This week’s parasha dances between different themes and stories and laws — in general, we have the impression at this point in the Torah of a completely different rhythm, much more chaotic than the orderly book of Leviticus that we finished recently. Even the structure of the text is more fragmented. We often speak of the five books of the Torah, but the Talmud insists that there are seven: the two verses that speak about the movement of the people through the desert comprise a book in themselves. So this parasha actually encompasses three books: just up to those two verses, and the verses, and the rest of the parasha. With ten or fifteen micro-themes to choose from, I’d like to look at a detail that I hadn’t paid too much attention to until recently: the trumpets. Trumpets? Trumpets! Just before the two-verse book, there is a commandment to make two trumpets to accompany the travels of the people.
עֲשֵׂ֣ה לְךָ֗ שְׁתֵּי֙ חֲצֽוֹצְרֹ֣ת כֶּ֔סֶף מִקְשָׁ֖ה תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה אֹתָ֑ם וְהָי֤וּ לְךָ֙ לְמִקְרָ֣א הָֽעֵדָ֔ה וּלְמַסַּ֖ע אֶת־הַֽמַּחֲנֽוֹת׃
Have two silver trumpets made; make them of hammered work. They shall serve you to summon the community and to set the divisions in motion. (Numbers 10:2)
On it’s own, this is just a small detail of the journey, but it actually takes up a lot more space in the literature than one might think. This commandment to make trumpets isn’t only relevant once in Jewish history, but becomes an institution. One of the 613 mitzvot is to have silver trumpets, and to sound them at the right occasions. What are the right occasions? The Torah gives at least two:
וְכִֽי־תָבֹ֨אוּ מִלְחָמָ֜ה בְּאַרְצְכֶ֗ם עַל־הַצַּר֙ הַצֹּרֵ֣ר אֶתְכֶ֔ם וַהֲרֵעֹתֶ֖ם בַּחֲצֹצְרֹ֑ת וְנִזְכַּרְתֶּ֗ם לִפְנֵי֙ יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱ-לֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם וְנוֹשַׁעְתֶּ֖ם מֵאֹיְבֵיכֶֽם׃ וּבְי֨וֹם שִׂמְחַתְכֶ֥ם וּֽבְמוֹעֲדֵיכֶם֮ וּבְרָאשֵׁ֣י חׇדְשֵׁ
יכֶם֒ וּתְקַעְתֶּ֣ם בַּחֲצֹֽצְרֹ֗ת עַ֚ל עֹלֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם וְעַ֖ל זִבְחֵ֣י שַׁלְמֵיכֶ֑ם וְהָי֨וּ לָכֶ֤ם לְזִכָּרוֹן֙ לִפְנֵ֣י אֱ-לֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם אֲנִ֖י יְ-הֹוָ֥ה אֱ-לֹהֵיכֶֽם׃When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before your God and be delivered from your enemies. And on your joyous occasions—your fixed festivals and new moon days—you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being. They shall be a reminder of you before your God. (Numbers 10:9-10)
We have here two very different situations, war and joy, both of which need to be accompanied by trumpet blasts. In the way that they are described here in the verses, the sound of the trumpets seem to be there to make God listen: they are a ‘reminder before God’. Yet it's interesting to see how this develops to become something that concerns the people too. First of all, the sounds multiply. The mishna speaks of trumpets and shofarot being blown, not just at times of war, but at any time of distress or crisis for the Jewish people: drought, plague and earthquakes. For joyous times, the descriptions of the festival sacrifices included an entire orchestra of harps, trumpets, flutes and cymbals. Here at Adath Shalom we think that having Rivon with a guitar before Shabbat begins, or having a choir accompany kabbalat shabbat, is radical, but in fact it’s a direct continuation of the Temple service. Mizmor Shir Leyom ha-Shabbat, Tov Lehodot Ladonai - “A song for Shabbat. It’s good to thank God, to play instruments before him.” What’s radical is that we don’t play instruments on Shabbat itself anymore. This musical accompaniment explains an apparent contradiction in our parasha: the Levites are told to work in the temple from the age of 25 until the age of 50. But earlier in the Torah, they are included from the age of 30. So which is it? Rabbi Joseph Karo suggests that the Levites needed five years to study music before they could sing and play the instruments needed.
And in case you think that all this is only a detail of ancient Judaism, let’s go back to the trumpets for the times of war and crisis. There’s a debate between the medieval rabbis regarding whether the origin of the commandment to pray. Maimonides is basically the only one who says that daily prayer is obligated by the Torah and one of the 613 mitzvot. His opponent, Ramban, says that daily prayer was instituted by later rabbis, but the only time that the Torah commands us to pray is in times of crisis. His proof for that is from these verses about trumpets. Our prayers, the words coming out of our mouths, they are the contemporary versions of those trumpets.
It seems that the trumpets had two basic functions, which I would summarise as making noise and making music. Going to war, or suffering a communal disaster, we wanted to be accompanied by noise to express our anguish. At times of joy and on festivals, we needed a different kind of musical accompaniment to express what we were feeling. Today both of these have become different modalities of communal prayer. We feel the difference between the way we sing the prayers on the eve of Yom Kippur and the way we sing them on Purim. That’s the subtle role of the chazzan, to be the trumpet, reflecting and creating the emotions in the room.
