The Shofar Corps
There is an ancient tradition of hearing 100 shofar blasts during Rosh
Hashanah. The focused intension of so many shofar blowers creates an amazingly
awesome blast to call us towards teshuvah (repentance) and awaken our
souls. Every year Makom offers free classes on shofar so that more individuals
-- including you! -- can learn to blow the shofar with ease and confidence.
In addition to participating in our High Holiday shofaring, these classes
will also deepen your spiritual preparation for the New Year by offering
you a technique to use shofar as a meditation throughout Elul, the month
before the New Year. Class schedule
JOIN THE SHOFAR
CORPS!!! Click here to find out how...
18
Secrets of an Awesome Tekiah Gedolah
The following tips can help you produce a long, sustained, and awesome
shofar blast on the final big blast, the tekiah gedolah, of the Rosh Hashanah
or Yom Kippur service:
1. Practice: Remember the advice given to a tourist in New York City who asked "How do I get to Carnegie Hall? The answer: "Practice, Practice, Practice." Blowing shofar daily throughout Elul will assure you are in top form for The Days of Awe. The practice, however, is not just to perfect technique but to spiritually awaken the blower and to align him or her with the sound of the shofar and the process of teshuvah.
2. Conditioning: The healthier you are, the easier it will be to blow a strong, loud blast. I like to swim the length of a swimming pool underwater, a discipline that requires breath control similar to immersing myself in a tekiah gedolah. Steve. a fellow shofar blower in my shul, quit smoking in order to sustain a longer shofar blast.
3. Posture and Breathe Control: Loosen your belt and collar to free-up your breathing apparatus. If decorum permits, remove your shoes so you are in better contact with the earth.
4. Preparation is Key to All Spiritual Ritual: In the moments leading up to the shofar sounding, turn inward; this is not the time to be concentrating on the prayer book or the mounting intensity of the worshipers surrounding you. About a half hour before the shofar service, I begin concentrating on my own most intimate prayers and assuming a meditative composure. I pull my tallit over my head to allow me privacy to do the work I must do. Rather than listening to the Rabbi and responses, I allow myself to feel the vibrational field of sound in the sanctuary. I pay attention to feeling centered in my own body and in contact with the earth. And I begin breathing slowly and deeply, inhaling oxygen into every cell of my body and exhaling carbon dioxide along with sins of the past year. By the time I am called forward to blow the shofar, I aim to be of a single-mindedness of purpose - to connect heaven and earth in the sounding of the shofar, advancing the process of teshuvah for myself, my congregation, and all of Israel and the worlds beyond.
5. Shofar is Not a Performance Art: Blowing shofar is devotional service. If you remember that it is not a performance, you will experience less performance anxiety, leading ironically to a better performance.
6. Kavanah and Prayer: Kavanah is the intention underlying our actions. One can read the words of a prayer book out of intellectual curiosity, or one can read them with a sense of reverence; they are the same words, but your relationship to the words will be different because your kavanah is different. Before blowing the shofar, I pray that I be worthy to act as messenger for the congregation, that my shofar blast be accepted as a giant AMEN to all the congregation's spoken and unspoken prayers (including my own), and that I be given the strength and skill to sound the shofar in such a way that it will be heard by anyone in the congregation who has not yet completed their teshuvah work (including myself). If my kavanah is clear, then it does not matter how long my tekiah gedolah is, it will be awesome.
7. Believe that the Longer you Blow, the more Opportunity you are Giving G-d to Show Mercy: Central to the High Holy Day liturgy is the belief that we can bargain with G-d for mercy. The machzor says, "Our Father, our King, be gracious and answer us, for we have too few good deeds. Treat us with justice tempered by love and bring us salvation." Anthropomorphizing The Deity, we envision a judge about to pass a harsh decree, but who, at the last moment, shows mercy. By extending the cry of the tekiah gedolah for as long as humanly possible, you give HaShem the opportunity to show compassion. One student in my class told me that, as a child, she imagined that every moment her rabbi sustained the tekiah gedolah meant that more people would be sustained in life throughout the new year; she says she continues to use the imagery to inspire her to "blow as though lives depend upon it."
8. Feel Competitive: Despite what I have said about shofar not being a performance art, it excites me to blow tekiah gedolah with others. Like the racer who can run faster when he or she has others to pace him or her, I feel the energy of the other shofar blowers and think, "If they are still blowing, I will too - and perhaps even longer!" Like the sportsman, I shake hands with my fellow blowers if they are standing nearby and bless them with strength, because I know the better they blow, the better I will as well.
9. Use the Energy of the Congregation: I can always sustain a longer blow when I am in shul than when I am blowing for myself alone. In the same way that I draw energy from the other blowers, I feel the love and support of the entire congregation. I know that many of them are holding their breath as they experience the awe of the shofar blasts, and I visualize that I have permission to use alls the air in the sanctuary to blow tekiah gedolah.
