The Sound of Music
How does one write a song? Among the necessary elements one needs both a tune and lyrics. Is this the way we are to understand the 613th Commandment featured in this week’s portion of Vayelech? 31:19;
וְעַתָּ֗ה כִּתְב֤וּ לָכֶם֙ אֶת־הַשִּׁירָ֣ה הַזֹּ֔את וְלַמְּדָ֥הּ אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל שִׂימָ֣הּ בְּפִיהֶ֑ם לְמַ֨עַן תִּֽהְיֶה־לִּ֜י הַשִּׁירָ֥ה הַזֹּ֛את לְעֵ֖ד בִּבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel.
We have the words, but is there a tune? And if there is, one would understandably anticipate that by evoking the depiction of Shira, poem or perhaps through our association with Oz Yashir, the song that the children of Israel sang, after crossing the Red Sea, it would be merry, inviting and festive. That after all are surely the emotions invited and encouraged through singing.
Yet in a daunting manner, the words of this song, or the words inviting this song follow an ominous warning that has plagued or perhaps even given the lyrics to much of our history/song?
As opposed to Moses warning the people of the bad choices they will make and the consequences they will be afflicted by, a theme that has been played out frequently over the past few weeks. With Moses very close to his death, it is now God that foretells these harrowing events, 31:16;
“…You [Moses] are soon to lie with your ancestors. This people will thereupon go astray after the alien gods in their midst, in the land that they are about to enter; they will forsake Me and break My covenant that I made with them.
Then God declares that …וְהִסְתַּרְתִּ֨י פָנַ֤י מֵהֶם֙ I will hide My countenance (face) from them.
The warning is then forbiddingly repeated a verse later,
וְאָנֹכִ֗י הַסְתֵּ֨ר אַסְתִּ֤יר פָּנַי֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֔וּא עַ֥ל כׇּל־הָרָעָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה כִּ֣י פָנָ֔ה אֶל־אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֲחֵרִֽים׃
Yet I will keep My countenance hidden on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods.
And then we are invited to write the Song? Now how shall we sing the Lord’s song…?
The commentators are perplexed less by the context but certainly by the horrifying text. Ibn Ezra explains; The meaning of And I will surely hide is, if they call Me, I will not answer. Scripture compares God to a person who does not see or know what is happening. The Or Hachaim (the prominent Rabbinic scholar in Morocco 1696- 1743) addresses the menacing repetition; The difficulty in this verse is that God is portrayed as hiding His face after the Israelites have already confessed their sins, and have acknowledged that their troubles were due to God having turned His back on them. If all our verse wanted to do was to provide us with the reason why what happened so far had occurred, there is no need for this. We already know that God turned His face away as a result of the Israelites flirting with local deities!
The Or Hachaim raises this question, more plea and perhaps like us struggles to make sense of this terrifying image, albeit he offers some explanation, but as is so often the case, the dilemma defies reasoning.
Perhaps the verse itself offers the cause, the face of God is hidden because we are facing other gods, it is us who have hidden God from our sight. This could be a reasonable explanation, yet, the verse and the assurance overly emphasizes hat it is Anochi God who performs this act.
There is an ancient tradition, revisited by Kalonimus Kalman Szapiro, the Rabbi of the Warsaw ghetto, in his work Eish Kodesh, that depicts a God that is suffering too, He hides His face because He too cannot bear to witness the suffering of His children.
And yet we are asked to sing, and we commit not to stop dancing?! Perhaps an additional insight may enable if not embolden that singing. Like the Kabbalistic tradition of Tzimtzum, the contraction or withdrawal of God that enabled the creation to occur, here too God needs to move out so that we have the room to move in. In a broken and agonizing world, the task to heal and mend is on us too. As Abraham Joshua Heschel aptly reminds us when we are very much focussed on our prayer; “Pray as if everything depends on God, but act as if everything depends on you.” – Write that Song!
