Most of us fulfill the mitzvah of tekiat shofar by passively listening to the ba’al tekiah. But is listening to the shofar really as passive as it seems? During this sacred, spiritual experience, as we stand there listening attentively, the shofar sounds are meant to elicit certain inner responses from us.
I often hear people talk about the awakening power of the sound of the shofar—how awesome a moment, how inspiring an experience it is for them. From the perspective of one who blows the shofar, the ba’al tekiah, it is even more than that.
At the 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition held in Hong Kong, which drew over 1,000 participants, retired senior cryptologic mathematician and Torah Codes researcher Harold Gans presented a paper with important ramifications to the validity of a famous code known as the Great Rabbis Experiment. An intimate conversation with Mr. Gans follows.
I loved talking with—and listening to—Rabbi Kret. I was amused by his fractured English and counter-Cockney accent...
How was I to know a trip to Chinle and an encounter I would have there with a Native American medicine man would turn my religious crisis...
My son, Shmuel, was born four years ago on the tenth of Cheshvan. I accompanied the baby to the post-delivery room. The doctor, flanked by two nurses, labored over the baby with unexpected focus and intensity. Finally, the doctor emerged: our newborn, he suspected (really, he knew), had Down’s syndrome.
Why do so many people seem to feel that davening begins somewhere around Barchu and actually being on time for it is the domain of insomniacs and Kaddish-sayers? This is just one manifestation of what sometimes seems to be an almost insoluble malaise at the core of one of Judaism’s pillars—prayer.
Three years ago, we sent a survey to our shul members asking what they thought was the most pressing...
Most shofarot are made from a ram’s horn. However, an increasing number of exotic shofarot are available from species such as the kudu, the gemsbok and the ibex. While some of these “alternative” shofarot are quite popular, there are serious halachic concerns regarding their acceptability.
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