Podcast: Rabbi Donald Cashman, discusses his faith and plays his shofar

The Enterprise — Sean Mulkerrin
Rabbi Donald Cashman sounds the shofar — a ram’s horn that is part of a collection he has gathered over 40 years. He will use a longer, curled horn that he got on his honeymoon in Israel, for the Rosh Hashanah service at the B’nai Sholom synagogue in Albany. Hear about his many-splendored faith and teachings on this week’s Enterprise podcast at altamontenterpise.com/podcasts.

 

00:00                                         Hello, this is Melissa, Hale-Spencer, the editor of The Altamont Enterprise, seated in the book lined office of Rabbi Donald Cashman in the temple of b'Nai Shalom. And we're so delighted to be here. What got us here was a press release about the countdown to Roshashana, so thank you for having us. Well, thank you for coming. And I thought I'd start because it would have been. We're waiting for the mic to get set up. I'd been looking around the office walls here and other than the volumes and volumes of books, they're just fascinating things on the wall. I asked the rabbi, are those pens in that picture? And he said, no, he told me when we read from the Pto risk scroll, we don't touch it, but rather we follow along with pointers. Those particular pointers are made from wood or precious metals. And uh, that particular grouping is from a museum that the Adolf Hitler created in Prague called museum for an extinct race.

01:14                                         They were on display here touring the United States in the mid eighties. I saw the in Miami and uh, those were, were there. And I just love that poster, I spend a lot of time with the or scroll and, uh, really wanted it, so required that poster and have had it in my office ever since. And each one is unique and our innate and its own way. One has a coral tip, many arrows pointed fingers pointing from hands and how, what a wonderful statement that this is not an extinct right. And it's now in the rabbi's office. I like that. And then if we just kind of traveled around the room, tell me about some of these other things on the wall here. This a fabric piece here. Uh, first I'll tell you where I, who made it. It's from a workshop in Jerusalem called a Yod. Lakashish a lifeline to the old senior citizens come there during the day and make handicrafts.

02:18                                         And they're sold. They get a companionship there. They get a salary there, they get lunch there. And, uh, we get to acquire various kinds of handicrafts. This one is based on a passage from the book of Deuteronomy Chapter Eight, giving the seven species of the land of Israel. We barley grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates, and it's just exquisite needlework. It's lovely. And so why have you chosen to hang a month at a? Well, we read this passage at one of the times we read this passage is on the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat. It's one of the most minor Jewish festivals and in fact the only thing we do to celebrate it is eat a lot of fruit. The Jewish mystics in the 16th century or so, started to have a ritual banquet eating certain foods at certain times during it and studying passages of the Bible and other Jewish literature while they ate these fruits about, um, about four or five, six weeks after I met this woman in rabbinical school, I went to a Tuba, Shabbat Seder, and that kind of did it.

03:40                                         We'd been married for almost a for 34 years now, so that the tuition, it was very important to me and that particular passage. That's wonderful. I love that story. So moving along on the wall here, what have we got next? Well, up at the top, there is a chart from the Israel Museum, uh, showing the development of Hebrew script from, it's a pro bono side in the attic, a pictograph into, into, uh, eventually older Hebrew, and then the Aramaic letters, what you, and I think I've generally most people think of as Hebrew letters are actually Aramaic letters as derived from the older Hebrew. And you can also see how the Greek and eventually the Latin or English alphabet a is a derive from it. And then surreal. I never realized that it was a pictograph language to start with pictographic script. Yeah. So, so all the, like the word a bait out we say a alphabet alphabet.

04:47                                         So, uh, uh, an Aleph, uh, it's an ox and a bet as a house. That's great. That's great. And what have you got down here? Uh, is something my wife gave me for my birthday one year. It's a passage from other missionary tractate of volt says you are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to not do anything about it. You can't just sit back and do nothing. You have to do something so you don't have to complete it, right. You have to be in the process to be working through. Yes. No, I love this passage so much that my license plate on my car is the source for that. I voted to 21 and acts to it next to it. That's an example of micro graphy, uh, in tiny little Hebrew letters. What do you see in the picture? I had not seen the tiny little paper letters until you said that it looks to be like a man leading a horse with another man on it.

