A crescent moon shines tonight as Elul, the last month of the Hebrew calendar, begins. On this and on each of the next thirty mornings, a strange sound is heard In synagogues all over the world. The sound is made by the blowing of a trumpet made from ram’s horn, a primal wake up call to usher in the new year. The ram’s horn, known today as Shofar and biblically as Yovel, is perhaps the oldest musical instrument we know that is still in ritual practice, but where did it originate and how has its precise use evolve over time? Even the Freudians were intrigued.
A hint is found in today’s chapter and in the curious commentaries that accumulated over generations. But the fact is that we don’t really know - it’s just too ancient. And that is part of the mystique.
Continuing last chapter’s list of sacrificial systems, the people receive more detailed instructions on how to honor sacred seasons. The chapter begins with a holiday that will one day be known as Rosh HaShana - the Head of the new Jewish year. The Hebrew calendar would go through shifts and evolutions over time, which is why, oddly, the first day of the new year as we now know it begins in the bible on the seventh and not on the first month. But that’s for another time:
וּבַחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜י בְּאֶחָ֣ד לַחֹ֗דֶשׁ מִֽקְרָא־קֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם כׇּל־מְלֶ֥אכֶת עֲבֹדָ֖ה לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֑וּ י֥וֹם תְּרוּעָ֖ה יִהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶֽם׃
“In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. On this day you will sound the horn.” Ba 29:1
The hebrew word for ‘sound the horn’ is ‘Teruah’ - literally, ‘exclamation’ as in loud cheer or alarm. The Torah does not specify what kind of instrument is used nor what does this sound like. Later generations will fill in the gaps with the details of what,how, when and why. But the mysterious origins remain. By the time the Shofar makes it to Egypt in the 12th century, Terua will be one of three distinct types of ritual music that is used on Rosh Ha’Shanna, a long set of short notes. But even the great scholar Maimonides wasn’t sure how it got there:
“Due to the length of years and the great burdens of our exile, we have a doubt about this Teruah that is mentioned in the Torah, and we do not know how it is supposed to sound. It may be the wail that women wail amongst themselves at the time that they weep. Or it may be the sigh that one sighs, time after time, whilst one’s heart is worried about a big thing. Or both of them together — the sigh and the wail,- that may be called teruah. For this is the way of a worrier, to first sigh, and then wail. Hence we do all three possibilities.”
The shofar kept waking people up each new year and in 1919 Vienna, a young psychoanalyst and anthropologist named Theodor Reik wrote an entire book titled “The Shofar,” in which he used his teacher Freud’s method to prove that the strange sound echoed our repressed but yearned for longing to hear the voice of the Creator. Tradition links the horn’s ram to the story of the Binding of Isaac, and there’s much there to work with as for guilt and shame, as well as yearning for redemption. Freudians have a lot to work with here, and Reik went on to suggest that the Shofar echoes our human angst but that also, like other musical instruments in the ancient world and like music itself is uniquely derived from divine origins and its hollow sound once was associated with what God sounded like at Mount Sinai. The sound of the shofar, he suggests, does not just symbolize the voice of God – it is the sound of God.
Elul is a reminder to get back in touch with our inner source, return to our best sense of self, clean up our act, and recommit to what it takes to lead a life of more integrity and intention. An ancient alarm bell begins to raise its voice in our inner ear today - wake up to who you want to really be! What will it take for us to dare to listen and not reach out for the snooze button?
Chodesh Tov! May this new moon bring realness, truth, and blessing.
Below the Bible Belt:
929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections:
Join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible, with daily reflections, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions.
#wilderness #bookofnumbers #shofar # #Elul #newmoon #Bamidbar29 #bamidbar #thetorah #hebrewbible #whowrotethebible? #calendar #mythictime #Maimonides #Freud #music #repentance #theodorereik #roshhashannah #teruah
#hebrewmyth #929 #torah #bible #hiddenbible #sefaria #929english #labshul #929project #myth #belowthebiblebelt #postpatriarchy