Not far from where I live church bells sound twice a day, every day. They sound at 6 am and 12 pm. I often wonder what happens after the bells sound. I know this is a calling to prayer of some kind, but I do not know what goes on behind the walls of the nearby monastery. My mind now reflects my distant past and travels I took in the Middle East. I hear not the calling of the muezzin, again to urge the faithful to prayer. Now I turn to my own tradition. In Judaism, there are no external sounds heard daily, but rather once yearly there is a season of sound, the season we are presently in. The shofar, a natural instrument fashioned from the horn of a ram, is one of the oldest instruments know to mankind. It was used by ancient Hebrews for religious purposes and other important reasons, such as to summon people to war or to direct battles (for the latter, we can recall that other cultures have used other instruments, such as trumpets or bagpipes). Today among Jews, the shofar is used solely for religious purposes during this season of reflection, the season which culminates with the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. The shofar is blown not just on Rosh Hashana (the holiday that marks the beginning of Jewish religious calendar) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). The shofar is also blown every weekday morning during prayers for the entire month preceding these holidays. This is done to prepare the community for the awesome holidays approaching. During the holidays, in the synagogue, there is a special time when the shofar is sounded. An assistant next to the shofar player calls out one of three instructions, and the shofar player, who must buzz his lips on the opening of this natural horn and play it as one would a trumpet, fulfills one of three prescribed patterns for performance. If the holiday falls on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the shofar is not blown. While the ancient texts are full of references to musical instruments from trumpets and stringed instruments and cymbals, the performing of musical instruments has been forbidden in traditional Jewish services since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. And what of the actual sound of the shofar? This can be a moment of tension for the shofar player and his or her audience. As an experienced clarinetist, I can see that the shofar takes a great deal of wind to perform. Frequently, before the big moment, the player will blow into the horn silently to “warm” the instrument up. When the moment actually comes, sometimes an unfortunate instrument will sputter away until a feeble sound emerges. Thankfully, quite often, the shofar immediately provides a deep, clear, resonant blast that evokes the spirit of these days. Church bells, muezzin, or shofar–all sounds intended to awaken the heart. As I stand among fellow congregants this year, I will affirm my belief that these sounds are all intended to awaken hearts to a shared reality–that these sounds from three great religious traditions were meant to join in harmony. BM
