You probably know how I feel about singing. I think that song, particularly in the context of community, has the power to be transformative. It has some magical ability to affect the way that we relate and feel connected to those around us, and I think it has a spiritual power that spoken word just can’t achieve. This week’s Torah portion, Ha’azinu, acknowledges those elements precisely. The parsha is written as a song, and it is a song that Moshe offers to the Israelites just before he departs this earthly world. In many ways it is meant to be a parting gift to them, something for the people to feel connected to Moshe when he is no longer their leader.
A Midrash acknowledges the power of song and teaches that there are ten important times that song is used in the Bible, all at important moments of transition. In fact, I think the Midrash is teaching that song actually helps us transition and evolve into something new. In the case of our parsha, the Midrash teaches that Moshe’s song to them was able to help them in their transition to a people with a new leader in a new land.
The Midrash teaches that the tenth song has yet to be sung, but it will be an important one for our people. It will help us transition to the next phase of who we are as a people, as a community. I’ve often felt that the only way to learn a new song is to try and sing it. If you’ve ever heard me introduce a song in our davening you know that I encourage us all to sing even if we don’t know how it goes. In some ways, it’s entirely counterintuitive - how can we sing if we don’t know the melody? And yet, the only way to figure out how the song goes, the only way to see where the song may take us, is to open our mouths and let the song take shape.
There is always a next song for us to sing, a new song for us to learn. It will only be by exercising our singing muscles that we will evolve to the next phase, and it is song that will help us get there. I felt this with such certainty over the High Holidays, and so many of you noted to me how powerful our davening felt. The energy was palpable. Your voices lifted me and Abe up; you often led us. You humored me when I encouraged you to sing louder. You put yourself into our communal experience and helped us grow and become. I could not have dreamt of more meaningful Yamim Nora’im, and it truly was because of your voices.
It is song that will shift us. It is song that will help transition us to our next state of being - whatever that is. And it will be a new song, one that we’ll sing together and give shape to, that will lift us.