05:57                                         It looks to be like an old fashion itching. But as soon as you said that, I realized the little tiny lines are actually letters. And what those letters are is the sixth chapter of the book of Esther. Where have a, it ends up with Haman, the bad guy leading Mordecai, the good guy on the king's horse. I like the way you put this in very simple terms. We have the good guy, the bad guy. Oh, isn't that passionate? And who does that kind of work? Have somebody with a, I guess, good vision and doesn't have arthritis yet of actually I'm going to Israel, uh, with uh, uh, bringing a group in December and January and we will go into the town of the city, have a soft spot up north. There's a whole street of people who sell my crop graphy they do chapters, they did whole books of the Bible. Huge pieces like that. Fascinating. And what is the circular? That's a good question. I don't even remember what that is. Have Flowers in the circle with Hebrew around it. But actually the top is it. It's the same text at the top that we have in the, uh, the fabric piece.

07:16                                         So that's what that is. Of course we have prominently displayed you are you. Oh, we're from skipped over to diploma my ordination certificate and that's my uh, uh, a doctorate, my honorary doctorate. They give it to us after 25 years of serving the Jewish community. Well, I want to walk through your life with you, but that's something. And we have one more quarter. And you had mentioned this is the Israel coroner on my eastern. Yeah. Cool, uh, at the top is a, a, a, a, a title to see if I forget your Jerusalem. Let my right hand forget its cunning. Ah, that's title below that is a clock which is pretty accurate shaped in the land of Israel. And you could see where the blue spots are, where there's water. I had another clock, it's over here next to you at an olive wood, but the battery kept running down and then I found that other.

08:19                                         And it was because of the way the hands where I couldn't see when I got it. I could see that far. Now. Now I can't see that far. Um, there's a, uh, Chevron on the right there that's got the same passage from psalms about not forgetting Jerusalem. And on the left there's a bas relief of some people at the Western Wall. The central piece is a, is a fabric piece of fabric applicate by, uh, a woman who used to be a local artist. She's since moved out of town, Anita Rabbit off Goldman. We have, uh, four other pieces by her in the synagogue. We have a, a trip to itch in the hall that are different versions of the Bible because of peace, because our name is b'Nai Shalom. We commissioned her to do three pieces on peace and we have another piece. So that was commissioned, uh, uh, by a congregant in Harvard.

09:16                                         She does that with a needle. It's not with a needle. Well, yeah, there's some with needle, but it's pieces of fabric laid on others that are on top of each other. And uh, I'm assuming she uses a machine. It's, it's gorgeous. It's absolutely gorgeous. So tell me the name of the temple. Shalom. Shalom. A children of children. I'd like to back up to the beginning of your life. How did you come to be here? I mean, what was the path that you took? Where are you from originally? I'm originally from Newburgh. Uh, my official biography on the congregational website says that I'm a native of the West Bank of the Hudson, a c or a person with a sense of humor. I like to think so. Uh, not everybody finds everything I say funny, but, uh, uh, uh, I started out here. I grew up here, went to college in Boston, rabbinical school, first year was in Jerusalem, then back to New York.

10:22                                         But what drew you to this? What? I mean, it's a huge commitment. What was your family like or your upbringing? We were, we were, uh, I like to say religious reform Jews, a lot of people don't understand because reform tends to be a more secular than a, um, then then totally observant, but we were actively involved and I became more involved in high school through our youth movement involved in regional and international level. And uh, and this kind of did it for me. I, uh, it combined a lot of things for me. And so I went through college, his religion major, and then straight onto rabbinical school. Uh, my first job out of school was in Miami and I escaped Miami after two years. You say escape. It's hot and humid. And I worked in very large congregation with a 1300 families. That meant a 60 funerals in two years. That's one every 11 days. So you can't really. And there was 1:10 day period with five funerals because you've had a lot of elderly, a lot of people, but elder sure, sure. Uh, so, um, you know, you, you try and, and, and have some kind of professional detachment, but being around all these sad people takes a toll on you. I can imagine. Uh, so we were, uh, we were when this position opened here in Albany, I was very keen to come back to the, uh,

12:03                                         well tell us about your congregation here.

