Percussion and Ting Shas

Percussion & Ting Shas

- Joy Krauthammer

 percussionist

Women particularly of Lev Eisha and also N'Shama Minyan (at Valley Beth Shalom) recognize timbrels that we all play as percussion instruments similar to the frame drums (maybe without jingles) that Miriyahm HaNeviah and the women used during the Exodus. 

For the past couple decades, I play ting shas as part of my percussion repertoire. (I play them specifically as I learned in prayer from Rabbi Hanna Tiferet Siegel.) Most people don't know about ting shas. I even mistook ting shas for belly-dancing zills (which I used to use when dancing).

Two decades ago, 1992, on a Sephardic tour to many countries to explore synagogue architecture (which I'd just been studying at Jerusalem's Hebrew University), I bought zills in Turkey for my dancing.  But, I mistakenly also thought they were the percussion instruments that I was looking for.  (I also bought delicious baklava.) Zills are worn as a pair on two fingers of each hand. Ting shas, two heavier and larger concave metal saucers, when played are connected to each other by a (leather) cord and held and clashed together by the cord. Although Asian cymbals, they resonate the way cymbals would have when played during ancient biblical Temple times. I can mamash / truly imagine that I am in the Jerusalem Temple when I play. When I play timbrel, I visualize that I'm with Miriyahm and the women.  How about you? 

For more on my world music, feel free to read:

http://joys-music.blogspot.com/

Reading the following article excerpt on Percussion, I thought that the women of the Minyans could appreciate the connections between now and Temple times. "Percussion Instruments in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures", is a chapter excerpt on the web authored by French Jewish woman, Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, and informs about percussion from Temple times. Enjoy.

"The only percussion instruments allowed to accompany psalm-singing were the cymbals (cf. 1 Chronicles 25:1 ), which were always used in pairs. In the accounts relating to the transport of the Ark of the Covenant, the cymbals are called either metsiltayim (1 Chronicles 15:9) or  tsiltsilim (1 Samuel 6:5). The former are explicitly said to have been made of bronze. In Psalm 150:5 the latter are called tsiltselê shamah and tsiltselê teru`ah, respectively -- apparently referring to two types of cymbals with different tone or resonance qualities (and therefore different sizes or shapes). Harper's Bible Dictionary ("Music", p. 670) informs us of "small bronze cymbals 4 to 6 inches in diameter, which may have been played with an up-and-down motion..."  Whereas Music in the Ancient World (section "Ancient Israel") tells us that the cymbals "are a pair of concave metal saucers clashed together either vertically or horizontally. In the excavations at Hazor, Megiddo, Akhziv and others, various types of cymbals have been found with diameters ranging from three to ten centimeters."

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