How the Trumpet Transformed
Ps. 98:5-6
Live music is one of the most moving ways to make us feel and move our bodies - whether in a concert hall, on the street or in a synagogue. One of the striking differences between different denominations in the current Jewish reality is the use of instruments during times of worship. I grew up in an Orthodox context where only singing (and mostly men’s) was allowed and I vividly remember the first time I heard a guitar accompanying a cantor at a prayer service. It was a Friday evening service in a liberal synagogue in Jerusalem, and these Psalms we are now reading were sung in the familiar tune from our family synagogue down the road - but with live music played along, and a co-ed congregation swaying along. I was simultaneously horrified by the blasphemy and totally captivated.
The integration of live music into Jewish worship was a product of the Reform movement in Europe, in the 19th century. But it was, in fact, a re-integration, or a reclamation of the ancient traditions that have gone mute over centuries of exile. One of the reasons often cited for the disappearance of live music from Jewish worship is the sorrowful response to the destruction and diaspora existence -- as one of the later psalms we have yet to read ponders - “how can we sing our God’s song on foreign soil?”
But once upon a time, the Psalms often remind us, live music was how our ancestors appreciated the divine, and how the temple functioned. A band of Levites was always on the steps singing along the sacrificial service, and they were often if not always accompanied by a band.
Today’s psalm is one such sample that specifies the type of instruments used in the temple:
זַמְּר֣וּ לַיהֹוָ֣ה בְּכִנּ֑וֹר בְּ֝כִנּ֗וֹר וְק֣וֹל זִמְרָֽה׃ בַּ֭חֲצֹ֣צְרוֹת וְק֣וֹל שׁוֹפָ֑ר הָ֝רִ֗יעוּ לִפְנֵ֤י ׀ הַמֶּ֬לֶךְ יְהֹוָֽה׃
Sing praise to GOD with the lyre,
with the lyre and melodious song.
With trumpets and the blast of the horn
raise a shout before GOD, the King.
Ps. 98:5-6
The lyre would become our violin, or guitar, often the accompaniment to songs and prayers. The trumpets up the notch and offer more drama, reserved for more upbeat occasions. And then there’s the Shofar - nowadays reserved for the High Holy Days - coming soon upon us again.
But it’s interesting to note that the horn section has evolved over time - and that what this psalm calls ‘trumpets’ may actually be the ram’s horns we still use today, even if only once or twice a year.
The trumpets are mentioned 30 times through the Hebrew Bible, 20 of those in the Book of Chronicles. They first show up when Moses is instructed to commission two trumpets made of silver - their purpose was more practical than pleasurable: They were used as sirens and a public announcement system to call the community to order, get going or start a battle. The Arch of Titus, depicting the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE includes trumpets, along the Menorah, in the carving of the procession of loot. A century later, a coin from the Bar Kochva revolt in Judea, the last stronghold and failure of Judean autonomy of that era, displays two trumpets as the symbol for the future restoration of the temple and the national redemption.
But by the following centuries the sages, already removed from the temple procedures by three hundred years, were no longer sure what’s the difference between a shofar and a trumpet. The Babylonian sage Rabbi Hisda claims that a few items had their names change since the temple’s destruction - song them the trumpet now called the shofar. Why does it matter? Because he suggested that on Rosh HaShanna one should blow a trumpet and not a shofar! That may have made him an early advocate of bringing music back into the worship with more instrumental options. But his opinion, at the time, was declined.
The ancient trumpets make their appearance in one more ancient relic, further blurring the lines between the natural ram’s horn - or human made trumpet. The 5th Century CE synagogue of the city Tzippori or Sepphoris in the Galilee was fairly well preserved, and nowadays is open to the public, displaying its mosaic floor, discovered in an archaeological dig in the 1980’s.
The floor includes the Zodiac wheel, often the central image of ancient Synagogue mosaics, as well as biblical scenes - and two large horns next to an altar with a Hebrew inscription - ‘Trumpets.’
Most scholars assume that this was a nostalgic nod to the old temple ways. But maybe this was also a sign for where the musicians should stand?
We’ll never know.
Over time, Jewish worship became predominantly vocal, as did Christian and Muslim. The synagogue of Sepphoris may have later served as a house of worship for one of those other religious traditions before becoming rubble. The Palestinian village of Sepphoris that eventually replaced the thriving town was destroyed in 1948 by the Israeli army and its residents exiled, just as it happened to the Jewish residents of this same place many generations earlier.
Did any of them pack their instruments for the road?
Did the music make it to the respective diasporas? Voices are easier to carry than trumpets. A small shofar is probably easier to carry too, and its wail may be a more suitable soundtrack for exiles than the jubilant trumpet.
But today’s psalm - and the overall motif of the Synagogue floor in Sepphoris are not about the present - but about the future. Psalm 98, 2,500 years old, is about the new song that will be sung when the redemption comes, and that seems to be the intention of the 5th century CE artwork as well. Both poem and mosaic describe what once was and what will once again be. Neither poet, mosaic maker or their contemporary audiences had access to the temple that was no longer there. But they had memories - and a rich imagination, in which trumpets blared and strings played on and moved their hearts, and maybe their bodies too.
Today’s psalm goes on to imagine the future days when music moves us all so much so that even the rivers clap along and the mountains sing. What will be so wonderful? We will remember how we are all one big orchestra, made in divine image, ready to relinquish the pains of the past and co-create a just and joyful world, together:
לִ֥פְֽנֵי יְהֹוָ֗ה כִּ֥י בָא֮ לִשְׁפֹּ֢ט הָ֫אָ֥רֶץ יִשְׁפֹּֽט־תֵּבֵ֥ל בְּצֶ֑דֶק וְ֝עַמִּ֗ים בְּמֵישָׁרִֽים׃
In the presence of GOD—
who will return to rule the earth:
Who will rule the world with justice,
and all people with equity.
Ps. 98:5
May it be that the shofar that we will soon blow on the first day of the new year help us imagine and bring about these days of equity, harmony and justice.
Meanwhile, check out this delightful music video of beloved Israeli composer and musician Shlomo Gronich, and his children’s choir, 15 years ago, bringing life to today’s psalm - accompanied by flute, keyboard, drums, innocence and hope.
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