Jew Vs. Jedi

On January 12th, Adas Emuno president Lance Strate's op ed for the Jewish Standard, Jew vs. Jedi: “May the Schwartz Be With You”, made its way into print, and here it is now on our congregational blog:

The Last Jedi is one of the best, if not the best, of the Star Wars cinematic series that first exploded onto theater screens in 1977. The film franchise, originated by George Lucas, was sold to the Walt Disney Company in 2012, and revitalized in 2015 by the first installment in the new trilogy, The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams.

Although it was a huge commercial success and generally well received, many fans were unhappy with the shift to a more progressive outlook in The Force Awakens, and expressed dissatisfaction with the casting, which deviated from the previous films, which were all but monopolized by white males. In this new trilogy, the lead heroic role of Rey is given to a young woman, while another main character is played by a young African-American man. Even when the sentiments expressed were not overtly racist and sexist, those undercurrents were apparent, especially given that the plot of The Force Awakens was quite consistent with the original Star Wars film.

Star Wars The Force Awakens cast Harrison Ford; Daisy Ridley; Bob Iger; J.J. Abrams; John Boyega; Lupita Nyong'o; Oscar Isaac

The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson, extended the new sensibility by highlighting female leadership, including the late Carrie Fisher as the leader of the resistance and Laura Dern as a self-sacrificing admiral of their decimated fleet, while introducing a significant new character played by Kelly Marie Tran, the child of Vietnamese immigrants. Consistent with this move toward greater diversity in casting, the film also emphasized the progressive theme of breaking with the past.

Given the reactionary mentality of most disgruntled Star Wars fanatics, I was disturbed to read Liel Liebovitz’s December 18 piece in Tablet magazine, called “Reform Jediism.” Liebovitz explains his reaction to the film:

I felt a torrent of anger I haven’t known since gazing at the calamity that was Jar-Jar Binks. That’s because the movie, while otherwise engaging and enjoyable, introduced a radical new take on the Jedi religion. Call it Reform Jediism.

Anger is consistent with right-wing screeds against any form of liberal politics, but in this instance the target was Reform Judaism. As he puts it,

for American Jewish audiences… The Last Jedi can feel almost like a documentary, a sordid story about a small community eager to trade in the old and onerous traditions for the glittery and airy creed of universalist kumbaya that, like so much sound and fury, signifies nothing.

As a Reform Jew, I am deeply offended by Liebovitz’s disdain for those of us who practice a form of Judaism different from his own. And I have to wonder what it is about us that makes him so afraid. In the words of the Jedi master Yoda, who presumably represents Liebovitz’s idea of Orthodox Jediism, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Don’t we know this to be true? Isn’t our world big enough for different forms of Jewish worship, different modes of Jewish identity? Does he really want to open up an irrevocable schism in the Jewish population?

Responses from readers both sympathetic to his general outlook and supportive of the Reform movement have taken Liebovitz to task for misinterpreting the meaning of The Last Jedi, ignoring important details in the film or just getting them wrong, forcing facts to fit his views instead of vice versa. For my part, I find the entire conversation absurd. Its original sin is Liebovitz’s equating Jew and Jedi.

The Star Wars universe was created by George Lucas, who was raised a Methodist. The film’s underlying Christian sensibility is apparent in its emphasis on a savior figure. In the original trilogy, the messianic character is Luke (evoking the Gospels) Skywalker (paralleling walking on water). In the prequels, Anakin Skywalker is born via immaculate conception on the part of the Force and identified as the “chosen one” of prophecy, before falling from grace and becoming the equivalent of the Christian Satan, Darth Vader.

The Jedi are referred to as an “order” rather than a religion. Judaism does not have any orders, but there are many within the Catholic tradition (e.g., Jesuits, Dominicans), as well in as other forms of Christianity including the Methodists, and also within Buddhism, a major influence as well on Lucas and his creation. The Jedi Order is monastic. Worldly attachments—notably marriage—are forbidden; that’s a rule also associated with Christianity and Buddhism.

