Song
With all the unrest in the world these days, a song would be nice.
Song signifies hope, perhaps even jubilance.
A bird opens its mouth, and sings to its Creator a song of joy, happy to be alive.
A lion roars, and its majesty evokes feelings of awe, sometimes trepidation. But there is a majesty, something grand in the scheme of things.
We sing, because we want to express our inner feelings. And, perhaps, we then touch on our innermost essence, something that itself arouses within us a sense of wonder. A reason to sing.
There’s a song in Samuel 2 Chapter 22. It’s a song of David, before he was king. He had been threatened by vicious enemies, and he thanked G-d for saving him.
We read it in the ‘haftorah’ (the added portion to the Torah reading) on the seventh day of Passover, the day that G-d split the sea to save His people. Some of the verses seem to pertain to the Jewish nation’s current situation, as we fight a vicious enemy. “I pursued my enemies and annihilated them. I did not turn back until I destroyed them. I destroyed them, I crushed them so that they will rise no more.”
On the very next day (the eighth day of Passover) the haftorah that is recited describes the arrival of Moshiach. (It begins at Isaiah 10; 32.)
Just as the haftorah with David’s song is followed the next day with the haftorah of Redemption, now too we look forward to Redemption arriving very soon.
Indeed, the Torah relates, that after the Jewish people were saved when the sea split, they sang a song thanking and praising G-d. “Oz yoshir Moshe uvnei Yisroel — Then Moses and the children of Israel will sing.”
But it should have said “shor — they sang.” Why does it say “yoshir — they will sing”?
The sages answer: Because when Moshiach arrives, and those who passed away will become alive, they will then sing again.
Song. For when G-d saves us from our enemies in times of danger. And for when G-d redeems us in the final Redemption, when evil will be completely removed from the world, and goodness and peace will last forever.
May we very soon hear the final song of Redemption.