Creating My Shofar

CREATED MY SHOFAR

- Joy Krauthammer

http://joysofjourney.blogspot.com

In glowing terms I told the visiting SHOFAR FACTORY mavens (Levi from Australia, and Mendel from Brooklyn, as well as my Chabad rabbi) about the Hearing Shofar site and about Shofar Corps!!!  I enjoy reading and contributing thoughts to this expansive shofar site:  http://www.hearingshofar.com

I do own, enjoy, and play daily during Elul, a lovely light pearly colored, curvy shiny smooth shofar that I bought in the Old City. 

One of the mavens' dozen display horns was a Gemsbok; I recognized the earthy, long straight heavily rimmed and rough brown natural horn which can double as a percussion guiro!

Mavens and I arrived in Chabad parking lot at same time for the children's (and "young at heart") workshop.  From their car trunk, they brought in a several small horns for the young kids, and when I asked, they allowed me to look myself through their horn-filled car trunk. Looked like a horn graveyard, not appealing or respectful, but a whole lot of horns piled in to choose from. I didn't want an arbitrary horn.

In their auto trunk were a million small horns; I picked out one; not that I liked it or was drawn to it, didn't even have wonderful curvature, but a slight subtle curve, one flat side, no unwanted holes, and it did fit my hand size. I liked it more than the several others I lifted which did not appeal to me and were rough, flaky, scaly, barely curved, dull, thin or short. They didn't call out to me to take them. A very sad day if this was a pet adoption center.

I made the horn mine by stroking it, turning it over and over, like Torah. Touched the inside, the outside. I really liked the smooth dark pointy horn tip. I expected that the horn inside would smell bad and was surprised that the horn smelled OK.

There was a peculiar partially loose membrane tissue layer inside horn's large opening that I tried many times to remove. I mostly got it out by peeling, picking, scraping, and sanding it away without soaking it in hot water-- which is what I'd been advised to do at home.

I liked the horn's natural outside roughness but the maven said G*d wants us to beautify it and enhance it and do some work for it, so nu, I sanded and sanded. Looked dull, not polished. … I do know about Hiddur Mitzvah. Without being told, I also sanded the new 'to be' mouth piece to a pleasant bevel. 

With a slightly curved hanger wire, I measured the inside length of ram's horn until where it was plugged with core, and made a mark a little further on the outside of horn. Rabbi had earlier made a shorter mark but I liked my longer mark for where tip would be cut off. (Better safe than sorry.)

Wearing a dust mask and heavy gloves, I power sawed off the tip after I had sanded forever. I'd never used a hand power saw but I DID today! Had a trigger and was heavy and I kept pushing deeper and increasing the speed. I was the only one who insisted on doing it myself! I DID IT MYSELF and it looked good! The small cut piece has a beautiful coloring. I kept the 2 1/3" tip. I like the tip but it's too short for a percussion striker. If it was an umbilical cord, I would have buried it in ceremony.

Then, at my request, my rabbi let me drill a bit of the solid small end for the mouthpiece but he did most of the boring which is good so I didn't blow it. I had to participate in my shofar creating! I blew the dust out of hole but barely felt the expelled air. 

When after drilling the rabbi blew it-- now a shofar, and it sounded great! Now my turn. On my own, I said Shehecheyanu.  And ME, I can't get a sound out of it… OK, then I got a nothing / gornisht sound out of it, maybe a newborn baby single tekiah, so I know we both have potential…

oy vey.

Babies come through narrow straights. My rabbi quoted something about "narrow straights…"  What was that?  Mitzrayim? The maven said that I'll practice and get better.

Sanded large irregular open end to get off a small bothersome nubby chunk like nipple on the inside. I feel like the big open end has been circumcised to a new form, and it doesn't feel good. Sorry I let the maven sand off the nubbiness. They were ready to pack up after a couple hours, and were in a hurry so I didn't insist on doing it myself.  (I had let all the little kids go ahead of me.) I worked on another broken notchy place to smooth that out on same open large end.

I went outside the shul, and with consciousness held up with skinny wood skewers my shofar to the large spray can of shellac, noticing the wind direction. I shellacked the shofar to make it shiny because the mavens said that's what you do to make shofar look professional. With the sticks in my hand holding up shofar, it dries without my finger prints all over it, which there are anyway because I like touching it. 

(I like water smoothed rounded black river stones and like them shiny, so I add water or oil to them.)

I wouldn't have shellacked but there were two small scaly rough spots on the outside that would splinter and that refused to smooth out even though I sanded them for over an hour. I didn't have "filler wood" that the maven suggested. ("Not halachic" according to Hearing Shofar.) The more I sanded, the worse they got. Almost sanded to the inside. I added extra shellac to the layered rough spots. (It didn't help.)

What used to be a dull medium brown horn color is now a shiny, very dark mahogany shofar color. (I tried sanding off some shiny shellac and it only leaves unsatisfactory sanding scratchy lines!) Thankfully some of the horn texture where I purposefully only lightly sanded toward the narrow tapered end, is still visible looking like lovely dark and light wind ripples on the ocean sand or water. I don't like dark!

