This Sabbath, our tradition calls out to us: let the music of the Jewish people fill our souls!
It is Shabbat Shirah—the Sabbath of Song. We commemorate the moment when the Children of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds. Standing for the Torah reading, the poetry of our ancestors is chanted with its unique melody, sending us back into history. We all take part in the reading. We are all redeemed from Egypt once again—long before seder night!
When the sanctuary fills with our community’s songful prayers, I feel we move into the “sea of Jewish history,” connecting us with our ancestors’ journeys. Both their hardships and their heartiness come into focus. Their pain and their pursuits of making the world a holier place move into our consciousness. Those journeys through time motivate us to affirm our strength as Jewish souls.
The great Hasidic master Rebbe Nachman taught that every soul has a song of its own. Each shepherd has a tune based on the songs of creation in his field. What songs would we sing if we were attuned to the melodies rising from the world around us? I imagine our compositions would be a little jazzier with all the clank, clash, hum and rattle of New York City.
Naomi Shemer set Rebbe Nachman’s words to a beautiful tune. Let us remember his teaching:
For know!
Each and every shepherd has his own special melody,
according to the grasses and specific location where he is grazing…
His melody is dictated by the grasses and place he pastures.
Each and every blade of grass has a song which it sings.
And from the grass’s song,
the shepherd’s melody is created.
(Likutei Moharan 63:1:2, trans. Moshe Mykoff)
May the songs we sing together inspire us on our journeys. May the soulful tunes we hum and Torah we chant fill us with awe and inspiration. And may we learn to harmonize with humanity and all God’s creation. Let’s sing together this Shabbat, Friday night and Shabbat morning, and walk again on dry land through that miraculous sea.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Bolton