A fully trained Jedi is referred to as a knight, and Jedi knights are all but invincible warriors, in some ways modeled after Japanese samurai, but also after holy paladins, not unlike the Arthurian knights of the roundtable in search of the Holy Grail of Christian legend. Jedi also are much like priests, Christian or Shaolin, with a direct connection to the godlike Force, one that ordinary people lack. They are nothing like the great rabbis of Jewish tradition, learned sages who study and interpret our sacred texts.

The Christian sensibility of Star Wars is especially apparent in its valuation of redemption and forgiveness. At the end of the original trilogy, Luke is able to convince his father, Darth Vader, to turn on his master, the evil emperor. Luke insists that there still is good in Vader, and this final act allows Vader to die in a state of grace, and to appear in ghostly form alongside the good Jedi who have also left the earthly plane. But the fact remains that Vader was guilty of untold atrocities, including destroying an entire planet in the first Star Wars film.

In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is introduced as essentially worshipping Darth Vader as well as following the evil Supreme Leader of the First Order, and engages in acts of patricide and mass murder. In The Last Jedi, Rey tries to turn Ren away from the dark side, just as Luke did with Vader, saying that it’s not to late for him. The idea that you can be forgiven for all of your sins as long as you repent in the end has its origins in Christian theology, whereas in our tradition, as expounded by Maimonides, some sins are so heinous that no forgiveness or redemption is possible.

I don’t mean to imply that Star Wars is based only on Christian elements. Lucas weaved together a variety of influences, including Buddhism, Japanese samurai films, westerns, World War Two movies, old movie serials such as Flash Gordon, and Joseph Campbell’s notion of the hero’s journey (itself more consistent with Christianity than Judaism). What I want to emphasize is that Star Wars does not reflect Jewish sensibilities, and does not make for a good analogy with contemporary Jewish life.

We still can appreciate and enjoy the movies, which above all are entertaining. But we also ought to be aware of Lucas’s failings as a storyteller. His movies have been criticized for portraying democratic institutions as weak and ineffectual, supported only by the elitist Jedi. Only a few people exhibit the force sensitivity needed to become a Jedi, and that trait is inherited rather than acquired through hard work or ethical conduct.

Lucas drew on many stylistic elements from the World War II era, some in disturbing fashion. For example, the final scene of the first Star Wars movie is based on a scene from the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will. Worse, in the prequel trilogy, Lucas drew on offensive ethnic stereotypes, trying to displace them onto alien beings. The character of Jar Jar Binks, whom Liebovitz and many other fans criticized for being too silly, was based on African-American Stepin Fetchit stereotypes, with a Jamaican/Rastafarian speech pattern. The leaders of the evil Trade Federation were based on East Asian “yellow peril” stereotypes. And the greedy slave owner Watto is hook-nosed and speaks with a Yiddish accent.

Liebovitz is wrong in thinking that the earlier Star Wars movies emphasized tradition. No, they were exercises in nostalgia, romanticized images of the past. And they are profoundly ahistorical, set “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.” The fairytale-like formula stands in stark contrast to the Jewish invention of historical narrative. The events that occur in the Star Wars universe have no connection to our world. How long ago did they happen? What is the connection between their time and ours? Are we the descendants of the human characters in these stories? Are they even human? For this reason, as well as the fact that there is no rationale given for the “futuristic” science and technology, purists argue that these stories are fantasy rather than science fiction.

As Jews, we believe in progress toward a better future as well as continuity with the past. The Star Wars universe is as disconnected from our tradition as it is from human history. We can enjoy the films as entertainment, certainly, and I would suggest that also we ought to applaud the more progressive approach associated with Abrams, Johnson, and Disney. As for a Jewish take on the franchise, I can think of none better than the 1987 Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs, which teaches us to live and let live and not take ourselves so seriously.

And so I say to Liebovitz and others like him, “May the Schwartz be with you!”

