Ha’Azinu
Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head? It’s a common experience and it happens because our brains seem perfectly designed to engage with music. Listening to and performing music activates multiple different regions of the brain in different ways, making a song easier to remember than anything spoken. That’s part of the reason our ancestors would chant the words of Torah. They had not yet written down the words, but the chant made it possible to memorize vast amounts of text.
In our Torah portion this week, Moses takes advantage of this quirk of human neurology to deliver his “swan song” to the people of Israel, shortly before he would leave them behind and die on Mount Nebo. The Song of Moses begins:
In our Torah portion this week, Moses takes advantage of this quirk of human neurology to deliver his “swan song” to the people of Israel, shortly before he would leave them behind and die on Mount Nebo. The Song of Moses begins:
הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וַאֲדַבֵּ֑רָה וְתִשְׁמַ֥ע הָאָ֖רֶץ אִמְרֵי־פִֽי׃
Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;
Let the earth hear the words I utter!
Let the earth hear the words I utter!
And yet we know that this song is not for the heavens or the earth, but for the assembled Israelites and, of course, those of us hundreds of generations later who would hear its words. Using resonant metaphor and emotionally charged language, Moses gives the people his wisdom in a way they had never been able to hear it before. The people of Israel had stubbornly ignored him for 40 years, in so many ways, but he hoped beyond hope that they would hear and learn from his song.
The Netziv, a 19th century Russian Rabbi, commented that “In poetry [or song], there is a richness that comes from it having been adorned with all kinds of hints, in a way that isn’t done with prose.” A song or poem engages us, not only because of the rhythms or patterns, but because each word or note has hidden meaning that must be engaged with to truly understand the intent of the work or even to find our own interpretation. Moses’ song forces the Israelites into new and creative ways of thinking, as they sing it from one generation to the next, and each person hears it in their own way for their own time.
I believe that the whole world can be like a song for us. Each experience, each setting, each person we meet has hidden contours whose meaning can only be found through deep exploration and interpretation. If we spend our lives simply wandering from one day to the next, an endless march through the doldrums, we can miss the beauty, mystery, and excitement around us. We cannot take our world and the lives we have been blessed with for granted. So let us find the song that infuses the world around us and live in such a way that our own lives will be songs worth singing for generations to come.
Shanah tovah u’metukah,
Rabbi Michael Weiss