This Shabbos is especially called Shabbos Shirah on account of the scriptural reading, this morning, of the Az Yashir, the song of Moses and Israel which they sang on the shores of the Red Sea which they had just crossed miraculously. This Shirah, or song, was the deep expression of joy by the People of Israel, their heart-felt happiness at their exodus from the slavery of Egypt, and their deep thankfulness to G-d that He had so favored them.
But Az Yashir was more than a victory song, or song of jubilation, by a subjugated people who had just won a war. Many nations have sung victory songs composed in honor of martial victories, but they have faded from the world of music even as the wars and nations they commemorated dwindled in significance in the history books. If Az Yashir were only a primitive war song, we Jews would not recite it every day of the year, as part of our morning service. No, it is not only an ancient song of Israel. It is something infinitely more than that.
It is, for one thing, a song for all times. Today, 4,000 years after the great event, we still sing it. Our children and children’s children will sing it long after what is now Egypt will have been submerged under new seas, and long after the pyramids will have been crumbled by the sheer weight of years. It is an eternal song.
And even more than that, Az Yashir is not only a national song but a personal hymn. Our mystics speak of individuals experiencing Yetzias Mitzrayim, the exodus from a personal Egypt. There comes a time in man’s life when he leaves his foolish ways and his base interests, when he takes stock of himself and becomes aware of the G-dliness all about him. He changes his mind, his outlook and his whole way of life. When that happens, such a man sings his own personal Az Yashir in honor of his own Yetzias Mitzrayim. Every person, at some time or other, reaches that degree of happiness and thankfulness that he cries out: Mi chamocha ba’eilim Ha’shem, “O G-d, thank you.” And in every human breast there beats the unspoken hope, t'vi’aimo v’si’ta’aimo be’har nachals’cha, the hope for redemption, the hope for better and happier times. So that Az Yashir becomes not only a song for Israel as a nation, but a song and hymn for each and every individual. This Shirah becomes, then, not only eternal, but also – universal. It is the eternal and universal expression of human joy, happiness, bliss.
Now, what about this personal Az Yashir of every person. Is there any preferred way of expressing it? Do we have any guide as to the manner in which the joys of Life should be sung? We certainly do. Our Rabbis of the Talmud, who are generally more analytical in their observations than most people, had some mighty important things to say about the manner in which a man should express his Shirah, the joy or song of his life.
The Talmud (:סוטה כז:, ול) records the following controversy between two Rabbis, R. Nechemiah and R. Akiva: we know that the Shirah of Egypt, the Az Yashir, was originally recited responsively, much as we occasionally indulge in responsive readings. Now one Rabbi said that the Shirah should be read like the Hallel, the selections from the Psalms which we read on Rosh Chodesh and Holidays; and the other Rabbi maintained that the Shirah reading should be similar to that of the Shema, where the Reader merely begins the first word and then all the congregation reads together. Now, whatever might be the actual mechanics of the type of responsive reading is incidental. What is important is the meaning behind the Law, the symbols which Hallel and Shema really are, and what they tell us about how a Jew should sing his Shirah, how a Jew is happy. For both Rabbis have here enunciated great truths, eternal verities of the human, Jewish, soul at its happiest.
It is true, for one thing, that every man’s Shirah should be similar to our Hallel. Hallel is the ultimate expression of unbridled happiness and thankfulness for G-d’s goodness to us in the past. We recite it on Yomim Tovim, moments of joy for G-d’s favors to us in years gone by. We are happy b’tzeiss Yisroel mi’Mitzrayim, for our political freedom and independence. We thank G-d ki le’olam chasdo, for his fatherly interest in our welfare. We are glad for mekimi me’afar dal, for our financial security and economic well-being. We praise Him for moshivi akeres habayis, for our families. We are healthy, secure and safe. We are therefore joyous and thank G-d for it. One aspect of Shirah, therefore, is that of Hallel, we are happy that G-d has made things “go our way” in the past.
But that is not enough. It is not sufficient to express the Shirah of life like that of Hallel. Even a child or primitive can be terribly happy about his personal welfare, about gifts that someone has given him. The Jew must add to this Hallel element in the Shirah of his Life an even more important note. His Shirah must also sound like the Shma Yisroel. The Shma is not, like Hallel, related to the past. It is concerned solely with the Present and the Future. There is nothing frivolous about the Shma. It is, rather, terribly serious. The essence of the Shma is kabalas ol malchus shamayim, the acceptance of G-d’s rule of the universe and our personal subservience to Him. Whereas Hallel speaks of gaiety, Shma speaks of the consequences of this gaiety, and that is or should be – dedication. Whereas in Hallel I thank G-d for His gifts to me, in Shma I make of myself a gift to Him. Hallel is the end of Shirah; Shma signifies a new beginning, a creative process... Hallel is purely emotional; Shma is particularly intellectual and the Shirah of Judaism requires both. Hallel is a joyous “Thank You” to G-d for His favors to us; Shma is a joyous proclamation… Hallel speaks of liking G-d to serve us (Ahavti ki yishma Ha’shem es koli tachanunai); Shma speaks of loving Him, for His own sake, with all the fullness of our lives (v’ahavta eis Ha’shem Elokecha). The Shma element of Shirah is that which tells me that I am so happy, that I shall make of my future an ordered, devoted, G-dly life. The gay and the serious are both parts of Jewish joy. Shirah should be in two keys, major and minor: both like Hallel and like Shma.