 From the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

A Message From Our President

Dr. Lance Strate

Exclusively Inclusive

Adas Emuno is a small congregation, as we all know, and that means that membership in our shul is something of an exclusive club. Of course, the final word on exclusivity was uttered by Groucho Marx, who famously said, "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member." This harkens back to a time when many private clubs had a policy of deliberately excluding Jews and other minorities from membership.

Marx's mocking aside, over the past century and a half, our congregation has never aspired to be one of those big, impersonal temples with many hundreds or even thousands of members. We embraced the approach so well expressed by the British economist, E. F. Schumacher, small is beautiful. I hasten to add that we do have room to grow, and we wouldn't mind a few more members.

In keeping things on a human scale, we don't force congregants to fit into predetermined molds. We remain flexible, able to tailor our expressions of faith, learning, and action to the needs and desires of our members. Ours is a shul that is personal, custom-made for our members.

In this sense, we are also an inclusive congregation, open to all who want to join together with us in the practice of our Reform Jewish faith. We are open to all who seek to worship, learn, and work together to heal our world.

We are exclusively inclusive, or maybe it's inclusively exclusive? Either way, if you think there are any ways we can do better, that we can improve in being open and intimate, warm and welcoming, inclusive and exclusive, please let us know. Let's make sure this is a club that we all want to belong to, that we all are proud to be members of, that even Groucho would be happy to join.

A Spiel in September

As we prepare for our autumal holiday season, we can take a moment to look back at this past spring's Purim spiel, performed on March 11, 2017.

The title of this year's Purim spiel is The Festival of Lots, and it is an original work. Any other congregations or Jewish groups out there who are interested in using it for their next Purim celebration, you can contact us via email: adasemuno at gmail.com.

The video recording is available on YouTube and right here on our congregational blog. Be warned that this is not a professionally produced video, just raw footage, with concomitant technical difficulties. And this is strictly an amateur performance, but we hope you'll agree it's one that has a lot of heart and soul.





Our last two Purims spiels can also be screened here on our blog, via the following posts from days gone by: A Purim Spiel Before Hanukkah (for last year's performance of Shalom Shushan), and A Summer Purim Spiel and A Winter Purim Spiel (for the two performances of The Schnook of Esther).  

The scripts of these two are available online for all to read via the following link: Shalom Shushan and The Schnook of Esther. Congregations and other groups can read it first, and are on the honor system regarding donations to our social action fund if they decide to use it. The script for The Festival of Lots will be made available online in the near future.

A Purim Spiel Before Hanukkah

With hopes of warming your heart during these cold days of winter, and looking forward to springtime, we are pleased to share with you this recording of this year's Purim spiel performance, held on March 23, 2016. 

The title of this year's Purim spiel is Shalom Shushan, and it is an original work. Any other congregations or Jewish groups out there who are interested in using it for their next Purim celebration, you can contact us via email: adasemuno at gmail.com.

The script is available online for all to read via the following link: Shalom Shushan. Last year's script is also available online: The Schnook of Esther. Congregations and other groups can read it first, and are on the honor system regarding donations to our social action fund if they decide to use it.

As for the video recording, it is available on YouTube, and right here on the official blog of Congregation Adas Emuno:





This is raw footage, not a professional production, and there are some technical difficulties, and admittedly the players ought not to quit their day jobs. But it is a lot of fun to watch, and it's clear that it was a lot of fun to put on. And in case you missed them, or want to watch them again, here are two performances of last year's Purim spiel: A Summer Purim Spiel and A Winter Purim Spiel.   

