Rosh Hashanah is the New Year of the Jewish calendar. It is about beginnings. We are reborn in our lives. We restart the effort of engaging with our spiritual natures.
The Shofar, a musical instrument made from a ram’s horn (the hollow horns of several other animals are also used), produces a sound that shakes a person to the core. It thrills the senses while assaulting them. Our full spectrum of perceptions is absorbed into the experience when hearing the blowing of the shofar. All of the senses are stimulated.
A meditative state is the tool that facilitates encounters with the spiritual world. Engaging with the spiritual is the goal of the holiday and answering the commandments of Divinity. Overcoming the distractions of a material life is the challenge to achieve this first step. The sound of the shofar can expedite this process.
The nature of mindful, undistracted meditation is to recruit, unite, and calm all the senses. In fact, when accompanied by meditative effort, the entire brain is focused. Time loses its relevance. The mind is able to push past earthly limitations. Transcendence supervenes.
Can we hear, see, taste, smell, and feel from the blasting notes of the shofar? How does that happen?
Sound is unique among the five senses. Sensory input involves activated nerves conducting impulses to the brain. Sight, taste, smell, and touch result from direct stimulation of the correlative nerve endings. These structures transmit this information to the brain for processing.
Only sound requires an intermediary process before being conveyed to its neural pathway. Mechanical radiant energy vibrates the eardrum and the tiny bones in the outer ear. These bones connect directly to nerves in the inner ear, which transforms it into an electronic signal. The message is then conveyed by the cochlear (auditory) nerve to the brain for interpretation and appreciation.
Thus, the physiology of the auditory system contains that of the other sensory systems. All use nerve impulses to transmit information to the brain. But the non-neuronal components of the hearing system distinguish it from sister sensory pathways. These additional constituents are the mechanism through which noise stimulates neurons in proximity.
Vibration is felt by the other cranial nerves. There is no insulation from oscillating excitation. Though developed for hearing purposes, the provocation by the moving tympanic membrane, malleus, incus, and stapes extends outward.
In the closed compartment of the head, all nerves are affected by the dysequilibrium of these outer ear components. Vibration radiates energy in all directions from its source. The motion of the ear membrane and ossicles have a physical effect upon the other neurons in the brain. Neurons that transmit touch, sight, taste, and smell are activated by this emitted force. It’s an immersive and comprehensive experience.
Seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling are initiated by stimuli that interact with surface nerve endings in the eye, skin, tongue, and nasal passages. Normally, the carriers of these four senses bring information to the brain, which interprets what is seen, felt, etc. When these pathways are activated by vibrations, the stimulus arrives along the side of the nerve. This creates simple neuronal excitation, as opposed to the delivering of information from the surface sensors as designed.
This neural arousal does not bring any message to the brain. It is a nonspecific activity which occupies the nerve. The sensory systems are busy, but not with material connections, as intended by evolutionary imperatives.
Hearing a tune is a stimulus without a specific meaning, though the content is great. The wordless vibrations from the shofar have the potential to provide the ear with some of the least complicated and unfettered information possible. This is akin to the formless stimulation described above for the other senses. The auditory system is busy, but with minimal interpretation involved, this single stimulus helps promote a meditative response. The brain is quieter because it does not have to digest or interpret the signals passing down nerve axons.
Thus, all five of the physical senses are employed. But they serve minimal or no purpose relative to their evolutionary function. The effect, when listening to the shofar, is to quiet the material world. A moment like this opens the door to entering the spiritual realm.
The shofar is activating all the senses. Its music helps create passivity in an active system. Mindful concentration on the sound, not allowing thoughts to grow and impede, raises spiritual consciousness. As the cry of the shofar ascends to primacy, the physical senses become fully occupied. All synapses are pleasantly and harmoniously synchronous. Physical perceptions are heightened but not distracted by worldly input. Actively divorcing attention from material relationships and purposes places the connections to the earthly realm on automatic pilot.
As the sound of the shofar penetrates throughout the brain, the sensory nerves saturate, engendering a state of quiet peacefulness. Awareness overflows, reaching for supra-sensory enlightenment.
Stimulating all the nerves in the head at one moment creates a meditative state. It is a. moment of being transformed into the spiritual world. All sensations and thoughts become jarred without interpretation or meaning. All nerves in the brain are stimulated to be stimulated.
Distractions of the material world fade. All thoughts, fears, and anxieties flee. There are no plans for the next day or even the following second. Only the moment within the sound exists. The mind is receptive to spiritual connections. The heavenly realm is accessed as the soul is liberated from earthly limitations.
Sensory input becomes irrelevant, quieting the mind. The body is a vehicle held in place while the spirit moves to prominence. Each person becomes one with his or her soaring soul.
Beginning with the unique and penetrating sound produced from the blowing of the shofar, the heavenly realm is accessed. Clarity of purpose is manifest. This is best accomplished with a high-pitched sound, as evoked from a ram’s horn shofar. The piercing notes drive themselves into the brain as no low note can. When people lose hearing, it is usually the lower pitched noise that is less appreciated.
An individual becomes complete, wedding the heavenly and earthly powers. This achievement repairs all of creation. A material world is constricted by boundaries and limitations. Only human beings can meet the challenge of breaking through those borders into the celestial realm of awareness. Silencing the busy mind is the first step in that spiritual pathway. Focusing on the pure sound of the shofar is a tool to help stepping along that road.
Cultivating the spiritual allows interaction with the physical. The two complement and enhance each other, expanding life. The shofar initiates the process of awakening all our potential.
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Health and Spirit by Dr. Jack Zoldan 
Beautiful and very informative 🍎🍯
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