Posted on August 7, 2026 by Rabbi Noah Diamondstein
Dear friends,
As I write to you this week, I’m sure many of you, like me, are tracking the news with vigilance and maybe even alarm. There are winning political candidates across the country who espouse views or have expressed statements that steer dangerously close to open antisemitism, and still others who have trafficked in rhetoric that I would call blatantly antisemitic. I know many Jews who are considering disaffiliation from their political parties due to endorsements of these candidates and positions. Regardless of whether it is a good or bad strategy to leave a political party rather than work to change it, I do not blame them for considering doing so. As I wrote in a sermon just over a month ago: any intellectual movement, political candidate, or non-profit organization that cannot recognize violence and antisemitism in their own rhetoric, or worse weaponizes antisemitic rhetoric as a tool to draw forth the gushing flow of applause, retweets, viral posts, and indeed votes, is not one deserving of leading us into the future.
As I have said before, and will again when antisemitism rears its ugly head, the best possible response to antisemitism is to lean even more proudly into your Judaism. Be among your people; help facilitate Jewish joy in your family and community; demonstrate for those around you–and for yourself–the reasons why our beautiful tradition is so much the opposite of everything the hateful accuse us of being.
In moments of alarm in our People’s history, there has been one clarion call–a clear and piercing cry that is meant to wake us up not only to the realities of our broken world, but to our ability to do something about that brokenness: the sound of the shofar. It is true that the mitzvah regarding the shofar on Rosh Hashanah and each day during the month of Elul (which begins a week from today) is to hear the sound, rather than to be the blaster. Blowing shofar, though, is a ritual act that not only facilitates one’s community fulfilling an important mitzvah, but also expresses pride in one’s Judaism in perhaps the loudest way possible in our tradition! (Click image below for a demonstration.)
The term for a shofar blower in Hebrew is a Ba’al(at) T’kiah–literally a “Master of Blasting.” I have been a Ba’al T’kiah, a Master Blaster, for most of my life, as my experience playing trumpet and other brass instruments lent itself well to getting loud, clear, cries from my shofarot. This Elul, we are looking to grow our TBE stable of Master Blasters! Over the course of three sessions (each of which will be more or less similar to one another) anyone who wishes can come and learn the skills of sounding the shofar with me. It is my hope that we will have more blasters this High Holy Day season than ever. If you want to learn how to perform this sacred ritual; if you want to help sound our People’s alarm this High Holy Day season, I hope you’ll join me. All the information you’ll need follows.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Noah Diamondstein