Dvar Torah Beshalach:
What do we need more of?
When we read about the military attack, Pharaoh’s chariots
and officers charging against the Israelites.
When we picture God as cloud and fire, the images are images of
war. As Moses tells sthe people, “God
will fight for you.” Or in the Song of
the Sea, the song that celebrates crossing the sea to safety, “Ado-nai ish
milchamah,” “Ado-nai is a God of war.”
All these clues might make us wonder why is this Shabbat called
“Shabbat Shirah”, the Shabbat of Song?
Is it enough that we read the song of the sea? With all the plagues and destruction
associated with the Exodus, maybe we don’t feel like singing at all?
But isn’t there singing even at moments of conflict? During war, soldiers sing. I think about my favorite film of all time,
Casablanca; German soldiers at Rick’s start singing Die Wacht am Rhein, a
German patriotic song, and then Victor Laszlo, leader of the underground,
starts the band to playing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, and
they sing at each other, with the allied voices eventually drowning out the
voices of the enemy.
The singing that happens this Shabbat is about triumph,
celebration, thankfulness. And we need
much more singing. Every Shabbat evening
and every Shabbat morning, every holiday, at ceremonies celebrating birth,
marriage, there is singing, even mournful songs at funerals and shivah.
Even God wants more singing from us, as the Rabbis explain,
“From the day the world was created until the Israelites stood at the Sea, we
did not find those who sang to God except Israel. God created the first human being, and he did
not sing a song. God saved Abraham from
the fiery furnace and from the kings and he did not sing a song, and the same
with Isaac, who was saved from the knife (at the Akedah) and did not sing a
song…the same with Jacob…(but) when the Israelites came to the Sea and it was
split for them, immediately they sang a song…”
And here is where we see what God was thinking all along…
The Rabbis tell us that God then said, “It was for them (for
this nation of Israelites) that I was waiting.”
God was waiting for us to sing as a group, as a people.
Why do we often not sing as much as we could?
We worry about the sound of our voice. Gevalt, what has American Idol done to
us?! We feel self-conscious with our
sound, wondering when the man with the British accent will reduce us to a
weeping lump of tears at our lack of talent.
We do not know the words.
Here in our synagogue we’ve produced booklets to help
everyone be able to join in with the Hebrew prayers. And we recognize at the same time the power
of singing without words. Jewish
tradition raised the art of singing melodies without words to a high art
form. The Niggun, the wordless melody is
an extraordinary way into our own hearts and into God’s heart. Whether it’s a soft hum, singing on Lai Dai
Dai, or a personal favorite, Oy, yo yoy yoy yoy, being part of the group
singing whether with words or without words means that we are praying with our voices,
contributing our sound to the group sound and affirming our place in the
community, affirming the meaning of the prayer, of the song in a way that is
meaningful for us.
On this Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of song, let us recommit
to filling our lives with music. Instead
of watching TV, put music on, sing and dance.
At family meals, the Seder, Thanksgiving, Shabbat, any other time, make
a song sheet and sing together.
Unlike Simon Cowell, God does not critique the quality of
our sound or our performance.
God wants us to open up and sing, Az Yashi Moshe uv’nei
Yisrael, Az, they just opened up in song at that moment, filled with joy,
bursting to express that joy and out came an amazing song.
Let’s join our ancestors and sing with them.
Shabbat Shalom.
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