Purim Purim Spiel

From the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Shalom Shushan 

Adas Emuno Purim Spiel 

Wednesday Evening, March 23 

What Does the Fox Say? Everything is Awesome in the new Purim Spiel written by our own temple president, Lance Strate! The musical director is Elka Oliver, and the cast is, well, a group of enthusiastic members (young and not so young) who are Born to Run and will be Dancing in the Streets (or the aisles, anyway!) to deliver a great show! We’re not Losing Our Religion and We Didn’t Light the Fire but we hope you’ll join us as we light up the room in celebration with song parodies, silly antics and a super story to boot (as in These Boots are Made for Walking!). So join us on March 23 at 6:15 for Pizza in the Social Hall, followed by a Purim Service, the reading of the Megillah, and Shalom Shushan! Hamantaschen and other treats will be served after the spiel. (P.S. A few songs from Shalom Shushan will be performed on Sunday morning, March 20 for our Religious School students and anyone else who wants to come!) 

Purim Time!

America's Zayde

Adas Emuno President Lance Strate's most recent op-ed for the Jewish Standard came out on February 12th, under the title of Zayde for President, with the subtitle of, "Grumpy, cool, fun grandpa speaks to millennials," and here it is for your reading pleasure:

When Larry David hosted Saturday Night Live on February 6, Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance during a skit about a sinking ship — an apt metaphor, some might say, for the state of the union.

With David playing the part of a rich man arguing that his wealth earned him a spot in the lifeboat along with the women and children, Sanders was given the opportunity to deliver a few lines about the one percent “getting preferential treatment,” and the “need to unite and work together.” A brief exchange regarding democratic socialism followed, leading David to ask, “Who are you?” Sanders replied, “I am Bernie Sanderswitzky — but we’re gonna change it when we get to America, so it doesn’t sound quite so Jewish.” “Yeah, that’ll trick ’em,” David shot back sarcastically.

And certainly there is no disguising the fact that Sanders is Jewish, although this was one of the rare moments in media coverage of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination that any mention has been made of his ethnic and religious identity. And that arguably is odd, given how much emphasis was placed on the fact that Barack Obama became the first African-American president, and on Hillary Clinton potentially becoming the first woman to be president.

Maybe it seems that by contrast with African-Americans and women, Sanders becoming the first Jewish president would be less of a monumental breakthrough for the nation. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that some Americans believe that we already have a non-Christian president—that Obama is a secret Muslim. Or maybe it’s a matter of longstanding Jewish reticence, as reflected in the name change mentioned in the skit. Sanders is a traditional Anglo-Saxon name; interestingly enough, it originated in the same impulse that was prevalent among the Jews of antiquity, to name their children after Alexander the Great.

Of course, Sanders’ self-identification as a “democratic socialist” often is referenced by the news media, as it was on the Saturday Night Live skit, but would that make him the first socialist president of the United States if he is elected? Not according to Republican rhetoric, given that most Democrats have been accused of promoting socialist policies. More significantly, not according to Sanders himself, who positions himself in the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs and policies, as extended by John F. Kennedy and, significantly, by Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society initiatives. Those presidents avoided the label of socialist, however, given American opposition, from the Russian Revolution on, to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, even during the brief period we fought together to defeat Nazi Germany.

To get a sense of the brief moment in our history when socialism first represented a serious political movement, we might turn to another Sanders, Edward Sanders. Perhaps best known as one of the founders of the 1960s rock band The Fugs, Ed Sanders also has distinguished himself as an activist, author, and award-winning poet. And his extended poem, called Yiddish-Speaking Socialists of the Lower East Side, stands as a tribute to the likes of Meyer London, Morris Hillquit, Scott Nearing, Eugene Debs, and Emma Goldman:

To make a New World
inside the New World
at Century’s turn
the Yiddish speaking socialists
of the Lower East Side.

As the poem explains, they had, “a passion for Justice that never fades away,” although they failed in their efforts to translate their ideals into a successful political revolution. Ed Sanders, who is just two years older than Bernie, was an icon and leader of the counterculture of the ’60s and early ’70s. Although he was not Jewish, he took inspiration from the social justice activism of these early 20th century pioneers.