It's my shofar. With kavannah, I MADE IT.  Wish I could blow the notes on it…  I would like to connect to my shofar…

I dedicate my shofar making to my beloved rebbe, Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen, z'l, a singer of holy songs. He would have loved it that I made my own shofar. He would have loved it more if I could blow it.  Yosef's first yahrzeit is in 12 days. May he hear all the sounds of the shofarot around the world and in heaven.

© Joy Krauthammer

PS
My Chabad rabbi tells me:

"It works just fine. Keep trying..."

PPS
next day. TEKIAH
Listening on the phone to my daughter and her cooing with baby infant and many new sounds, I picked up my new shofar, placed it in my hand, rolled it around to a comfort zone and while continuing to listen on the phone-- made a very long extended crystal clear high blast. I was stunned! Yet I knew it would happen because I wanted it badly and visioned it.  Baruch Hashem
My daughter didn't appreciate the blast and told me to warn her next time. She didn't understand my challenge.

 Blessing before Hearing Shofar  (from Hearing Shofar)

Baruch atah Adonai Elokaynu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu lishmo-ah kol shofar.

Blessed are you, Eternal One our G*d, Universal Sovereign, who sanctifies us with holy ways and commands us to hear the voice of shofar.

Following first time you hear shofar in Elul or Rosh Hashanah and at other significant occasions:

Baruch atah Adonai Elokaynu Melech ha-olam,

shehecheyanu, v’kiyamanu, v’higiyanu, lazman hazeh.

See post:  SOUNDS OF THE SHOFAR INSPIRE ME

in

http://joysofjourney.blogspot.com/2012/08/jewels-of-elul.html
and
KOL ALEPH

http://kolaleph.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/sounds-of-the-shofar-inspire-me-joy-krauthammer/?utm_source=Copy+of+Kol+ALEPH+%26+LLCP+Launch&utm_campaign=Kol+ALEPH&utm_medium=email

another story:
http://joys-inthemorning.blogspot.com/2011/05/shofar-story-krauthammer-with-joy-in.html 

~ ~ ~

Before, During, and After photos

Joy's Shofar
© Joy Krauthammer

Faces of the same single Shofar

MADE MY SHOFAR

photos & collage by Joy Krauthammer ©

Mendel and Levi, Shofar Factory mavens sawing off a horn tip

© Joy Krauthammer 

Rosh Chodesh Elul 5773

My hand made shofar gives great pleasure to friend, Cindy, at home on hospice.

 On this Rosh Chodesh Elul, Cindy is in awe of the little shofar, and happy to hear me play shofar on every visit.

SOUNDS OF THE SHOFAR INSPIRE ME

~ JOY Krauthammer

TEKIAH

SOUNDS of the SHOFAR (SOS) inspire me to open with a blast, the beginning of Elul on day one, Rosh Chodesh, for self-reflection/Cheshbon Hanefesh, knowing I can meet Our Beloved in the field. A serious soul journey lies ahead, and I am inspired to meditate on SOS!

SHEVARIM

SOS inspire me for the New Year to once again seasonally awaken to my Jewish tradition and heritage, and connect to my faith and beliefs, knowing SOS in the same sequence of blasts are heard around the world.

SOS help me to stimulate others when I play shofar. Friends receiving SOS are a gift to me, and I am further inspired with Chesed to give more and joyously do more mitzvot.

SOS, as I practice playing, inspire me to study Torah and understand more fully.

TERUAH

SOS inspire me to Shma/listen silently to the notes, and more deeply, in awe, and with strong kavannah/intention to be a better Ba'alat Tekiah (as my husband, z'l, taught me when we bought our first shofar in the Old City.

Sounds of the Shofar inspire me to breathe deeply, expansively --G*d in and out.

SOS inspire me to use tools, instruments of music of my own faith, and to mamash delve deeper and higher into my Judaism.

SOS inspires me to share with pride and joy in interfaith gatherings with my own authentic ancient Jewish instrument of sound-- shofar, in addition to spiritually playing drum/tof and timbrel ala Miriyahm HaNeviah in temples. SOS inspire me to carve my own personal shofar.

TEKIAH GEDOLAH

The shofar inspires me through grateful breath to connect L'Dor V'Dor with my children and their child; to the Holy One, Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai, and to our People, all the way back to the ram caught in the thicket by its horns (Genesis 22:13); and to our Matriarch, Sarah, who died because of the Akeda/ the Binding. When I save little goats with their horned heads stuck in fences, and I give them freedom--I am inspired. Baruch Hashem.

See post:
 http://joysofjourney.blogspot.com/2012/09/creating-my-shofar.html

~ ~ ~

.

JOY AS HEALER

JOY AS HEALER

HEALING with Joy    

http://joys-joyousjoy.blogspot.com/2011/11/healing-with-joy.html

----- Original Message -----

From: JOY

To: chazon4@

Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 5:22 AM

Subject: HEALING with Joy

Dear Reb Yosef,

I tried to remember what could have precipitated my writing Joy As Healer in 1994.