Friends, last night we spoke to the Bnei Mitzvah boys and girls about the way they as the Youth of Israel should attempt to keep on singing this Shirah, this Jewish joy. Let me now address myself to their parents, to all the adults here this morning. Let us too, talk about Shirah, about the Shirah of Hallel and of Shma.
This week one lady confided to me that a Bar Mitzvah celebration is for a parent the supreme joy. Even more than the wedding of a child, this “simchah” is completely that of the parents. And certainly no one will want to begrudge parents the great “nachas” of seeing their son called up to the Torah on the Sabbath of his Bar Mitzvah. At this time of Shirah, of song and joy and bliss, a parent is deserving of singing his happiness like Hallel – plain, simple, unadulterated joy. The Hallel of joy that their son has survived the sicknesses and diseases which tortured the minds of his parents; the Hallel of thankfulness that they have, in these thirteen years, been able to afford him a decent material life, that they and he have emerged successfully from the various economic vicissitudes that beset them; the Hallel that all the work, the toil and the tears spent in raising him have not been in vain. Yes, the Bar Mitzvah Shirah of parents deserves to be like that of Hallel.
But the tragedy of the matter is that it so often remains a Hallel-type Shirah, and goes no further. There is a Kiddush and a party and a banquet and a band and no end of expenses to celebrate the Hallel, but where, O G-d, where is the Shma part of Shirah? Where is the honest devotion, the deadly serious planning for the future, and the sincere dedication of a lifetime which is so very necessary if a Shirah, if happiness, is to be complete and genuinely Jewish? Never mind the chanting of the Haftorah or even the whole Portion or even the Musaf Service, where is the bechol levavcha uvechol naf’sh’cha uvechol me’odecha, the heart and soul and substance of that child’s life going to be spent?
No, friends, we have got to remember as never before that the Jewish Shirah, and especially that of the Bar Mitzvah, calls for more than a four-piece band and an M.C. It means bechol nafsh’cha, afilu noteil es nafsh’cha, the readiness to sacrifice one’s whole life for Judaism. It means bechol me’odecha, zeh mammon, the willingness to give all one’s substance – yes, charity – for Jewish causes. It means ve’hayu ha’dvorim ha’eileh al levavecha, the desire on parents’ part to study Torah, to build themselves too, to have the knowledge of Torah come into their heads and settle in their hearts. It means ve’shinantam le’vanecha, educating children for a life-time, and not – G-d forbid! – to stop at the 13th year. It means Jewishness be’shivticha be’veisecha uvelecht’cha baderech uveshachbecha uvekumecha, Jewishness at all times and in all places, a complete and total and absolute commitment to full, wholesome Jewish living. It means le’oss al yadecha uletotafoss bein einecha, thinking Jewishly and acting Jewishly, the Mitzvah of Tefillin which a parent should train a child to observe every day of his life. And, above all and beyond everything we have mentioned, it means mezuzos al beisecha uvishe’arecha, the Mezuzah on the door-post – that is, a Jewish home. All education, all teaching, all guidance is wasted if the home does not reflect that beauty of Torah. The Shirah means especially this part of Shma – the terrifically earnest insistence that the parents are henceforth going to provide that child with Mezuzos, with a guide to his home, that the word of G-d will guide the entrance to his house, and make of an ordinary house a Jewish home.
This, then, is the insight with which our Sages provided us; the analysis of every man’s and woman’s Shirah; the moral and religious lesson that the correct equation is Happiness equals Joy plus Seriousness; the saintly lesson that the Song of Life is a duet between Man and G-d; and that this great Shirah is to be sung both in major and in minor, in the key of festivity and in the key of dedication.
May G-d in His goodness grant each and every one of us a life full of Shirah; and let us make of that Shirah not only Hallel but also Shma; not only celebration but also dedication; not only thankfulness but also resolution; not only something of the Past, but a step across the threshold of Hope into the great and brilliant Future.
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BENEDICTION:
Almighty G-d,
Do thou in Thy Infinite Goodness provide us with a mizmor shir le’yom ha’Shabbos, with a life of Song worthy of Thy Sabbath Day; A Song in which tov le’hodos la’Shem u’lezamer le’shimcha elyon, in which our whole beings will be filled with great Joy for Thy favors to us; and in which also, we will always remember le’hagid ba’baboker chasdecha ve’emunascha ba’leilos, that it is the sacred duty of each of us to consecrate ourselves to Thee Morning and night, throughout all our lives. Amen.
