Music in the Mishkan – Searching for the key

Amid the artistic and architectural magnificence of the mishkan (portable desert sanctuary), the dazzling variety of materials, fabrics and precious metals employed in its construction, the olfactory sweetness of the ketoret (incense), the tantalizing aroma and abiding freshness of the lekhem ha-panim (showbread) and the sartorial splendour of the woven bigdei kehuna (priestly garments) one aspect is missing.

Where is the music?

Post-Pentateuchal and Talmudic references to Temple music abound. The variety of instruments showcased in King David’s final psalm (150); the chalil (flute) concertos (Succah 5:1, see Bertenora) and orchestral symphonies (5:4) at the water-drawing celebrations on Succot and the virtuoso solos, again of the chalil, on Pesach, Pesach Sheni, Shavuot, Succot and Shemini Atseret (Arakhin 10a) all testify to the ubiquitousness of instrumental music in Temple worship; and there are many references to the vocal song of the (principally) Levitical choirs. R’ Shimon ben El’azar declares (Ta’anit 27a) that klei shir, musical instruments are an essential adjunct to the sacrificial services as his view is that instrumental music is even more vital than song.

However the Temple is not the mishkan. While there is a rare Talmudic reference to a type of lyrical flute called an abuv which was known in the time of Moses – and of course Miriam played her toph, her tambourine along with the women, on the shore of the Reed Sea (Ex. 15:20) – the Torah and its commentators are deafeningly silent on the subject of music in the desert sanctuary. Even Rashi’s reference to choral music of the Leviim (Num. 8:26) appears to refer to the Temple. We have the distinct suspicion that music did not feature in the Mishkan.

Why would this have been? Since the commentators are unforthcoming we can only conjecture. I venture to suggest three possible reasons for its apparent absence.

The first: the Golden Calf episode. This, according to Sforno and others, was responsible for the very command to build the mishkan. Prior to that fall from grace, the Bnei Yisrael were able to set up simple altars anywhere (Ex. 20:21). The mishkan was a concession to the needs of the Bnei Yisrael for visual stimuli. Following G‑D’s indication that the nation would never be totally free from the effects of this sin (Ex. 32:34), the people “mourned (va-yit’abalu) and refrained from donning their jewellery” (33:4). A mourner does not perform or listen to music for a whole year.

The original Divine plan called for the entry of Bnei Yisrael into the Land under Moses well within a year. There they would build the Temple and rejoice with song, instruments and dance and the purpose of Creation would be fulfilled. Tragically this outcome was thwarted by the chet ha-meraglim, the sin of the ten scouts who returned from their mission with a poisonous report of the Land infecting the people (Num. 13:1-14:10). This resulted in a forty-year detention in the desert, representing galut (exile). Exile is not a place for music and song. “On the willows there (in Babylon) we hung our harps. For there our captors demanded: ‘Sing for us a selection of Zion’s songs!’ But how can we sing the song of G‑D on alien soil!” (Psalms 137:4).

When Ezra returned with the elite of Babylonian Jewry to Israel at the start of the Second Temple period there were no Leviim capable of playing the harp. The Midrash explains, based on the above verses, that when Nebuchadnezzar had demanded of the newly-exiled Levite musicians to be serenaded with music, they deliberately mutilated their fingers rather than comply there in exile.

Here then we have a second possible explanation for the lack of music in the exilic desert mishkan.

 A final suggestion is altogether different. On the day the Mishkan was inaugurated (1^st Nisan 2449) there was indeed song. Va-yaronu, the people in their enhanced spiritual state sang ecstatically (Lev. 9:24). But possibly as a result of the intensity of feeling generated by that euphonic and euphoric singing, two sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, went too far in their exultation. The result was that they were struck down (10:1-2). Aaron was reduced to silence (10:3) and the nation followed suit.

Could it be that out of fear of a repetition, the traumatised nation continued a self-imposed musical ban in the mishkan for the remainder of its desert odyssey? The music would have to emanate from within its own collective soul until the nation reached the Promised Land and built a permanent home for G-D.