30 August 15 • 2019
jn

Hearing The 
Inner Music

M

usic is a fascinating thing. 
Everyone loves it, but 
what is music? What takes 
ordinary sound and converts 
it into something transforma-
tive, something that can make 
you smile, something that can 
make you cry?
Read the lyrics of your 
favorite song. On paper, they 
seem dry, one-dimensional 
and flat. Set them to music 
and they become alive, the 
portal through which you can 
soar to the highest heavens.
The special quality of music 
can be heard but not seen. 
Even though we may not 
understand it, we know it; we 
feel it, and we connect with it.
I find it fascinating that the pri-
mary Jewish prayer, found in this 
week’
s parshah, begins with the 
word Shema, listen. It’
s as if God is 
telling us: “It’
s not enough for you to 
understand Judaism; it’
s not enough 
for you to look Jewish; I want you 
to be in tune to the inner beauty of 
Yiddishkeit. I want you to hear the 
music and sing Judaism.”
Indeed, there is a story told about a 
Chasidic master who was walking with 
his students. At one point, he directed 
attention to a distant tavern, where 
people were dancing. The students 
were so far away they could not hear 
the music but could only see the peo-
ple dancing to its beat.
“
Are those people crazy?” the rabbi 
asked. “Why are they all jumping up 
and down, running this way and that 
way?”
“Rebbe,” the students replied, “they 
are not crazy; they’
re dancing to 
music.”
“Yes, indeed,” concluded the mas-
ter. “So it is in life. To be a Chasid is 
to hear the music, to understand the 
inner rhythm and harmony of God’
s 
universe. We are joyous because we 
are in tune with God’
s music, the 
spiritual undercurrent that lies under 

it all. When you hear the music, you 
sing and dance.”
I write these words as we prepare 
for our “Strings of the Inspired 
Soul” event, a concert in the 
Berman Theater dedicated 
to the 25th yahrzeit of the 
Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righ-
teous memory. The event 
will feature seven melodies of 
the Rebbe. Each one will be 
played, explained and taught. 
We will hear the music, feel its 
power and be inspired by its 
delicate beauty.
The Torah teachings and 
religious renaissance the Rebbe 
gifted us are well known and 
have been widely document-
ed. But the beauty, depth and 
inspiration of these precious 
songs are still being discovered as we 
plumb their spiritual depth, listening 
to them again and again.
The word Shema appears dozens 
of times in the Book of Deuteronomy, 
the final book of the Torah. Perhaps 
Moshe is telling us, “You have read 
the first four books of the Torah; 
now internalize it; listen to its inner 
song and make that song your own.”
How appropriate that we read the 
portion of Vaetchanan right around 
the 15th of Av, deemed by the sages 
as the happiest day of the Jewish 
calendar. The Talmud lists seven 
joyous events that happened on 
this day. However, the most famous 
among them was that the maidens of 
Jerusalem would go and dance in the 
vineyards, hoping to catch the eye of 
their beshert.
Amazingly, this comes less than a 
week after Tisha b’
Av, the saddest day 
on the Jewish calendar. In the span of 
one week, we run from one extreme 
to the other. If that’
s not reason to 
break out into joyous song, I don’
t 
know what is. ■

Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov is spiritual director of 

The Shul in West Bloomfield.

spirit

torah portion

Rabbi Kasriel 
Shemtov

Parshat 

Vaetchanan: 

Deuteronomy 

3:23-7:11; 

Isaiah 

40:1-26.

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