12:06                                         I've been here for 33 years. Uh, we are the youngest congregation in Albany. Uh, we, uh, are one of the smaller ones. So how many families, I think we count at this point, a hundred and 2,122 families at this time of year. It changes. People are looking to affiliate with synagogues for the upcoming days of all or the high holy days. Some people call them and so people are arguing are coming up and it's just a bit. We have some of the nicest people.

12:44                                         It was also a nice size because it sounds like it's small enough. Everyone would get to know everyone,

12:50                                         the people who want to get known. Uh, there's some people who we don't see an awful lot of and you know, I eventually know who everybody is. So, uh, uh, people who come off and say, well, who's that guy over there? I know who he is because that's my job, is to know who he is. Um, but yeah,

13:10                                         so tell us about your job. I mean, it consists of, you say you do a lot of reading of the Torah and you also obviously handle funerals. We've heard about that and you run worship services, but like just kind of describe to us what it, what it's like to be a rabbi, what goes around the great question and why

13:33                                         do everything? Uh, um, so, uh, as soon as you leave I'm going to send out an email to the congregation telling them, have a death in the congregation. Uh, that happened over the weekend. And I learned about when I came in, uh, I need to practice the show for today, the month before a Russia Hashanah, the one who sounds the show far supposed to sounded every week, day I missed yesterday. I don't know how I did that. I was doing some other things. I'm also going to read through the Roshe Nah Service, uh, because we started using a new prayer book last year and it's not straight through, it's a, you know, one thing on this page and one thing on the next page. Then skip two pages and do that. So everything is marked in my copy. I've marked it up myself, but I need to practice reading it out loud so I don't trip over my tongue and I know that we turn here and I don't think last year, last year, because it was the first time I was so concerned that I was greatly, uh, I made darn sure there were no mistakes in my written a text there with my directions.

14:45                                         But it's been a year since I went through that. So I need to read it out loud. So that's a part of the agenda for today. I will also be working on a sermon for um, I'm working on Yom kippor morning this week. I have a time I tried and uh, do one before the month before Russia, way before, two months before Russia, under to in the month before Rosh Hashanah and two and a half and then kind of finish it up when I'm in the fervor and the mood at the holiday. Tough. Tough in July to get worked up about a September or October holiday.

15:25                                         Yeah. Well it's wonderful you're doing this. And I brought my sheet that you had sent out this countdown. I mean I've never had anything like this cross my desk and work through some of the days, but I'll just say what some of them are and you can kind of fill in our listeners on Friday, August 31st is music of the days of getting acquainted with the seasonal tunes. That's how I can even read without my glasses stories and their significant. So tell us about what that is going to be like. What are some of those stories and some of them using, I'm still trying to get through next week, but I have given

16:03                                         some thought to, well, what I'm going to do with music, there are a couple of melodies that are hundreds of years old or motifs really that appear in different, different places within the service. So, um, during the service itself, I tend not to interrupt and talk too much about the significance of these melodies and the origins of these melodies. A, some believe, uh, there are a thousand years old, um, some scholarship recently said, well, not quite, maybe 500 years old. The, their major, they're not minor. So that already hints in Central Europe, Not Eastern Europe and how they moved and came over and where they appear

16:50                                         object here that the rabbi is also a musician. I saw his guitar case and the corner of the room. They are. So this is like another language

16:59                                         you speak so well I'll do that. I'll review some of the things that we sing constantly during the holidays. So people are hitting them for the first time on the days of law. I have at least a one new melody we're introducing this year. I have a soloist, actually are soloists. It'll be her her third year. It's a young woman who grew up in our congregation, went to the Hart School of Music and is now a school music teacher. A voice was her instrument.

17:37                                         Well, that you've been here long enough, you've watched them grow up and ended up as a soloist.

17:43                                         One of the great privileges, in fact, many of my colleagues here in the capital have been here 20 or 30 years and we share this in common with, uh, doing uh, uh, you doing baby namings and then their bar or Bat Mitzvah and their weddings and naming their children. Uh, it's just a wonderful thing to grow up with people and it's a great blessing as a rabbi to be invited into share people's lives with them. So she'll be a. I gave her one new piece I wanted to learn and it's a piece with Solo and congregational response. So I want to teach them the response. Are these songs and what language are they in? This particular one is in Aramaic. Most of them are in Hebrew, but this particular one is in Aramaic, so the congregation sings in Hebrew or if they listen and they will sing in Hebrew and they sing in Hebrew, uh, one of the blessings of our new prayer book is that all the Hebrew prayers are romanized transliterated into English characters because a lot of people read Hebrew, but they can sing faster than they read Hebrew.

