Parshat Beshallach - Shabbat Shirah

The Power of Song

Adapted from Rabbi Cheryl Peretz

Having crossed through the sea as it split to lead them to safety, our ancestors stood on the shore watching as the waters stopped the advancing Egyptian army. What's the very next thing they did? Torah tells us:

"Then Moshe and the Israelites sang this song to Hashem." "And Miriam the prophet, sister of Aharon, took her drum in her hand, and all the women came out after her, with drums and dance." (Shemot/Exodus 15:1, 20)

Midrash teaches that angels asked God, "What is humanity that we should take notice of them?" God replied, "Come observe the scene of the Song of the Sea." As soon as the angels heard the Israelites sing, the angels began to sing: "O God, how glorious is Your Name in all the earth!"

What is song, that even the angels use it to praise God in the Heavens? When the inner world of feelings swells beyond what the mouth can express, what remains is . . . song. Songs of joy, songs of redemption, songs of healing, songs of pain: all transcend the boundaries of words. All can transform a moment into an opportunity for expression and release. Even without words, music can reveal a moment of Truth through an experience of clarity, presence, vision and understanding.

Perhaps this is why our scribes chose to write Torah scroll version of the "Song of the Sea" in a block form with intermittent open spaces. The open spaces between words and lines overwhelm the words themselves. Perhaps this teaches that what is not said, but is only sung, can express more than all the sophisticated poetic words in the world.

Return to Reb Laura's "Taste of Torah" list.

Return to "Teachings from Our Rabbis and Friends" list.

---

[ Home ]	[ Asiyah ]	[ Yetzirah ]	[ Briyah ]	[ Atzilut ]	[ Calendar ]
	( Doing )	( Feeling )	( Knowing )	( Being )