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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Jon Stewart Can Only Go Shofar

Last night, Jon Stewart decided to blow a shofar on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" to alert his viewers to some breaking news (Keith Olbermann leaving MSNBC). He called it a News Shofar and announced "Something happened!" but never actually blew the shofar.  Instead he just put the shofar to his mouth and kept repeating the words "Hey Look" in a staccato fashion. It sort of sounded like a Tekiah blast followed by Teruah.

Technically, it didn't look like a ram’s horn, but rather a gazelle’s horn. (Either one is sufficient to use on Rosh Hashanah.) Since Jon Stewart is a producer for The Colbert Report, I think he just borrowed the shofar that Stephen Colbert used to sign off at the end of his show back in 2009.

I wonder what it would take for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to come to my synagogue on Rosh Hashanah for a shofar duet?


Seeing Jon Stewart (Jewish) and Stephen Colbert (not-so-much) blowing the shofar got me thinking about Jewish rituals in which other celebrities have engaged. Here are a few that I was able to dig up:

Howie Mandell putting on tefillin

The Bob Dylan Tefillin

The Beastie Boys Playing Dreidel on Hanukkah

George Costanza, I mean Jason Alexander, Giving a Sermon in Synagogue

Ryan Gosling Leading Prayers (He looks like Eminem here!)


 Leonard Nimoy Duchenen (Blessing the Congregation)


Krusty the Klown Reading Torah


Rabbi Ben Stiller Teaching Torah


Darth Vader Waving the Lulav 

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:08 PM

    Leonard Nimoy Duchenen (Blessing the Congregation)....


    I knew that Leonard Nimoy is Jewish but Blessing the Congregation - is that not reserved for the Kohen. If so, I was not aware that he is a Kohen.

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  2. Rabbi Jason Miller12:29 PM

    Rhonda,

    Leonard Nimoy is NOT a kohen. I captioned the photo that way with my tongue in my cheek.

    Wikipedia says: The positioning of the kohen's hands during the Priestly Blessing was Leonard Nimoy's inspiration for Mr. Spock's Vulcan salute in the original Star Trek television series. Nimoy, raised an Orthodox Jew (but not a kohen), used the salute when saying "Live long and prosper."

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  3. Arnie Rotenberg6:30 PM

    If you do get Stewart and Colbert to do a Shofar blowing; maybe we can put them on the road. It would bring in a very interesting crowd--sprituality on a new level. As a trekkie, I would also take Nimoy duchening any day.

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  4. KleoPatra3:25 AM

    i laughed at these! Wonderful!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kady Fox7:29 PM

    I don't believe Steven and Jon are blowing the same shofar. Unless one of the pictures is flipped, the horns are turned opposite directions. (One left horn, one right horn)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rabbi Jason Miller7:41 PM

    Hi Kady,

    At first glance I didn't think they were the same shofars either, but I took a closer look and I am pretty sure they're the same. It's the same production company (Stewart is a producer of both shows) so why would they buy a second shofar? They're just flipped different ways.

    Both guys are left handed so I don't think that's the issue.

    ReplyDelete

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