{"id":11706,"date":"2015-09-06T14:02:47","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T11:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/?p=11706"},"modified":"2015-09-06T14:02:47","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T11:02:47","slug":"the-blasts-of-jewish-peoplehood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/cjpe\/the-blasts-of-jewish-peoplehood\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blasts of Jewish Peoplehood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every High Holiday season a powerful sound momentarily causes we who experience it to pause. <em>Tekiah<\/em>. <em>Shvarim<\/em>. <em>Truah<\/em>. <em>Tekiah Gedolah<\/em>. Those sounds, stirring and dramatic, lead to personal reflection about how we missed the mark in the previous year and how we want to improve in the coming year. But <em>shofar <\/em>is about more than the individual. Its raw blasts provide an opportunity to experience Jewish Peoplehood in a visceral way.<\/p>\n<p>One reason is that hearing the <em>shofar<\/em> is one of the most accessible of all Jewish rituals. It requires no special training or extensive prior knowledge. All Jews, no matter our backgrounds, can participate, as we have for millennia. Deaf Jewish communities too; like <a href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/news\/2014\/10\/03\/how-some-deaf-people-hear-the-shofar-for-jewish-new-year\">this one<\/a> in Northridge, California; have made accommodations for the <em>shofar <\/em>ritual, giving members a means to feel the <em>shofar<\/em>\u2019s vibrations by holding onto fluttering balloons, onto the <em>bimah<\/em>, or even onto the <em>shofar<\/em> itself.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>shofar <\/em>is also a ritual expression of Rav Soloveitchik\u2019s teaching about shared Jewish fate and destiny, which is summarized in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cIZAbIj2YiM&amp;list=PLvh-HwjR1sFHbKmSsmipenJUvrOmH1CDZ&amp;index=2\">this video<\/a> from the toolkit about the theme of Collective Belonging. <em>Shofar <\/em>is one of the oldest rituals in Judaism, going all the way back to Mount Sinai, that quintessential historical moment all Jews share, part of our fate. <em>Shofar<\/em> is also about the future. The <em>Truah<\/em> blast\u2014nine short, punctuated sounds\u2014is like an alarm clock, waking us up to make the world a better place, calling us to our shared destiny as Jews.<\/p>\n<p>This High Holiday season, as I begin my work with the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education, I plan to pay extra attention to the <em>shofar<\/em> blasts, really taking the time to pause and take stock of my distinctive role to play in our Jewish collective. The <em>shofar<\/em> ritual gives us all that opportunity.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daniel Olson is a PhD student in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU and a Wexner Graduate Fellow. His work at NYU focuses on better understanding the curricular and educational goals of programs for Jews with developmental disabilities. He began working this year as a New York Educator for the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every High Holiday season a powerful sound momentarily causes we who experience it to pause. Tekiah. Shvarim. Truah. Tekiah Gedolah. Those sounds, stirring and dramatic, lead to personal reflection about how we missed the mark in the previous year and how we want to improve in the coming year. But shofar is about more than&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[13],"coauthors":[193],"class_list":["post-11706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cjpe","category-opinion","tag-holidays","category-1","category-4","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11706"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jpeoplehood.org\/he\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}