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Shofar. Russia. 19th century
Donated to the Percelay Museum by Essie Einstein,
in memory of her parents who perished in in the Holocaust.

Remembrance of Things Past

Autumn is near,  and with it the call to reflect on the season that has passed, as well as the opportunity to plan for the season to come. 

The High Holy Days are almost upon us. The Hebrew words, Rosh Ha-Shanah mean, literally, “the head of the year;” yet oddly, this sacred occasion is not celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, as we might expect. In fact, the Torah does not call this day ”New Year” at all, but merely, Yom Teruah (literally, “the day of trumpet blasting, “) stating in Numbers 29:1 that it takes place “on the first day of  the seventh month.” The first month of the Jewish calendar is Nissan—which occurs in March/April. “Why then, is he Jewish “New Year” celebrated in the Spring?

Actually, Judaism has several new years—a concept with parallels in the American calendar. The American “new year” begins in January, but the “school year” starts in September, and many businesses have “fiscal years” that commence at various times of the year. In Judaism, the first day of Nissan is the new year for the purpose of designating calendar months and the reigns of kings, while the first day of Elul (on September 3rd, this year) is the new year for tithing animals for temple sacrifice. The new year for trees (Rosh Ha-Shanah La-Illanot) occurs on Tu’ B’Shvat (15th day of Shevat) and the first day of Tishrei (Rosh Ha-Shanah) is the new year for counting years, i.e. when the number of the year changes. On this day, this year, the Jewish year of 5784 changes to 5785. Sabbatical and Jubilee years also start in Tishrei.

The term, Rosh Ha-Shanah does not actually appear anywhere in the Torah. As noted above, the book of Numbers calls this festival, Yom Teru-ah, while Leviticus gives it a slightly different name, (Yom zichhron teru-ah, literally, day of commemorating with trumpet blasts.) In Leviticus 23:24, God tells Moses: “Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a complete rest, a sacred occasion with loud blasts.)

One of the most important observances of this holiday is the sounding of the shofar (ram’s horn) during the synagogue service. A total of one hundred notes are sounded. There are four different kinds of shofar notes: teki-ah, a three second sustained note; shevarim, three one second notes, rising in tone; teru-ah, a series of nine short staccato notes extending over a period of about three seconds; and teki-ah gedolah, literally big teki-ah, the final blast in a set, which last a minimum of ten seconds.

The Torah gives no specific reason for this practice. One rabbinic suggestion is that the shofar’s sound is a call to repentance. Later the rabbis decreed, for technical calender reasons that Rosh Ha-Shanah—both in Israel and in the Diaspora—must be celebrated for two days, on the first and second days of Tishrei. In years when the first day of Rosh Ha-Shanah falls on Shabbat, the shofar is blown only on the second day.

On Yom Ha-Zikaron, the Day of Remembrance, we strive to remember those who gave us life, who mentored us, who supported our dreams, who helped to make us who we are today. When this day of shofar-blasting (Yom Teru-ah) calls us to repentance, we are encouraged to be introspective, not only in assessing our past actions, but also in striving for the wisdom and insight to do better, and to be better, in the coming year.

The shofar pictured here is from the collection of Abraham and Natalie Percelay Museum of Temple Emanu-El. It belonged to a synagogue in Odessa. During the 1917 Communist Revolution, the Communists destroyed houses of worship, but many synagogue artifacts were saved, including this shofar, which was placed in the custody of Essie Einstein’s father, z’l in 1932. The family kept the shofar safe and subsequently gave it to Essie, whose parents had died in a concentration camp as victims of Nazi persecution.

The evocative poem, “Autumn Is Near” and “The Memory of My Parents” by Yehuda Amichai (the treasured Israeli poet, 1924-2000) seems to reflect emotions that Esssie Einstein might have felt during Yom Ha-Zikaron /Yom Teru-Ah.  Had she known this poem, it could have inspired her gift to our Museum.

Soon it will be autumn.
The time has come to remember my parents.
I remember them,
Like the simple toys of my childhood,
Turning in little circles,
Humming softly, raising a leg,
Waving an arm, moving their heads
From side to side slowly,
In the same rhythm,
The spring in their belly,
And the key in their back.
Then suddenly, they stopped moving
And remain, forever in their last position.
This is how I remember my parents
And that is how I remember their words.

As autumn and Rosh Ha-Shanah draw near, we take note of Mrs. Einstein’s shofar, donated to the Percelay Museum in memory of her parents. As she remembered them, so do we recall the words and actions of our ancestors. May the sound of the shofar arouse in us, for all seasons to come, not simply echoes of the past, but also reverberations that will inspire us with the desire and the strength to imbue our lives with meaning and joy.

--Ruth Page, Museum Director