That year, 1994, I got my MBA. Got accepted to rabbinic school--couldn't go--that was a loss (Marcel, z"l was sick). Had a major E. quake shaking Northridge, trauma putting me into massive stress symptoms--living in my car. Spent summer away in delight in Jewish adult camps (Elat Chayyim, National Havurah Institute, Omega Institute) for six weeks, being with the best teachers and new friends (to this day). 

Not too many days earlier, my dearest rebbe, Shlomo Carlebach, z'l, had suddenly died, and left many bereft. I was called on to heal, while in my own deep sorrow.

And I now added a quick, 2007 PS.

One love, shalom and abundant blesSings of harmony, wholeness, health and joy to you,

Joy

"Serve G*d With Joy"

JOY AS HEALER

By Joy Krauthammer   November 3, 1994

Joy is the pure expression of my quality as healer.

I heal with G*d’s energy.

I heal with breath.

I heal with my spirituality.

I heal with space, being contemplative.

I heal by allowing mourning, the deep sense of loss and grief to be felt, to feel the enormous void and pain and to understand the entirety of loss.

I heal by seeing perspective and reality.

(It could have been worse.) “Gam zeh ya’avor”. This too shall pass.

I heal by realizing the painful disappointment of expectations not met, were my ideals and not another’s.

I heal by learning from my mistakes.

I heal by taking advantage of opportunities, knowing sometimes it has been too late.

I heal by renewal.

I heal with questions, and with answers.

I heal by returning, teshuvah to what I am.

I heal by returning to what I love.

I heal by turning to my sources, my Judaism, friends, family, art.

I return to what which was loved, a symbol, of a friend, now gone.

I heal by studying and by quoting Torah.

I heal by quoting the words of our teachers.

I heal with my multi-colored ribboned tambourine.

I heal with my music, my drumming.

Others dance to my drumming.

Others play my drums.

Others play my tambourines.

I heal with my dancing. Others dance.

I heal with my hands, to soothe another, to remove their pain.

I heal with my hands, in teaching clay for others to explore themselves and raise their self-esteem.

I heal with my creativity.

I sense my aliveness.

Others sense the beauty of the creation and their aliveness.

I heal with my listening, my compassion, comfort, sympathy, empathy, hugs, heart connection, presence.

I heal with my spoken words.

I enable others.

I heal with humor; at times, dark.

~


2007

I heal with prayer.

I heal with time.

I heal with memories.

I heal with guidance.
I heal with PTSD by stopping, going over, past the painful memory.

I heal with cathartic writing. I paint with words.

I heal in my garden, by weeding and watering, planting and picking, pruning, smelling, touching, seeing, photographing, and sharing.

I heal with playing music.

I heal with silence.

I heal with gentle classical music.

I heal with song.

I heal with sound, crystal and Tibetan singing bowls, bells, chimes, gongs, ocean drums.

I heal knowing that the Compassionate One loves me.

I heal with Shechina’s night time embrace as I cry myself to sleep.

I heal honoring the dead, z’l.

I heal by acknowledging my loss, my grief, mourning, my vulnerability, my aloneness, my tears.

I heal by acknowledging and feeling my joy.

I heal by being ME, by touching life.

I heal by Returning to the Land of my Soul.

I heal with my energy, my passion, my heart.

I heal with chocolate and more chocolate.

I help others heal by giving them permission by example.

I heal by stepping out of the way.

I heal by knowing I am a vessel for G*d.
I heal with Emuna v'Bitachon / faith and trust in G*d.

~ ~ ~


2013

I heal myself:

I heal by swimming.

I heal by creating art.

I heal by photographing. 

I heal by sharing.

I heal by filling my dozens of websites with my writing and art.

I heal by doing mitzvot.

I heal by speaking my truth.

I heal by letting it go. 

I heal by reading words from my rebbes, and friend, and family.

I heal with forgiveness, myself and others.

~ ~ ~

From: Yosef <chazon4@netvision.net.il>

To: joy@

Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:49:38 +0200

Subject: Re: HEALING with Joy

Dear Joy,

Your personal statements about healing contain beauty and wisdom.

In general, you are developing the art of painting with words.

I, too, heal with chocolate; however, only with small amounts, as too much chocolate can create an imbalance in the energy. The media has reported that a number of nutritionists now recommend in "moderation" the dark bittersweet chocolate, as it is supposed to be good for the immune system. By the way, the list of your healing suggestions has a "bittersweet" flavor, so you are therefore in harmony with the nutritionists.

Shabbos, however, is meant to be sweet and not bittersweet, so I want to bless you with a Good and Sweet Shabbos!.

Yosef

(Reb Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen, Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem)

P.S. The good news is that there is bittersweet chocolate available with a kosher and pareve label. And when I have some on Shabbos, I find that it is truly sweet.

~ ~ ~