19:03                                         So it kind of opens the door and for even for non Hebrew readers, they really appreciate that we are a singing congregation. Certainly I've been pushing that for a minute. What does that do for your, um, sense of God and religion to who are the same? First of all, it, it makes it more participatory. You know, you're not sitting there reading, you're not sitting there listening to something. You're not seeing, you know, lifting to somebody, read or sing or perform. Most certainly there are pieces that have a higher degree of artistry that we sit there and listen. I think a well balanced a church or synagogue music program a should allow people to sing, but also should have those pieces that, whether it's a solo was to require, has worked on that the, uh, the person in the Pew is not going to be able to master after a couple of hearings.

20:00                                         So, uh, I think that elevates people. Being involved of singing is good because of the breathing and the focus and the a, of rhythm and all that. And you know, sometimes I have percussion up in the front. I got a drum and I got to shakers and I got a tambourine. I probably won't use those on the days of all. But, uh, for normal sabbath worship I would use those. And it's interesting to me because I know decades ago the Catholic church step back from doing lot tried to make it more accessible in English, but that you still use the Hebrew. Tell us about why that's important. Well, Hebrew, um, binds us to all other Jews at prayer in time and space. You know, Jews for 2000, 3000 years have prayed in Hebrew and Jews throughout the world. Pray in Hebrew. Now we in a reform synagogue, use more English. You are, or the vernacular. If you're in a congregation in Argentina, you'll be in Spanish and if you're in a congregation and in France you'll be in French. But, uh, uh, we use the vernacular a, we want to understand what we're saying, you know, we work on learning Hebrew, uh, to understand what those prison, but using certain things that we either recite or sing, bind us to our ancestors and to each other. Yeah, there's something in language itself that

21:35                                         through, through the ages, as even language changes. If you can get back to the root of it, you can find some truth. So moving along on the list of the countdown we have on Saturday, September first, um, it's a late night penitential service. Tell us a little about that.

21:56                                         Is, is that service, um, there's an old teaching that midnight is a good time to petition God. Why is that? Why is that a, I dunno, maybe there's less air traffic. Only the, uh, uh, the airwaves are in, tied up. I'm old, I understood there's a wonderful book from a couple of years ago by an author named dot lists. I can't remember his first name called the coffee trader. It's about 16th, 17th century Amsterdam, Amsterdam, not Amsterdam, New York. Apparently this was when coffee came into Europe and Jews were big on the international coffee trade. Jews were often involved in international business because they had connections all over the place. Uh, and uh, a lot of people would drink coffee and they'd be up all night or they couldn't go to sleep. So they were up at that point. That's a different take on it.

23:19                                         Yeah. And also it's just a time when the daily chores, whatever era in place are done and you have more solitude for community, you would think,

23:30                                         why the streets are quiet, the kids are quiet. It's you. It's a good time to petition God. Now we don't do it at midnight. We do it at 9:00 PM, but we do it first of all, with fewer lights in the sanctuary. It's not fully. We just have a few lights. So we can read from our books, I put us in a circle, you know, the first year I did it, it's been about 20 years, had no idea how many people are gonna show up. Um, and I put about 20 chairs out and we get that. Usually one year some people came late and they've had to sit over on the side because they came late and I didn't have enough chairs out.

24:17                                         And we have a special liturgy for that. It kind of brings us in. We ramp up for the holiday, we start with the kickoff. We had that kickoff on August twelfth, which was the first day of the month of the Hebrew month before Rosh Hashanah. And then these various sort of joyous. It was a joyous thing. I, uh, I thought, oh, it's the first day of the count. It's the first day that we sat in the show far. Uh, I was thinking, I was thinking, oh, some kind of penitential moment is, oh no, let's have a carnival. Oh, okay. Well that's good too. To get people in, to let them know what we're doing. We had a lot of people we assume from the neighborhood or people who drove by and saw that we were having this carnival. We had a bounce house out front. I mean, I want to bounce off the wall sometimes during the holidays so I didn't get on the bounce house, but it was a nice way to kick off the month and these four special Friday nights, uh, before the, before the holidays and this late night service. One of the things we do with this service, which I picked up from my colleagues, there's no tradition behind it for the days of wall, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur poor. The normal cloth coverings in the sanctuary get changed from there year round, color, whatever that might be too white. So the curtain, which we have a, like a Maroon curtain over the, uh, where the towers are kept. We take that down. We put up a white one. What's the symbolism? White is a symbol of purity. White is also in a Judaism a color of death.

