hofar:
My Shofarot
by Dean Thomas
(feels a little like a 4th grade summer report!) <EMOJI seq="1f607">:innocent:</EMOJI>
We've been doing worship events and worship "stuff" with attention to its roots in the Jewishness of our Lord for lots and lots of years. One of the women in our little group had a shofar but could not play it. It was a nasty, cantankerous horn that needed help that I could not provide. Little teeny mouthpiece with a tiny aperture. Hard to sound, harder to control. Like playing a trumpet as a tuba player, but without a mouthpiece! I practiced long and hard to make the thing sound like anything. It came to a point where I could blow the thing loud enough to call our kid to dinner and annoy the neighbors all at once. Good that we lived in a rural neighborhood and most of the annoyed neighbors were related to Helena! We also found out that the horn could be heard five miles away!!! :o
My first conscious memory (
current conscious memory) of the power behind the shofar was an event we were part of in Olympia, Washington, called "Washington State for Jesus". This was a march (parade, or very long processional, depending on how you view it!
) and a prayer event on the capitol steps. At the head of the march was a Messianic congregation from Seattle, Congregation Beth Shofar--House of the Shofar. They marched with prayer shawls and kippot and something like 8 or 10 shofarot, mostly of medium length, all loud, all pretty well played. After we prayed, the parade was kicked off with a fanfare by all of them blaring. I was impressed, not at their prowess, but at the effect on my spirit and soul. We marched up the hill to the capitol steps where we prayed and praised and worshipped and danced and celebrated Jesus. During one of the worship times, a single shofar sounded its mournful, single tekiah (good representations of the sound on a small ram's horn shofar can be heard at <URL url="http://www.piney.com/Shofar.html">
ShofarSounds&More). On a long horn, it's actually two notes, not just a scoop up as heard on the site quoted, and the notes are a fifth apart. That tekiah was repeated a couple of times. That was
very powerful. Stirred me, stirred the crowd. Then one of the prophetic types took a microphone and sang the same two pitches in the same style, but added a single syllable: "A-WAAAAAAAAAAKE!" It was aMAZing! The hush over the crowd and the incredible power of the notes sounded and then sung burned themselves into my being and into the spirits of the hundreds of folks gathered there. That started my pursuit.
I've used lots of shofars from lots of sources. Until somewhere around 1995, I did not have my own. We purchased a large 3-twist Yemenite that blew freely. I think we were at a conference in Florida. We were exhibitors and were in the hall before the public. Our setup was a breeze, so I wandered the booths, tried the horns, and found this one, excellent instrument. I blew it, the couple sensed an anointing and gave me a deal. It is still an excellent horn, and among the best I've ever blown. The other two were purchased at a factory in Tel Aviv, produced by a wonderful Jewish man, normally for sale in Israel to Jews and Jewish congregations. And, of course, the occasional crazy Christian. He was amazed that I had taken the time to actually find the shop and talk with him personally. He heard what I wanted and searched through his current inventory and pulled out a couple and modified them both for me. One is a mini-Yemenite that easily wakes children and might blow out windows if I tried, and the other is a medium sized ram's horn, again that really blows well.
Why? Partly because of convenience. The big one not only blows well and is a very mellow, wooing sound, but visually, it makes a heck of a statement visually. Because a lot of what we do as ZionFire is visual ministry, that's important. The mini is really a war horn. It's a full-bodies sound, but bright and penetrating without being shrill. It can get unbearably loud when I am allowed to put full support to it. The ram's horn is very, very portable, packs into little space and travels safely, easily. Carries in a pocket or tucked into my belt for short walks.
I started out high school as a tuba player and evolved into baritone/euphonium. Added trombone because of non-school musical activities. Also played cello in HS Orchestra. Joined the USAirForce as a band member. That was my way to serve country without facing Viet Nam at the time. Graduated college with a bachelor's degree in music education, majoring on bass trombone. Also played some tuba and rarely baritone horn in college. My last semester, I played trumpet in the band, more to punish an arrogant trumpet player than because of my abilities. I was not as good, but more reliable.
That's me! :trumpet: :tuba: