4pi
A Record Blast
Susan Yackolow of
Marblehead, Mass.,
joins the shofar-
blowing crowd.
Hundreds get out their shofrot and make some noise.
AMY SESSLER POWELL
Special to the Jewish News
T
he Jewish Federation of the
North Shore Massachusetts
blew 393 shofars to set a
Guinness World Record for
the most shofars blown in unison at the
fourth annual Great Shofar Blowout last
month.
Drawing a crowd of more than 800,
this year's blowout represented a celebra-
tion of Jewish pride and community.
Many of those attending the event
were attracted to the opportunity to do
something Jewish with the entire Jewish
community. "It feels so wonderful to be
among all these Jews," said Ronald
Pressler of Amesbury, Mass. "This is a
wonderful unifier."
Ira Lerman of Beverly, Mass., said he
was looking for a way to reconnect to the
Jewish community and the shofar train-
ing seemed like a good venue. "I was
brought up in a very Orthodox environ-
ment in Malden [Mass.], and I thought
the people who blew the shofar must be
so special. This was the chance of a life-
time to catch up with my past."
Getting Ready
To prepare for the Great Shofar Blowout,
the North Shore Jewish Federation
offered several one-hour training sessions
throughout the summer.
Aug. 17 was selected because it was
the first day of the Hebrew month of
Elul, the day when Jews traditionally
started to blow the shofar daily leading
up to Rosh Hashanah.
To satisfy the requirements for the
Guinness World Record, the shofar
blowers registered and then proceeded
under police escort to the beach.
To complete the requirement and
secure the world record, the Federation
will send Guinness the log sheets of the
registrants, video, photo and print media
coverage and letters from the authenti-
cators" who acted as
official witnesses to
the process. But for
many, the world
record was secondary
to the spiritual feel-
ings ignited by the
event.
"When we were
walking, I felt like we
were leaving Egypt,"
said Amy Resnic of
Swampscott, Mass.
"My children were helping my dad, and
I had a feeling of community and
belonging that was so powerful."
"There are people here from all over,
from Israel and New Jersey and from all
generations," said Marla Mindel, of
Marblehead, Mass.
Robert Miller and his son Jonathan,
15, drove from Englewood, N.J., when
they heard about the event. "We had to
be part of this once-in-a-lifetime event."
Sam Poulton of Chelmsford, Mass.,
Photo by Stuart Garfield
had just returned safely from a year in
Iraq, where he and his son, both part of
the Army Reserves, had been deployed.
"Today is the first day of blowing the
shofar for the season and last year I was
not able to do it," he said.
"Today, I blow the shofar in honor of
all the soldiers overseas. May we have the
same mazel as Yehoshua and blow down
the walls of terrorism and hatred. Maybe
if we are loud enough, it will happen." El
Getting Better
High Holidays compel a focus on self-reflection and improvement.
SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News
G
4314
9/17
2004.
78
reat people are "capable of great-
ness," Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky
told a lunch and learn audience
of 100 in Southfield.
The purpose of the rabbi's Sept. 9
talk was to inspire his audience with the
confidence to change in light of the
upcoming High Holidays. "Start taking
steps in the right direction," he urged.
"Keep working on yourself and get bet-
ter. It's never too late!"
Ohr Somayach Detroit, the local
branch of an international adult educa-
tion outreach organization, sponsored
the talk at the Franklin Fitness Athletic
Club. Rabbi Orlofsky, a native New
Yorker, is a senior lecturer and instructor
at the Ohr Somayach and Ohr LaGolah
schools in Jerusalem. He was also scholar
in residence at a West Bloomfield
Shabbaton held at Congregation Keter
Torah and Congregation Ohel Moed, in
conjunction with Ohr Somayach
Detroit, on Sept. 10 and 11.
At the lunch and learn, Rabbi
Orlofsky combined stories, jokes and
serious talk to discuss Jews' ability to
change for the better and the opportuni-
ty afforded by the High Holidays to do
so. The talk was titled "Inside Kreplach,"
a reference to the traditional wonton-like
food eaten prior to the Yom Kippur fast.
Just as the meat is hidden inside the
dough pocket, a person's true value can
be found inside, too.
Rabbi Orlofsky's premise was that
although Jews may have done bad things
in the course of the previous year, the
sins do not represent the real us.
"If you think you're bad, nothing is
demanded of you; you don't have to
examine yourself or
change," he said,
explaining how
people rationalize
their resistance to
self-improvement.
The rabbi spoke
about the Jewish
tradition of tashlich,
a ceremony per-
formed on the
afternoon of Rosh
Hashanah, in which
one's sins are sym-
bolically cast away
into a body of
water. This act
Rabbi Orlofiky: helping us find the real us
allows us to begin the Aseret Driay
Tshuvah (Ten Days of Repentance,
between Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur) with a clean slate.
Rabbi Orlofsky noted that tshuvah is
mistranslated as "repentance," which
implies "penance," a Christian concept
of suffering for one's sins. The Hebrew
term tshuvah really means "return," a
positive term indicating the need for us
to return to our pure essence.
Rabbi Orlofsky criticized excuses peo-
ple use to exempt themselves from
changing. "So if you can't be completely
good, is it better to do nothing and be
consistently bad?" he challenged. "We're
not hypocritical; we're just inconsistent.
Sometimes, we forget our priorities."
Dr. Janet Snider, of Southfield, found
the talk "inspiring and entertaining — a
great way to start the new year."
Harriet Drissman, of Farmington
Hills, said: "I was learning all the time I
was laughing; it was a painless way to
get the ideas down. You don't have to
do everything — just start!"