26:08                                         Um, and we'll cover the, a reading table in white will cut the Torah, covers themselves, will be changed to white. I wear white robe selling. When your congregation will walks in, they immediately aware that this is different. Whites is like, it's white and part of it is the melodies because certain melodies, as I mentioned before, are saved for the season. You could just hear, oh, it's the high holidays as opposed to going in on a festival, you hear certain melodies or even morning and evening have different melodies.

26:50                                         So tell us what is the heart of this Rosh Hashanah? It's the new year, but tell us a little about the history and why it's celebrated. Well, the heart of it

27:02                                         is a day of a introspection, uh, and the whole month really leads up to introspection. Ben Leading into repentance and atonement up. You asked about the history. Probably the older festival is the one not at Rachana, but two weeks later Russia, Sean is at the new moon festival, but two weeks later at the full moon there is the festival of suit coat, the fall harvest festival. Probably in ancient times the harvest festival was more important just because people were closer to the earth and having to grow food. Sure, sure. You wanted to thank God for your harvest and in the land of Israel in particular, the rainy season begins about then it doesn't rain in June, July, August, not that much in September. It kind of starts in late September maybe, but go picks up October through maybe march. You need to petition God for rain at this season because if it doesn't rain in in the season, the crops won't grow and you'll starve.

28:19                                         So you want to give thanks for what you got and you want to ask for rain. No. How can you approach your God in a state of sinfulness is, oh, we need to get rid of that sin. So the day of atonement is five days before suit coat in Russia. Now the new year is a 10 days before that at the, at the new moon. So it leads us up to that harvest festival. Now the, uh, these days, uh, here in, uh, in America where we're urban people. Oh, we feel Rosh Hashanah and yom kippor. We don't feel suit coat so much now. I'm a gardener, so I do my, my issue now is there's been too much rain. My tomatoes is saying no more rain. Their leaves are turning yellow, turning yellow.

29:15                                         It's too well. Our half an hour has gone really fast, but I do not want to leave without telling people what is on the desk before me. The rabbi has collected, I think, from around the world. Yes. Ram's horns and I'm hoping he will blow some of it for us and tell us a little about the tradition there. I,

29:42                                         uh, actually they're not too much from around the world. I have m one, two. Where's the third one? Where did I, did I take it home or is it sitting around here somewhere? Did I hide it? I don't know. Uh, uh, that I got in Jerusalem and I have three, but I only see two here that I got in Marrakesh. I was in Morocco for years ago and we spent a sabbath in the area where the Jews live now and went to a synagogue in that area. Uh, the next day was Sunday. We were able to go into the Mela, the, the old part of the city where the Jews used to live where the old synagogue was, which is actually guarded by, by the government. I don't know if it was a, was a soldier or the national police. The king of Morocco loves his juice and the place every place we went, every hotel we stayed at was filled with Israelis, uh, whose origins were from Morocco.

30:45                                         A lot of juice for Rocco before that they'd gone to Turkey, but the Turkish government had become less than friendly with Israel by this point. So they were all going to Morocco. Uh, our tour guide told us that there would probably be somebody selling a chauffeur's there in the synagogue. So it was a small group. There were 17 of us. I guess there were 10, 10 men and after whatever the tour or lecture we got, we were told they're out on the table their well being a chauffeur, a blower. I don't want to get one. So, you know, I try them all out and I found one that was great. And when the other guys there, they're diddling around there. So I picked up two more. Um,

31:32                                         how did you learn how to, to below the shelf or how did, how do you learn that? Well, I was a French horn player when I was a little kid from time I was at eight to 18 and Marrakesh who would have thought. But most of these are sort of didn't. What's the word I'm looking for? They swirl, like, you think of a Ram's horn, but there's one that looks like you'd think of like a Unicorn Horn. What is with this one from a unicorn? It's a straight shot with just spirals. Spirals on the bottom. Yeah. The answer is I don't know if any of them.