Movements like these seem to run in cycles, so it may well be that the socialism that arose at the turn of the 20th century and returned in the form of the counterculture over half a century ago is due to make a comeback now. Without a doubt, the counterculture movement also was a youth movement, and not surprisingly, Bernie Sanders has enjoyed widespread support among the youngest of our eligible voters, the generation referred to as Millennials. Indeed, this has been a frequently invoked theme in news coverage of the campaign, with the pundits often seeming at a loss as to why twenty-somethings would support a 74-year-old candidate.

The expectation that young people automatically should favor the youngest candidate perhaps has its roots in the fact that baby boomers venerated John F. Kennedy, who was the youngest person ever elected president, but this overlooks the fact that no one from that generation was old enough to vote in the 1960 election. As much as JFK’s appearance of youth and vigor seemed to resonate with the ascendancy of the boomers, we have no way of knowing how that generation would have regarded him had his career and life not been cut short by an assassin’s bullet. We do know that his successor, LBJ, was vilified for his escalation of the Vietnam War, and that happened despite his progressive domestic initiatives.

In the same sense that political movements may be cyclical in nature, so too are filial relationships. That’s why we often speak of traits and qualities skipping a generation. Millennial support for Sanders therefore should come as no surprise, as he easily fits into the role of America’s grandpa, or more accurately, America’s zayde. Often he comes across as a grumpy grandpa, as Amber Phillips of the Washington Post suggested last July. But Emma Roller of the New York Times labeled him “your cool socialist grandpa” in December, and just a few weeks ago, People profiled him as a “fun grandpa,” according to his own grandchildren.

Jeb Bush, who had been struggling to gain the slightest bit of traction, recently had his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, venture out into the New Hampshire snow to help him in his primary campaign. The news media has made frequent reference to her enormous popularity, referring to her as “America’s grandmother.” And there is no question that she fits the image, and did so even back when her husband was president. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has included the fact that she recently became a grandmother as part of her campaign rhetoric, but she has not been able to come across as particularly grandmotherly, drawing criticism this past December for comparing herself to an abuela (Latina grandmother).

Grumpy, cool, and fun are not mutually exclusive traits, and there is something about the image of older Jewish men that plays well in contemporary American culture, and especially on television. It is indeed a mixture of idealism and humor, impatience with injustice, and infinite patience with the young. Whether this is a wining formula for the Democratic primaries remains to be seen, but the source of his appeal to Millennials, as a socialist zayde, should not be a mystery.

A Summer Puim Spiel

We may not celebrate Purim during the summertime, but in these dog days of August, why not take a look back on the Purim spiel we put on this past March? It may not cool you off from the summer heat, but you still might find it pretty cool, nevertheless!

The Schnook of Esther (A Purim Spiel) Adas Emuno March 1, 2015, can be viewed on our very own Adas Emuno YouTube Channel, but we'll also make it easy on you and include it right here in this very blog post!

As you may recall, this year's spiel was performed twice, the first time on the morning of March 1st, for our Religious School as well as any congregants who wanted to attend, and with the addition of our Adas Emuno Religious School Choir joining in on a couple of songs.

This particular Purim Spiel, The Schnook of Esther, is an original work, and any other congregations or Jewish groups out there who are interested in using it for their next Purim celebration, you can contact us via email: <adasemuno at gmail.com>.







And yes, this is just raw footage, not a professional video production, and yes, the players are not ready for prime time, by any means, but I think you'll agree that we know how to have fun here in our little shul on the hill in Leonia, Bergen County, New Jersey.

 And we'll post footage from our second performance later on, so keep an eye out, and a grogger handy!

Screening "When Comedy Went to School"

Why are there so many Jewish comedians? When Comedy Went to School answers this question with an entertaining portrait of this country's greatest generation of comics—the generation that includes the likes of Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl, and Jerry Stiller, all of whom make appearances in the film, telling jokes and telling their stories. The answer is also found in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains, aka the Borscht Belt, where Jewish immigrants transformed lush farmland into the 20th century's largest resort complex. Those Catskill hotels and bungalow colonies provided the setting for a remarkable group of young comedians to hone their craft and become worldwide legends. It was truly When Comedy Went to School.

Please join us on Saturday evening, June 20th at 7:00 PM, when we welcome writer/producer Larry Richards, who will show and discuss his documentary about Jewish comedians who came from the Borscht Belt, and about the culture of the Borscht Belt that nurtured them.





When Comedy Went to School has been shown at the Jewish History Museum and many other venues. 

$10 suggested donation. Light refreshments. Open to the public.

Rosh Hashanah Calling

While you are supposed to turn off your cellphones or put set them to silent during services, here is one call that you can take:





That was I Just Called to Say Shana Tova, and to give credit where credit is due, here's the text that goes with the video over on YouTube:

Shana Tova from Victoria's Voice Professional Voiceovers http://vicsvoice.com 

http://vicsvoice.com/index_files/Hebrew.htm שנה טובה מויקטוריה פיירנרמן קריינות באנגלית 

Need a professional US English voiceover? Contact me via my website! צריך קריינות מקצועית באנגלית אמריקאית שפת אם? צור קשר דרך האתר שלי! 

Credits: * Concept, Voiceover and Execution: Victoria Feinerman 

* Peace Sign, Gold Eggs, Family at Beach with Dog, Symbol of Medicine: FreeDigitalPhotos.net http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

* Telephone, Honey, Man Praying: Stock.xchng http://www.sxc.hu/help/7_2

And while we're on the subject of calling, here is Leonard Cohen live in concert performing his song based on the High Holy Day liturgy, "Who By Fire," featuring Sonny Rollins on saxophone:





And if you liked that one, how about this amazing performance, featuring an extended guitar solo by Javier Mas:





The lyrics are based on the thousand-year-old Unetanneh Tokef prayer. The following is a traditional translation of the poetic Hebrew, a bit different from what appears in the Reform prayerbook:

We shall ascribe holiness to this day. 

For it is awesome and terrible. 

Your kingship is exalted upon it. 

Your throne is established in mercy. 

You are enthroned upon it in truth. 

In truth You are the judge, 

The exhorter, the all‑knowing, the witness, 

He who inscribes and seals, 

Remembering all that is forgotten. 

You open the book of remembrance 

Which proclaims itself, 

And the seal of each person is there. 

The great shofar is sounded, 

A still small voice is heard. 

The angels are dismayed, 

They are seized by fear and trembling 

As they proclaim: Behold the Day of Judgment! 

For all the hosts of heaven are brought for judgment. 

They shall not be guiltless in Your eyes 

And all creatures shall parade before You as a troop. 

As a shepherd herds his flock, 

Causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff, 

So do You cause to pass, count, and record, 

Visiting the souls of all living, 

Decreeing the length of their days, 

Inscribing their judgment. 

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, 

And on Yom Kippur it is sealed. 

How many shall pass away and how many shall be born, 

Who shall live and who shall die, 

Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not, 

Who shall perish by water and who by fire, 

Who by sword and who by wild beast, 

Who by famine and who by thirst, 

Who by earthquake and who by plague, 

Who by strangulation and who by stoning, 

Who shall have rest and who shall wander, 

Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued, 

Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented, 

Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low, 

Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished. 

But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree. 

For Your praise is in accordance with Your name. You are difficult to anger and easy to appease. For You do not desire the death of the condemned, but that he turn from his path and live. Until the day of his death You wait for him. Should he turn, You will receive him at once. In truth You are their Creator and You understand their inclination, for they are but flesh and blood. The origin of man is dust, his end is dust. He earns his bread by exertion and is like a broken shard, like dry grass, a withered flower, like a passing shadow and a vanishing cloud, like a breeze that blows away and dust that scatters, like a dream that flies away. But You are King, God who lives for all eternity! There is no limit to Your years, no end to the length of Your days, no measure to the hosts of Your glory, no understanding the meaning of Your Name. Your Name is fitting unto You and You are fitting unto it, and our name has been called by Your Name. Act for the sake of Your Name and sanctify Your Name through those who sanctity Your Name.

