“Music doesn’t get in. Music is already in. Music simply uncovers what is there, makes you feel emotions that you didn’t necessarily know that you had inside you, and runs around waking them all up.” Matt Haig, author of How to Stop Time
In פרשת האזינו, Parashat Ha’azinu, Moshe relays over his literal swan song. The final declaration to the Jewish people from Hashem through him in the form of song. Both Rashi and the Ramban, Nachmanides, understand this last command of Moshe from Hashem as simply utilizing the medium of song to share a lasting impression. However, the Rambam, Maimonides, understands song as referring to the Torah and every Jew needs to be part of the writing of a Torah in their lifetime.
Why was this the final commandment that Moshe received from Hashem and what did the Rambam see in the conceptualization of songs that correspond so strongly with the Torah?
We are less than 24 hours from Yom Kippur. As a young child, I would sit with my father restless, counting down the pages until I could take a break or leave. As I grew older and discovered a deeper understanding of the power of תפילה, prayer, I noticed that something changed. Emotion entered into the area of prayer through the window of music and the passion of song. What could be more uplifting than singing of the כהן גדול, the High Priest, exiting the בית המקדש, the Temple, after completing his service for Yom Kippur as a sign that the people were forgiven in the form of מראה כהן, a song sung in the middle of the Mussaf service? It feeds our soul in a way like no other.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt’l explains this one step further. Why is Torah called a song? If we want to hand our faith successfully onto the next generation, it must sing. Torah must live in the world of affect, emotion, passion and drive. It will not survive if it is relegated to the world of the cognitive mind alone. Music is the pathway where we can communicate with emotion. Only if we make our Torah sing, showing its relevance to our past, to our present and to our future, will we be able to share its beauty with our children, grandchildren and generations thereafter.
Music has been a tool that we have relied on for centuries. We do not recite the word of prayer, we sing them. We do not read the words of the Torah, we put them to music through the cantillation. Even our learning for Torah is done with tunes that inspire and awaken the muscles of our intellect. As Rabbi Sack’s describes, “Music is the map of the Jewish spirit, and each spiritual experience has its own distinctive melodic landscape.”
Rabbi Yechiel Michael Epstein (1829-1908) the author of the Aruch HaShulchan - one of the major works of Jewish law - writes in his introduction that Torah is compared to song as the most beautiful choral sound is when many voices sing in harmony as one. Torah is a choral symphony scored for many voices. Each of our voices are necessary for the melody to ring home and to uplift the whole.
As we transition from days of repentance to זמן שמחתנו, the time of joy and happiness that depicts Sukkot, the Parsha outlines for us how we are to share the passion, the emotion and the harmony of the Torah - through song.
Each Friday night and Shabbat afternoon we are given the chance to share our joy and love of our songs with our children and grandchildren. Let us jump at these opportunities, let us share the words and melodies that we have buried within so that they can light the eternal flame that exists inside each of our children. The sounds of Judaism are the means in which our past was built, our present exists and our future will prevail.