back to the Temple sacrifices,

go to:

Easy Guide to Shofar Sounding Book

Shofar WebPage

http://www.hearingshofar.com 

http://shofarhalacha.blogspot.com/

Sounding Shofar During Morning Services During Elul

Sounding Shofar During Morning Services During Elul

Arthur L. Finkle

The Code of Jewish Law (Shulhan Arukh, I28:8) instructs that the shofar be sounded in the period between rosh hodesh (new month) Elul until after Yom Kippur. The religious rationale was that Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the second tablets; dwelt there for 40 days; and descended on the tenth of Tishre, when the Israelites completed atonement for creating the Golden Calf. The musi­cal rationale is that a forty-day period provided the necessary practice for the Shofar Sounder to develop the appropriate embouchure.

The religious rationale come from the Midrash (Pirkei d'R' Eliezer 45; R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus (80-118 C.E.), a disciple of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai and teacher of Rabbi Akiva):

[During the Jews' first year in the desert,] they received the [Ten] Commandments on the sixth of the month [of Sivan], [and then] Moshe forty days on the mountain studying, [and then] on the seventeenth of [the month of] Tammuz he came down and broke the Tablets. [Forty days later] on Rosh Chodesh Elul, HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to him "Come up to Me on the mountain" (Devarim 10:1), and an [announcement through blowing] shofar was spread throughout the camp, [saying] that "Moshe has gone up on the mountain!" - so that they would not be [led] astray after strange worship [once] again, and [the honor of] HaKadosh Baruch Hu was uplifted through that shofar [blowing], as it says (Tehillim 47:6) "G-d rises up at [the blowing of] the shofar." Accordingly, the Sages instituted that shofar be blown each and every year on Rosh Chodesh Elul [the authorities' text - unlike ours which says "Tishrei" (from here on are the words of the Tur and the Rosh - possibly their text to the Midrash itself)] and [throughout] the entire month, in order to urge Israel that they do teshuvah [i.e. "return to Hashem" (repent)], as it says (Amos 3:6), "If a shofar shall be blown in a city [can it be that the inhabitants will not be shaken?]," and in order to confuse the Satan [i.e. angel of Heavenly prosecution].

In rabbinic commentaries, the Rosh (1250 – 1327) ruled: ‘it is the Ashkenazi minhag (custom) to blow [shofar] throughout the month of Elul, morning and evening, after the prayer [services]."

The Code of Jewish Law of 1665 (with glosses 1797) brings a variation - blowing only after the morning service (Shacharis). The Mishnah Berurah, an update of religious laws in the Code of Jewish Law, (dated approximately 1900) confirms the accepted custom. See www.learnhalacha.com/ElulShofar.pdf

The musical rationale is what any instrumentalist would do preparatory to a performance. See Arthur L. Finkle, The  Easy Guide to Shofar Sounding, LA: Torah Aura, 2003

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