Here is a relatively traditional rendering of the prayer featuring Naftali Herstik, chief Cantor of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue:





And with that, we say, May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good year, a year of peace and prosperity, happiness and contentment, love and kindness, and all the blessings that God might bestow!

Shofar Madness

And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns, a holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:23-24)

That was Street Shofar by Isaac Feder, and the write-up on YouTube says

WAKE UP. Who do you want to be in 5773?  www.ikar-la.org  

Michael Brous is Sexy Shofar Man.
Directed by - Isaac Feder
Produced by - David Light
Concept by - Jonathan Golub
Cinematography by - Jason Oldak and Kobi Zaig
Edited by - Michael Sheehan and Anders Hoffmann
Add'l Camera - Micha Kinsbruner
Huge thank you - Morgan Keiser, Dan Messinger, Adam Miller, Rachel Light, LA Breakers, Amazing Pinatas, Inc, La Golondrina Oaxaquena, and Rabbi Sharon Brous.  

The shofar blast is a call to wake up to what's possible for ourselves and our world this Jewish new year.

And now, how about a Shofar flashmob?





This 2011 video from Art Kibbutz has the following write-up on YouTube:

Shana tova - Happy New Year from Art Kibbutz NYC  

Enjoy Art Kibbutz NYC's amazing, free Rosh Hashana greeting card wishing you Shana Tova / a Happy New Year featuring our Shofar FlashMob participants worldwide.  

17 cities worldwide participated - Digital Rosh Hashana Card Is Fashioned from Footage - creating the glorious cacophony envisioned by its founders...and then some.  

From the United States to Europe to Israel and beyond established and emerging artists gathered together with creative volunteers in the week before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, to sound the Shofar just for you in places both urban and rural, traditional and off-the-beaten-track.  

Art Kibbutz's central NYC Shofar FlashMob proved so successful that it was necessary to create two consecutive blowings at the Lincoln Center location for eager latecomers already wearing their tuxedos. The experimental jazzy flashmob at the JCC in Manhattan and the Jerusalem Shofar FlashMob both featured Rav Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook's Shofar poem, performed by Rabbi Yitzhak Marmorstein, Jake Marmer, Rabbi Greg Wall and Jordan Hirsch.  

At Art Kibbutz's public art project there was sound, there was spirit, there was community but there was so much more. The sight of people gathering to sound the ancient ram's horn stopped passers-by in their tracks, fulfilling the Shofar's truest functions: creating energy, awareness and intentional community.  

In addition to New York City, footage from Shofar FlashMobs in Jerusalem (Israel), Budapest (Hungary), Tbilisi (Georgia), Kiev (Ukraine), Gomel (Belarus), Chicago (Illinois), Milwakee (Wisconsin), San Francisco (California), Oakland (California), Las Vegas (Nevada), Los Angeles (California), Tulsa (Oklahoma), Wolcott (Vermont), Salem (Massachusetts), and St. Louis (Missouri) comprise Art Kibbutz's edgy Rosh Hashana art video greeting.  

 Art Kibbutz wishes you Shana tova - Happy New Year!!!

But were you about to ask, where do shofars come from?  Of course you were, and we at Congregation Adas Emuno are only too happy to provide you with an answer (you may have to turn up the volume for this video):





Now, you were no doubt wondering, what about some shofar-oriented hip hop music?  Well, no worries, we got you covered:



That was Shofar Callin': The Rosh Hashanah Song by Prodezra Beats.  And once more, here's the write-up on YouTube:

Shofar Callin' connects the story Jews read on the New Year -- when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac -- with the ritual blowing of the Shofar, or ram's horn. What's the connection?  

Find out how the Jewish New Year is WAY more than just a day to spend in synagogue, and how the call of the Shofar can be spiritually meaningful in your daily life.  