10. Find your Horn's Resonant Frequency: During a long blast, the voice of the shofar may change its pitch or timbre. While these changes may seem to occur spontaneously as if the horn was still a living thing with a mind of its own (and it is), the shifts are also in response to subtle changes in air pressure, tension in the lips, or the relative positioning of the horn and lips. When this happens to you, notice that effort required to sound the shofar may vary. To sustain a long tekiah gedolah, find the combination that requires the least "wind" to blow. This will generally be at a resonant frequency. It is not necessary to understand the physics. What is important is that you pay attention to the amount of breath you need to blow the shofar. When you find a pitch that is easy maintain without having to blow hard, you have found a resonant frequency, the "sweet spot" in your shofar's voice.
11. Ask for Support: During a long, sustained shofar blast, one can experience lightheadedness or even fainting. This is even more likely after fasting, when even the act of standing can be challenging. If you are concerned about fainting, ask someone to stand at your side to support you. Moses, when he stood with outstretched arms on a hill above our battle with Amalek, had Aaron and Hur standing by his sides to support him. And when you read from the Torah, you have a gabbai standing next to you. There is a reason why we bless someone performing a mitzvah with "yashar koach, may you have strength". Getting the support you need will allow you to blow without fear of injuring yourself should you faint.
12. Keep your Focus on Listening: The mind plays tricks on us, making us panic or feel like we are out of air or about to pass out long before we are in real danger. If you are listening to the shofar, you will not be thinking about how you might be running out of air. You will want to hear more and more.
13. Become Invisible: Pull your tallit over your head, allowing the far end of the shofar to protrude from under your cover. From the anonymity of your own private sanctuary, you can blow and listen uninhibited by thoughts of what you might look like or the visual distractions of your surroundings.
14. Inhale First:
Many shofar blowers rush into their blast as soon as the first syllable
of "tekiah gedolah" is pronounced by the caller. Instead, wait
until the full call is uttered, then quietly reground yourself to the
earth, raise to your full stature, bring the shofar to your lips, and
inhale deeply before blowing. The momentary delay will heighten the drama
of the blast and arouse the congregation to listen even more closely as
they
fill with anticipation. This pause is similar to the midrash about why
Torah begins with the letter Bet instead of Aleph, the silent first letter
of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. It is said that the Aleph is the sound of G-d
inhaling before the Eternal uttered the first sound of creation.
15. Wet Your Whistle: Moist lip vibrate more easily than dry lips. More, it can help to moisten your shofar. Before blowing a conch shell, Hindu devotees make a ritual of pouring water into their "horn" to make it easier to sound. The practice is permitted in Judaism, too; the Talmud permits us to pour water, wine, or vinegar into a shofar. If it is not a fast day, you may want to take a drink of water yourself. On fast days, however, reserve the liquid for the shofar in keeping with the ethical principal that a farmer must feed his livestock before feeding him or her self.
16. Visualize your
Blast is Heard in all the Worlds: Motivational speakers say that the
way to reach a goal is aim beyond it. So blow the shofar with the goal
of having it heard even beyond the back row of seats in your synagogue.
Blow so they can hear it throughout your neighborhood and to the outskirts
of your town. Blow with the intent that
the call will be heard all the way to Washington, the Middle East, the
hospitals and prisons and corporate board rooms and all the places in
our society that need healing. Blow with the certainty that the endangered
plants and animals (and they all are) in the rain forests, the family
farm, and the coral reefs feel the vibration. Merge your blast with those
of all the shofarot being sounded around the world and blow so that all
ten sefirot of the Kabbalah's Tree of Life resonate and harmonize with
the vibration of the shofar. In just a few days after the Days of Awe,
we will enter the sukkah and invite our ancestors to sit with us; blow
with the understanding that even now they are straining to hear the message
that transcends physicality and temporality.
17. Blow Softly: For the tekiah, teruah, and shevarim shofar blasts, I try to produce loud, strong blasts, blasts that can pierce the heart and awaken the spirit. Then, once we are fully alert, tekiah gedolah does not have to be loud because we are already listening with our senses fully engaged. In fact, the more quietly we blow, the closer we listen. This is a technique professional speakers often use, raising their voice to higher and higher volumes, then switching to a low decibel level so we have to listen more intently to hear what is being said. We can also think of tekiah, teruah, and shevarim as calls primarily to be heard by our fellow humans and sentient beings. Tekiah gedolah, on the other hand, is a direct line to Spirit and does not depend on acoustical pressure to be heard.
18. Attend a Free
Shofar Class at Makom Ohr Shalom: It is surprisingly easy - and infinitely
satisfying - to blow the shofar. All most people need are a few pointers.
In addition to learning how to blow the shofar, you will also learn a
simple shofar meditation to help you prepare spiritually for the High
Holy Days.
A free class introductory class will be taught September 15 at 7:10
pm prior to Makom Ohr Shalom's Shabbat Services at 5519 Lindley Ave. (At
Burbank) in Tarzana, CA.
Special classes can be arranged by contacting Michael Chusid at 818-774-0003.
You do not have to be a Makom member to attend, and guests are invited.
Bring a shofar if you have one, practice horns will be provided if you
need one.
Reprinted with
permission from Blowing Shofar/Hearing Shofar by Michael Chusid, (c) 2005
Meditations to
Help Prepare for The New Year:
The following include meditations for each day of the month of Elul to
help your spiritual preparations for the Days of Awe:
Meditations on the Viddui Prayer,
by Rabbi Debra Orenstein
Meditations on Shofar,
by Michael Chusid
Email: makominfo@yahoo.com
