46 | SEPTEMBER 21 • 2023
W
ith Haazinu we
climb to one
of the peaks of
Jewish spirituality. For a
month Moses had taught the
people. He had
told them their
history and
destiny, and the
laws that would
make theirs a
unique society
of people bound
in covenant with
one another and with God. He
renewed the covenant and then
handed the leadership on to his
successor and disciple Joshua.
His final act would be bless-
ing the people, tribe by tribe.
But before that, there was one
more thing he had to do. He
had to sum up his prophetic
message in a way the people
would always remember and
be inspired by. He knew that
the best way of doing so is by
music. So the last thing Moses
did before giving the people
his deathbed blessing was to
teach them a song.
There is something pro-
foundly spiritual about music.
When language aspires to the
transcendent, and the soul
longs to break free of the grav-
itational pull of the earth, it
modulates into song. Jewish
history is not so much read as
sung. The rabbis enumerated
10 songs at key moments in
the life of the nation. There
was the song of the Israelites
in Egypt (Is. 30:29), the song
at the Red Sea (Ex. 15), the
song at the well (Num. 21),
and Haazinu, Moses’ song at
the end of his life. Joshua sang
a song (Josh. 10:12-13). So did
Deborah (Jud. 5), Hannah (1
Sam. 2) and David (2 Sam. 22).
There was the Song of
Solomon, Shir ha-Shirim,
about which Rabbi Akiva said,
“
All songs are holy, but the
Song of Songs is the holy of
holies.” The 10th song has not
yet been sung. It is the song of
the Messiah.
THE POWER OF MUSIC
Many biblical texts speak
of the power of music to
restore the soul. When Saul
was depressed, David would
play for him and his spirit
would be restored (1 Sam. 16).
David himself was known as
the “sweet singer of Israel” (2
Sam. 23:1). Elisha called for a
harpist to play so that the pro-
phetic spirit could rest upon
him (2 Kings 3:15). The Levites
sang in the Temple. Every day,
in Judaism, we preface our
morning prayers with Pesukei
de-Zimra, the “Verses of Song”
with their magnificent cre-
scendo, Psalm 150, in which
instruments and the human
voice combine to sing God’s
praises.
Mystics go further and
speak of the song of the uni-
verse, what Pythagoras called
“the music of the spheres”
.
This is what Psalm 19 means
when it says, “The heavens
declare the glory of God; the
skies proclaim the work of His
hands … There is no speech,
there are no words, where
their voice is not heard. Their
music carries throughout the
earth, their words to the end
of the world.” Beneath the
silence, audible only to the
inner ear, creation sings to its
Creator.
So, when we pray, we do not
read; we sing. When we engage
with sacred texts, we do not
recite; we chant. Every text and
every time has, in Judaism, its
own specific melody. There
are different tunes for shacha-
rit, minchah and maariv,
the morning, afternoon and
evening prayers. There are
different melodies and moods
for the prayers for a weekday,
Shabbat, the three pilgrimage
Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks
SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH
The Spirituality of Song