Prodezra Beats, an independent artist, broke out big on the scene when he produced the track for "Change" with Y-Love & DeScribe, released on Shemspeed. Now with the "Shofar Callin'" track for Rosh Hashanah, he is back with another viral hit!  

This G-dcast will have you bumping into the new year in no time! Shana tova.

Now, you're saying, it's all well and fine to have a song about the shofar, but you can't really play anything on the shofar can you?  Well, how about Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem:



Mazel tov to David Zasloff on this amazing achievement!  And here's another player who made it all the way to Conan O'Brien, courtesy of New Jersey native Max Weinberg:



Well, that was a bit irreverent, you're right, but how can you be Jewish and not have a sense of humor?  But still, you have to inquire, is the shofar good for anything else?  Funny you should ask...




There are many shofar stories, some we must never forget.  Here is a video made available by the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum on Blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah in the Kovno Ghetto:



And this is what they had to say about it:

Shmuel Daitch Ben Menachem was born in Kovno, Lithuania, in 1924, to a religious family. With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the family was deported with the rest of the Jews of Kovno into the ghetto in the Slobodka neighborhood. In October 1941, Shmuel's parents and older brother were murdered in the Ninth Fort in Kovno. Surviving the selection with his younger brother and sister, Shmuel joined the Zionist ABC Youth Movement in the ghetto, becoming a member of the underground. He eventually fled the ghetto and joined the Zionist partisans, living in the forest and helping Jews escape from the ghetto. Wounded during a Lithuanian ambush, Shmuel managed to escape and remained hidden in the forest until liberation by the Soviet army. Immigrating to Eretz Israel after the war, Shmuel participated in Israel's War of Independence in the "Shimshon Foxes" battalion.

And these are the credits:

Excerpt from: "Ghetto Kovno - Religious Life in Slobodka"
Director: Itay Ken Tor
Producers: Noemi Schory, Liat Benhabib, Alona Schory
Production company: Belfilms Ltd.

Let us conclude on a note of awakening and redemption, a traditional, skillful and spiritual sounding of the shofar by Cantor Benjamin Warschawski of Congregation Ezra-Habonim in Skokie, Illiniois:




And as a perfect companion to these sounds, here is a Prayer for the Sounding of the Shofar by Rabbi David Wolpe, published last year in the Huffington Post online:

Dear God, 

Moses, placed in the basket by the river, kept silent, too frightened to cry. 

Abraham, walking up the mountain with Isaac, kept silent, refusing to give way to the wild sounds of his own grief. 

When Aaron's children were taken from him, Aaron was silent for there were no words. 

Ruth walked without a sound to the fields for she could give no voice to her loss and her hope. 

We, too, are fearful. We stay hidden behind our respectable masks, our tears dried, our faces composed. Our fears are unexpressed, our cries buried deep within. 

Like Moses, Abraham, Aaron, Rachel, we are too awed or too timid or simply too self-conscious to open our wounds to the world. 

You have given us a way to cry. Behind the thicket Abraham found the ram and the instrument of our expression. 

The shofar will cry for us. 

In the shevarim, the brokenness that afflicts our hearts. 

In the teruah, the blasts of pain or hope or recognition that sometimes sear our souls. 

In the tekiah, the hope for wholeness. We cry out from healing as we do from hurt. 

We cry in supplication, in loss, in love. 

Dear God, help us learn the sounds of the shofar. The sound of our history. The sound of our sorrows. 

Let it draw us closer to You with each blast, with each whispered promise, with each unspoken prayer. 

TEKIAH GEDOLAH. For ourselves, our ancestors, our children, let us listen to the cries of the shofar. In each note is the secret, ancient anguish of the Jewish heart. 

In its sound is our awakening and hope for redemption.

And with the sounds of the shofar still fresh in memory, we wish you all L'shanah tovah tikatevi v'taihatemi from Congregation Adas Emuno!