“When all else fails and words lose their meaning, when the human condition renders us not just speechless, but utterly mute, even beyond tears, we can only turn to the primordial scream of the ram’s horn to say the unsayable.” This image is by Stan Lebovic from his website http://www.blackisacolor. Read More »

http://www.cactuskallah.org Cactus Kallah is an amazing tribal gathering where you can be with community; re-enter into Judaism; experience Jewish renewal; learn with outstanding teachers; davven (pray); combine spirituality and social action; and more. Read More »

“The sound of a few coins clinking into a pushke is as Jewish a sound as the call of the shofar.” Quote and image by Matt Fenster Executive Vice President of Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverside in an essay on “Tzedakah,” http: //sites.google. Read More »

http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb4gKuoxXxI&feature=related Read More »

I have written about the relevance of shofar to Passover in this blog and in Chapter 3-6 of Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram’s Horn . Here is another example, from Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 64a: Pesach is slaughtered in three groups… Read More »

Itamar Erez & The Adama Ensemble playing Hommage,Yoram Lachish , shofar.Click here for complete video. Read More »

I can worship in God’s Tent with happy shofar sounds. I like this translation of Psalms 27: 6. Happy shofar sounds to all of us.Translation appears in Rediscovering Judaism: Bar and Bat Mitzvah for Adults by Rabbis Kerry M. Olitzkey and Ronald H. Isaacs, KTAV Publishing House, 1997, page 139. Read More »

http: //sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/zoom/670386 http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnesmuseum/6513458841/ Read More »

Eliezer ben Yehuda pioneered the revival of Hebrew as a living language. We are told that, upon moving to Eretz Yisrael, he instructed his wife, “From this day forward, we will speak only Hebrew. His wife protested, in Russian, “But I do not speak Hebrew.” Replied ben Yehuda, “Then we will be silent in Hebrew.”Silent in Hebrew. Silent in English. Read More »

“But indeed, any greatnessrequires prior smallness, and there is no great voice if it is not preceded bya soft sound, for this is the way of the Shofar , that it progressively grows.”  Michael Laitman, Kabbalah for the Student , 2008, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, Page 109,  http://www.scribd. Read More »

The Mystic Trumpeter Read More »

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We are told that Torah should be “a sign upon our hands.” ( Deuteronomy 6: 8). Rabbi Yael Buechler (midrashmanicures.com ) is inspired by this mitzvah to paint fingernails with image that relate to the weekly parsha or Jewish holy days. Read More »

In Hearing Shofar: The Still Small Voice of the Ram’s Horn , Chapter 3-13 , “I invoke the concept of ‘spirality’ in our study ofspirituality because the mathematics expressed by the curve of a horn can serveus as a diagram than can help us visualize the nature of teshuvah . Read More »

“Horns of bovids are remarkably diverse. This diversity may reflect functional differences associated with the use of horns as intraspecific weapons. Read More »

Maurice Kamins, a San Francisco, CA-based master shofar crafter, sent me this photo and explained it is “What I do with horns that just do not make it. And by the way, you can blow it and get a sound. Read More »

“Our sages teach us that at the time of the Brit Milah , prayers can reach a place higher than the Shofar blasts of Rosh Hashanah…” (Original source unknown. ) From Minhagim , Amsterdam, 1707 In the days prior to my grandson ‘s brit milah, I have been thinking about using shofar blasts as part of the ritual. Read More »

Shofar is a wonderful tool to use in life-cycle rituals, especially as social conditions create life-cycle phases that did not exist in the past. Retirement, for example, did not exist in pre-industrial times. Read More »

“Blow the great shofar for our freedom, and raise the banner to gather our exiles.” from Amidah (Shmoneh Esreh)By David Flug, Deemyon Orchestra and One Man Band, http://www.deemyon. Read More »

Shofar Madness by Sid Yiddish, an original Jewish punk composition/instrumental recorded with Atomic Theory Dance Band. Read More »