The cheering of the Essenes

Sometimes also in history, you should listen to music. Take the Essenes for example 

The Essenes - a famous sect of hermits, which established its colony in the caves of the Judean desert, near the Dead Sea, and whose leaders were enshrined in celibacy, chastity and vice, left behind a number of valuable scrolls, from which we can learn about the sect's life. The most famous of them is the "Scroll of the War of the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness", the date of which scholars disagree, but their opinion is firm that it was written between the time of the conquest of Israel in the days of Pompey and the end of Herod's time, or in the days of the last procurators after the reign of Agrippa I.
The sect has set itself the task of fighting paganism and completely eradicating it. Her victory will come, in her opinion, only by combining the two factors and the elements as one: God's help on the one hand and fighting according to the best rules of battle on the other.
The sect rejected the existing regime in Judea, where temple work and other social affairs are conducted that are not according to the commandments of the Torah, according to its version.
In the scroll in question, war is all over the place, the military music stands out, and this through the extensive use of trumpets and trumpets, whether under the influence of the Hellenistic (and correspondingly Hasmonean) or Roman army.
The large and honorable place that the author of the scroll devotes to the description of the trumpets also sheds light on the problems of the organization of the army and the community, on the tactics and the roles of the priests in battle.
On the one hand, we see the affinity of the owner of the scroll to the description of the trumpets in the Bible, especially regarding their roles in religious ceremonies, and on the other hand, his independence from the Bible stands out as far as their use in battle is concerned.
"Sarchi" (meaning scrolls) of the trumpets are found in different passages in the scroll while stating their functions and detailing the inscriptions on them. Each list is divided into two - the list of trumpets for the congregation, its heads and units for the various ceremonies (similar to what is said in the book in the desert) and the list of trumpets for combat use.
One parasha (Shemenina XNUMX) contains only the names of the "battle" trumpets in the hands of the six priests from the sons of Aaron, and apart from that, Ba'al Megila details the description of the types of voices and sounds of the trumpets and their "significant" meaning during battle.
The trumpets for the congregational ceremonies tear open a window to describe the magnificent ceremonies of the Levitical priests and all the people arranged in exemplary order, each man in his special place in each ceremony. In this regard, we find different types of trumpets: the trumpets of the "Bible of the Congregation", the "Bible of the Ministers" and the "Trumpets of the Traditions", which call on all the members of the congregation to get along in their traditions, each one in his position behind the signs and the ministers, and thereby form the "Serach of God" - the religious division the whole
The types of battle trumpets are diverse according to their functions, and the influence and richness of the terms that characterize them are undoubtedly interesting both from the purely military aspect and from the musical-sound aspect, since each type of function required a different sound in its composition, pitch, wave length, and more. The types of trumpets mentioned in the scroll "The War of the Children of Light in the Children of Darkness" are as follows: "Trumpets of the Gathering", "Trumpets of the Feedback", "Trumpets of the Pursuit", "Trumpets of the Ambush", "Trumpets of the Cheering of the Spaces", "Trumpets of the Book of the Intermediate People", "Trumpets of the Sedari The War" and "Trumpets of the Bible and Remembrance".
The Megillah also notices the musical effects of the sounds emanating from the trumpets such as the strength and quality of the voice, its height and thickness, its shape such as staccato or legato. The names of the sounds are "comfortable and close", "Had Trod", "shallow sound" and "shallow sound close", when sound sound and sound had a defined role on the battlefield.

The owner of the scroll mentions several times the inclusion of shofars in the war cheer. In addition to the six priests sounding various tactical signs with trumpets to indicate the stages of the battle, seven Levites are also remembered with seven Jubilee trumpets in their hands. The sound of the trumpets' cheering is first a signal to the Levites and those with shofars to start cheering, and also to the "throwers" people to start throwing/throwing the spears. In other words, we have before us an interesting, somewhat pretentious conduct, a musical conduct on the rhythm of throwing and throwing the instrument of destruction.
It is needless to say that the trumpets, as a primary musical instrument, had a ceremonial ritual meaning on the one hand and a military combat on the other (as in the case of Gideon's war in the Midianites and others of this kind) even in the First Temple period. The horn of the ram symbolized the power of the strike on the one hand and the sacrificial animal on the other.
It should be noted that the sharing of the trumpets and shofars - the trumpets mainly for giving signs, and the shofars - for the great fanfare, whose main purpose is psychological - to melt the enemy's heart and strengthen the spirit of the attackers, is interesting from both the military function and the musical function. This set of roles required the pluggers to be well skilled in their craft, because a sound mistake could be fatal and irreversible.

As mentioned, it is possible that the members of the sect were influenced by the practices that prevailed in the Roman army, since we know that Joseph ben Matthieu, as the commander of the rebellion in Galilee, organized his army in a Roman format and ordered them to use trumpets, as he testifies about the Roman army.
However, it is interesting that while the blasts were used by the Romans mainly for tactical purposes, to strengthen the hearts of the warriors and to frighten the enemy with their terrifying sound, the shofars and trumpets in the scroll of the war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness were used mainly to indicate the religious nature of the war (due to the special character of the sect) and also to give the signs themselves.

The case of the Levites blowing the trumpets is puzzling, since the priests were the ones blowing the trumpets in the Temple. This issue may be explained against the background of the denial of the temple procedures by the members of the sect in question. And it is possible that the members of the sect saw the priests as a symbol of the establishment towards which they opposed, and less than that worn out. That's why the last ones were assigned the role of sticking.

It should be noted that the description of the organization of the sect and its rituals in all the scrolls proves that the descriptions of the scroll in question should not be seen as a figment of the imagination of the author of the scroll, or an artificial literary style, but rather an accurate description of the practice of the sect, based on the practice of its time on the one hand and the perception of its people and their interpretation of what is described in the Bible on the other hand. From this we can assume that the members of the sect trained well in military music, one that served as an important element in the entire formation of the designated war and in the paths of the longed-for victory.

From the scroll of the sect we learn the great value they attributed to music, and especially to singing and even playing music, although through the symbol. Music played an important role in the life of the sect and in the scrolls it appears in the heart of the songs of praise to God. Likewise, the ceremony of passage in the sect's covenant, between groups of priests and Levites who stand opposite each other as Mount Gerizim and Ibal in the Bible brings up the sect's answer in the form of "Amen" after the blessing of Fate-El.
It is possible that this sect came to a deep recognition of the importance of music due to the influence of Pythagorean philosophy, an influence that advocated, among other things, music as a powerful means of educating man and as a guide to all moral qualities. The "musical brotherhood" founded by Pythagoras may have served as a certain foundation in the life of the sect since the analogy between the two is interesting.

It is possible that the interesting distorted and strained similitudes between the sect in question and the Pythagorean school originate from coincidence, although its foundation is not as solid as it should be. However, the one who carefully searches and traces each tag and tag in the writings that teach the fruit of the Essene sect, is guaranteed to illuminate the labyrinth and remove the shadows from all corners of the discussed difficulty. With or without a Pythagorean influence, the music serves well the sect's world view, its thoughts and the special way of life in which it chose to distinguish itself.

In conclusion, it was said that during the Second Temple period, in complete isolation from the music of the temple, a recluse sect lived and worked, in which music assumed an important element: both in its daily life and in its plan for the future, on the Day of Judgment. It was this music that contributed, among other things, to the sect's inner strength and heroism and was a valuable factor in its teachings.
The military music of the sect reveals, beyond the fact that one of the commanders of the rebellion appointed by the government of the rebellion in Jerusalem - Yochanan Al Issay, has a "dark" face, perhaps in terms of tearing the pacifist mask behind the face of the Essene sect.