Shofar time is here again
Tips of the trade
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Print | At Congregation B’nai Israel in Emerson, it is never too early to start learning the art of sounding a shofar. Pictured in the top row are: Jason Weinberg (with shofar), Bruce Weinberg (with shofar), Brian Reiff, Evan Reiff (with shofar), and Craig Weisz (instructor). Bottom row: Hannah Mathilda Weisz (with shofar) and Evan Shein. Courtesy Naomi Weinberg |
In classes promising to teach participants to “toot your own horn,” Craig Weisz , a member of Cong. B’nai Israel in Emerson and the husband of the synagogue’s religious leader, Rabbi Debra Orenstein, hopes to demonstrate that sounding a shofar “is not all that difficult.”
“My 5-year-old daughter can do it,” he said, as can his 7-year-old son.
While there are different levels of preparation — including the spiritual aspect, “understanding the meaning of the shofar and what it’s about” — Weisz said he will be focusing on “simple technical tips.”
“It’s not a musical instrument,” he said, acknowledging that professional musicians might nevertheless have some advantages in playing the ram’s horn. “You make a raspberry sound with your lips and put the shofar near your mouth.”
Weisz said playing the shofar is almost “counterintuitive.”
“You don’t blow into it,” said the Teaneck resident. “I’ll try to get [attendees] to understand what to do with their mouths. It’s not about pressing it hard; it’s about being relaxed.”
Weisz said he has sounded a shofar for many years, but became more knowledgeable about it several years ago when he attended a workshop in Los Angeles. He noted that the mitzvah is not to sound a shofar but rather to hear it.
“When I am blowing it, I am not performing a mitzvah but rather helping [the congregation] to do a mitzvah,” he said. “I’m particularly aware of the purpose. It helps you to focus on the preparation.”
“It’s not about the size of the shofar,” he added. “When you understand that without feeling daunted, with a little guidance you can get a good sound. The goal is not to get a full pure tone but to get something. That’s all that’s required.”
Weisz’s workshops will take place at the synagogue on Sept. 11 and 25 at 9:30 a.m., and Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m. For additional information, call (201) 265-2272 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
More on: Shofar time is here again
Precision counts
Observing the rules of shofar-sounding
There is no verse in the Torah commanding Jews to sound a shofar on Rosh Hashanah.
“You can quote me on that,” said Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, religious leader of Fair Lawn’s Shomrei Torah Orthodox Congregation. “The fact that we use a shofar and not a harmonica or a tuba is based on oral law.”
For that matter, said Yudin, Rosh Hashanah is not named in the Torah, either, but simply called “the first day of the seventh month.” The Torah tells us to remember the teruah, or blast, on that day, later called yom teruah. “But it still doesn’t use the word shofar,” said Yudin.
Something old, something new
Shofar-sounders prepare to follow new mahzor
Teaneck’s Temple Emeth has not had to look further than its religious school graduates to find accomplished shofar sounders.
According to Rabbi Steven Sirbu, religious leader of the synagogue, his congregation relies on two alumna to sound the ram’s horn on the High Holy Days.
“The older of the two, Jessica Firschein, is in her mid-20s and does all her preparation on her own,” he said. The younger, 15-year-old Hillsdale resident Carly Etzin, has been working with Jessica and the rabbi to prepare for the holidays.
