A Taste of Shabbos – Parashat Haazinu

In High School I memorized this Torah portion because I was told that it included all of our history. It is called a song- One of the ten holy songs in Biblical literature. The tenth one hasn’t come out yet…It will hit the charts only when Mashiach comes- a descendant of King David, our ‘poet laureate’ who is called the ‘Sweet singer of Israel.’ However, when you actually read the words in Haazinu, it sounds more like calamities than a song. It may make more sense to call it a poem, although Torah cantillations may be thought of as music. At any rate, it makes me think of a definition of Blues, ‘ain’t nothin’ but a good man feelin’ bad.’ A Boulder friend, Pastor Pedro, once made a striking observation. Perhaps so many bullets that are fired are really repressed tears that have nowhere to go. I think of that idea very much these days. This Hebrew month called Tishrei actually has the word for song, shir, in it. And not by accident is this month replete with tears- tears of concern, worry, fear, and also tears of relief, reconciliation, and joy.

My birthday is the second day of Sukkot when something very special happened in temple times. There was a ceremony called the water drawing where water would be drawn to be poured on the altar on Sukkot instead of the usual libation of wine. It would be accompanied with more celebration than any other day of the year. In fact, the sages said whoever has not seen that celebration has never seen true joy! Please seek out the sources to discover why and how, this ceremonial day was so special (besides being my Bday 😊)

Actually, I did have a unique connection to sound and music throughout my life. My father who died when I was ten, was called a ‘deaf mute.’ As a little boy in Russia, he loved to play cantor, until he got a sudden brain tumor around four, and lost his hearing and speech. At the age of four I was in a children’s talent show at a local theatre and sang Davy Crockett to a full house. I was thrilled with the opportunity to perform but alas, my father couldn’t hear me. However the first two words of this parasha could still apply to our relationship: ‘Haazinu Shamaim= LISTEN (in) HEAVEN! Guess that’s why I also loved the song ‘Over the Rainbow’ because I was sure my father was there.

He gravitated to animals, as when he would sneak out of his work in a zipper hospital and mosey across the street to the Franklin Park Zoo where like in the rabbinic midrash Perek Shira, perhaps he could hear the songs of all creation. The unique relationship of animals to music is being discovered more extensively by the day. We learn from Happy Feet that each baby penguin has its own tune by which its parent can recognize it! In fact, the song of cows is from the Torah verse, ‘Az Yashir- then he will sing,’ the song of Moshe at the Reed Sea. It is most recently found that cows react to music in very dramatic ways. After my father passed away, I had a social worker. She was a very nice lady but the only thing I remember about her is how she taught me to make music from a blade of grass. Throughout my long life I’ve tried to pass on that skill to many students.

Of course, the primary singers in the animal world are birds. I love birds though I seldom recall their names. My homespun line when I see one that could be either a crow or a raven is to greet it by saying, ‘Hy-bird.’ There is a beautiful teaching about a bird in this parasha, though I’m not sure of the sound it makes. “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, it hovers over its fledglings.’ Rashi explains that this particular bird called Nesher, flies so high that it can safely carry its babies on its back without fear that another bird will attack it from above. It still is in danger from arrow shot from below but it ‘says’  ‘better that the arrows should pierce me than harm my children.’ The Lubavitcher Rebbe has a commentary very relevant to this Hebrew month.

He points out that the example of this image is at the sea when Egyptians tried to shoot arrows at the Israelites but the angel of G-d intercepted the arrows. So the Rebbe pointed out that in the parable the eagle was willing to ‘take the hit’ with the arrows, but that is not an appropriate image for G-d? The Rebbe explained that the angel at the sea was called ‘malach El-okim’, using the name of G-d that represented strict justice, rather than ‘malach Hashem’ the name of compassion. Therefore when ‘justice’ took a hit, it meant that the angel gave up that role and was willing to concede to the quality of mercy. To me this seems like the model of when Teshuva-return- is done correctly and sincerely during these ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, G-d moves from the throne of justice to the throne of mercy, when people do Teshuva out of love and devotion to G-d. Surely the song of Moshe and the people must have helped facilitate that transformation! Now, when that kind of reframing happens, even the negatives in our lives can be transformed into experiences of great joy.

The sages relate this joy to the beginning of creation when the earthly waters and the heavenly waters were separated. They explain that the lower waters then cried out, ‘We too want to be directly in G-d’s Presence.’ The response follows: ‘When you are used for mitzvot like sprinkling salt on offerings (or on Challah) or being poured on the altar for the water drawing ceremony, then you will be even more exalted than the heavenly waters!’

When I long ago taught some first graders, I would put most of the morning prayers to music. It helped the kids remember the words but it also awoke their hearts.  Some told me they remembered those tunes till this day- almost sixty years ago! Once when I was walking near the rest room, I heard a voice coming from there singing the tune of Ashrei, one of the daily prayers. The singer was none other than the African American custodian named Clarence! In Jewish prayers, even the penitential tunes, like those sung on Yom Kippur, can be upbeat because they bring us closer to G-d and express the above mentioned transformation.

In all my years of teaching, my favorite pastime was to write songs and hear my students sing them. In my forties, I finally went out West with the song from Johnny Appleseed humming in my head: ‘Get on the wagon rolling west, out to the great unknown, get on the wagon rolling west or you’ll be left alone.’ I too like Pastor John Chapman would write songs and plant Biblical seeds wherever I went.

In practically all movies since The Jazz Singer and talkies, music has been in the background. It not only helps convey the mood but it stirs up feelings that might otherwise remain blasé. When I saw ‘A Complete Unknown,’ I felt that Timothee Chalmette played a more convincing Bob Dylan than Dylan himself.

‘August Rush‘ was one of my favorite fantasy films of all time with music as the theme.  Young Freddy Higmore played his role to the hilt. The only downer in it was that Robin Williams didn’t portray such a nice guy. Otherwise every note was perfect= from the tunes beneath the city clamor to intricate compositions in the NY philharmonic. The idea of a young precocious orphan bringing talented musical parents back together through the musical genius of a homeless child is just brilliant.

The Hassidic element in this movie is so obvious! The music in the boy’s head both transcends and penetrates every nook and cranny of his environment. It feels so obviously parallel to the Hassidic concept, that every aspect of creation has a divine spark giving it life. The whole movie expressed the line, ‘The hills (and everything else) are alive with the sound of music.’ Like August, it will be only when we discover that all life is a song. As in the very last line in the movie: ‘The music is all around us; all we have to do is LISTEN.’ As in the first word of the parasha, the Hebrew prophets were always trying to get the people to listen. Of course in Jewish culture, the almost programmed time to sing songs of longing, praise, and joy is Shabbos. Our souls yearn for times and places where we can give voice to the music that is waiting anxiously to connect with our source while still celebrating the beauty and tranquility that this world has to offer. It doesn’t take too much forethought during the weekdays to find some sweet Torah themed melodies, old and new, online or in Jewish music sources, like the characters in ‘August Rush.’ With just a little preparation, attendees of a Shabbos meal can magically come together in both physical and spiritual presence, to create a symphony of gratitude to the ongoing creator of all life. Psalm 90 begins ‘a song to the Shabbos day;’ it can also mean, ‘a song OF the Shabbos day.’ Shabbos takes the lead in singing; all we need to do is to ‘LISTEN.’