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Sept. 23, 2011
A link between past, present
Workshops provide a chance for kids to make their own shofar.
MICHELLE DODEK
Memory is stimulated in many ways. A multi-sensory approach can be the most evocative one, especially in a group; everyone remembers and is touched by experience differently. When thinking of holiday observance, every Jew seems to have some food that triggers a memory and sometimes a physical response. Perhaps even more powerful is the sense of smell, which can bring forth a flood of memories. Seeing and hugging friends and family at holiday times bring other associations, but the auditory sense is also a key to prompting our memory.
At this time of year, Jews are asked to think about the past year and to consider what is important in life. The sound of the shofar is one of Judaism’s most poignant auditory cues. It is said that the voice of the shofar is like a cry, the sound of the soul crying out for a greater connection. It is the only instrument that remains part of Jewish tradition from biblical times and an enduring Jewish ritual object with which most Jews have some familiarity. How many ritual objects do we use today that look and function exactly the same way today as they did in ancient times?
This intriguing link between ancient times and the present, our past and future, our ancestors and us, is brought to the fore when we hear the sound of the shofar. Perhaps that is why we are commanded to hear the voice of the shofar 100 times on each of the days of Rosh Hashanah. And, another name for Rosh Hashanah is Yom Teruah, which means Day of the Shofar Blast. In order to prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the shofar is sounded during weekday shacharit services throughout the month of Elul. This familiar and distinct sound serves as a call to repentance.
Every year, children around the Lower Mainland have the opportunity to fashion a tangible connection to our past and take it with them into the future. Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman of Chabad of Richmond holds shofar-making workshops before the High Holy Days. Baitelman brings his Shofar Factory to Jewish children at day schools including Vancouver Talmud Torah, Richmond Jewish Day School and Vancouver Hebrew Academy, as well as synagogue supplementary schools. Each child who participates has the opportunity to create his or her very own shofar.
“We use power tools like drills and dremels to cut and shape the horn into a shofar,” explained Baitelman, who learned to make shofarot and now organizes and leads the workshop. “We offer the workshop to Grade 5 students because they are old enough to handle the power tools with our help.”
He relies on a group of trusted volunteers, many of whom are handy and return year after year to help run the workshops. According to Baitelman, this is the only shofar-making workshop in the Lower Mainland.
The horns used at the workshops are supplied locally or imported, depending on what is available. The type of horns is restricted to the horn of a kosher animal but the animal need not have been killed according the laws of shechitah (ritual slaughter) because the horn is clearly not to be eaten. Goat horns are popular and readily available.
The other requirements are that the horn be naturally hollow and should not be cut off of a living animal, as that would cause the animal to suffer needlessly. Interestingly, even though cows and bulls are kosher to eat, no shofar may be fashioned from their horns. The prohibition against cows’ horns refers to the days in the desert when the Israelites built a golden calf for worship while waiting for Moses to return with the Torah from Mount Sinai.
The making of the shofar is not terribly difficult, according to Baitelman, but there are certain aspects that take a bit of finesse. In order to be considered kosher, there can only be two holes, one for blowing into and one at the other end. Cutting the small end of the horn to make the mouthpiece is critical, because if it is too big, the shofar will not sound. Once the mouthpiece is cut, students are able to use other tools to carve and clean the inside of the horn. The real work is sandpapering the outside of the horn to give it a polished look and a pleasant feel.
The children who participate in the workshops discover that the amount of work they put into the project is reflected by the beauty of the end result. Because there is no mitzvah, or commandment, to make or blow a shofar, only to hear its sound, there are no prayers associated with the making of it.
Michelle Dodek is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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