There’s another way to understand the role of the trumpets, at both joyous and difficult times. I quote the Sefer Hachinuch, an anonymous work from 13th-century Spain that tries to give the reason for all the commandments in the Torah. He has a beautiful explanation for the trumpets:
מִשָּׁרְשֵׁי הַמִּצְוָה. לְפִי שֶׁבִּשְׁעַת הַקָּרְבָּן הָיוּ צְרִיכִים לְכַוֵּן דַּעְתָּם יָפֶה בְּעִנְיָנוֹ, כְּמוֹ שֶׁיָּדוּעַ, שֶׁהוּא נִפְסָל בְּמַחֲשָׁבוֹת יְדוּעוֹת, וְגַם כֵּן צָרִיךְ הַקָּרְבָּן כַּוָּנָה שְׁלֵמָה לִפְנֵי אֲדוֹן הַכֹּל שֶׁצִּוָּנוּ עָלָיו, וְגַם כֵּן בְּעֵת הַצָּרָה צָרִיךְ הָאָדָם כִּוּוּן גָּדוֹל בְּהִתְחַנְנוֹ לִפְנֵי בּוֹרְאוֹ שֶׁיְּרַחֵם עָלָיו וְיַצִּילֵהוּ מִצָּרָתוֹ, וְלָכֵן נִצְטַוּוּ בִּתְקִיעַת הַחֲצוֹצְרוֹת בְּעִתִּים אֵלֶּה, לְפִי שֶׁהָאָדָם מֵהֱיוֹתוֹ בַּעַל חֹמֶר צָרִיךְ הִתְעוֹרְרוּת גְּדוֹלָה אֶל הַדְּבָרִים, כִּי הַטֶּבַע מִבְּלִי מֵעִיר יַעֲמֹד כְּיָשֵׁן, וְאֵין דָּבָר יְעוֹרְרֵהוּ כְּמוֹ קוֹלוֹת הַנִּגּוּן, יָדוּעַ הַדָּבָר, וְכָל שֶׁכֵּן קוֹל הַחֲצוֹצְרוֹת, שֶׁהוּא הַקּוֹל הַגָּדוֹל שֶׁבְּכָל כְּלֵי נִגּוּן. וְעוֹד יֵשׁ תּוֹעֶלֶת נִמְצָא בְּקוֹל הַחֲצוֹצְרוֹת לְפִי הַדּוֹמֶה מִלְּבַד הַהִתְעוֹרְרוּת אֶל הַכַּוָּנָה, כִּי בְּכֹחַ הַקּוֹלוֹת יָסִיר הָאָדָם מִלִּבּוֹ מַחְשֶׁבֶת שְׁאָר עִסְקֵי הָעוֹלָם וְלֹא יִתֵּן לֵב בְּאוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה כִּי אִם בִּדְבַר הַקָּרְבָּן, וּמָה אַאֲרִיךְ וְיָדוּעַ זֶה לְכָל אֲשֶׁר הִטָּה אֹזֶן לִשְׁמֹעַ הַחֲצוֹצְרוֹת וְקוֹל שׁוֹפָר בְּכַוָּנָה.
The reason for these trumpets is that they would need to properly focus their attention for the Temple sacrifices, which can be disqualified by improper thoughts... So too, in times of trouble, one needs great focus in his supplication before the Creator, that God should have mercy upon them and save them from their trouble; we are therefore commanded to blow the trumpets at these times. As since man is physical, he requires great arousal to these things. For the way of nature is to stand asleep, but there is nothing as arousing as the sounds of music — and all the more so, the sounds of trumpets, which is the greatest sound of all musical instruments… But why should I go on so long? This is well-known to anyone who has heard, with focus, the trumpets or the sound of a shofar.
So prayer needs something, some kind of external guidance in order to help the people hold their attention - kavannah. Sometimes the trumpets are those guidance, but sometimes the trumpets are the prayers themselves, and might need something else to help find that kavannah. That could be the prayer leader, the chazzan, a choir, or each other.
But there is a final point I want to explore here. The trumpets bring everyone together. The priests could be in one place and the people in the other, but hearing the trumpets and focussing their minds in the same direction, they would be united. This is the ideal of having prayer in a community. In theory, I can have much more concentration if I pray alone at home. But doing all of this together, the songs and the prayers and the conversations, it allows all of our individual kavvanot to mix together and amplify each other. This is not to say that we all need to be identical, in the synagogue or anywhere else. Anyone who has been to Israel recently has seen the phrase ‘Yachad Nenatzeach’, (“together we will win”) written everywhere: on buses, posters, stickers. What’s this Yachad, togetherness, that they ask for? Usually, everyone is demanding that everyone else agree with them, without being willing to be flexible on their own viewpoints for the sake of the yachad. It’s often a call for a shallow and unrealistic togertheness. Just like in music, the ideal Jewish community is complex and beautiful in their diversity, made up of different voices who join together in harmony, not monotony. May we continue to be loud and musical, together.
Shabbat shalom!
I was just reading these verses today and wondering about them .. and I'm so glad I read your drash! Love it and you.
Also -- never heard that about the seven books before. Where is it in the Talmud? I'm curious now:)