32:13                                         The shapes are natural. You boil them for four to six hours and they get soft and you shape them, or the manufacturer does. Uh Oh, I don't do that. I bought them all in this way. I haven't played with them.

32:26                                         I didn't understand that. I thought it was like, you know, people have their homes like deer horns, you know, and I thought they just, that was their shape, but their turn, I don't know about antlers. I just know about. So the one

32:40                                         that you're looking at A. I walked into a street on the main shopping, a drag of Jerusalem and she had a case full of these. I'd never seen a horn like this is probably for six years ago. And so as long it's ebony color, can I touch it to the touch? And it's just magnificent looking. It doesn't sound all that good and doesn't play so easily either, but I'll, I'll toot it for ya. Uh, it, uh, I don't know if it's from an ibex or an Orex. I'm no animal expert. I'm just. No the horns know, play the horns. Uh, but it's straight and there aren't a ones. I liked it. So I asked the lady behind the counter, you know, we could get, this will makes it just my son does them. She points to the back of the store and this other guy standing there.

33:32                                         Okay. So I had to get one of, I don't use it in the synagogue, uh, but let's see what I can do with it tonight. This morning. Are you unusual among the rabbis or do they all know how to do this? They didn't all play the French horn and I actually at a workshop for rabbinic students when I was a rabbinic student taught the other ones had to do it. So, um, I don't know, you know, most people farmed that out. I think I like to do it. Um, you know, maybe I should train other people, get other people to do it. It's neat. It's like you're literally calling people to worship. Well yeah. Now I don't know how this is going to work with the microphone. Do you want me to move back from it? Okay,

34:22                                         well let's not hit that.

34:31                                         See that doesn't do much. Now let me try this. So there are different rhythms that you use to three, three to four calls. There's a Tequila, which is a straight blast. I count them for three seconds. One, two, three. That's a tequila. Chivalry is three, Da, da Da. A touro law is three times three, nine that, that, that, that, that, that, that, uh, and uh, Tequila, Godot law, we just means a long to Kia. The literature says a Kia, no matter how long it is, is just one to Kia. So it became a customary and it became a, it was a late custom, uh, uh, that you hold it as long as you can. A couple of years ago, I was doing a full minute, but I stopped working on that because, uh, it seemed like it was no longer for the glory of God. It was for the glory of dawn. And it didn't seem like it was in keeping with the mood of the holiday of humility. I don't need for that anymore. Uh, you know, 20, 30 seconds, that's fine. He gets the point across. This particular one is a really nice, I call it my Sopranino, uh, because it's very, very high.

36:03                                         Wonderful. This tradition start, was it both?

36:08                                         Oh, it's very old tradition. The, uh, the tow row talks about, uh, it shouldn't be a day of blowing the horn. So you know, this literature from 2,500 or more years ago says this is what you do on the festival. Uh, this was, um, uh, sounded in times of a warning or a praise or when you find it also in, in the psalms are references to do blowing the shofar. Uh, at the, at the new moon. This is how they would proclaim it a later on. How did they proclaim religious celebrations? Bells? Jews didn't use bells. Other people use boundaries, but they use whatever would spread over a wide distance of time. Like we have firehouse whistles short, short. Now this one, this is my favorite and this is the one I will use for, uh, for the days of law. I bought this on my honeymoon. Wonderful. Where was your honeymoon? Was in Jerusalem. This was 1984 and I got it at the same store. I got that other one in 1975 on my first trip to Israel. Uh, so this one I like very much

37:28                                         gave me goose on goosebumps.

37:32                                         Save this one for last. This is the Marrakesh one. I'm the mouthpiece is cut in such a way. Now on the one on the left there, on the table to my left. Your right. I could get tunes out of this one. Not only can I get today, it's incredible. I used it one year. I can get a Glissando of it. It's Gershwin.

38:06                                         Uh, uh,

38:20                                         on that note, he literally, we will close our conversation. What's appropriate? Great. Great. Wow. Well, what a life you lead. It's fun. You've put together so many things all into service of God. I mean, it's just like everything flows into one channel. Just remarkable. Thank you will. Thanks for coming. Thanks for wanting to talk to me. Yeah. Well you were hard to get.

 

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