B'Shallach: Why the Israelites Did (and We Should) Sing

There isn't a ton of music in the Torah, but there's some. We don't get sheet music or anything, but the text DOES tell us when someone sings, and it gives us the words of their refrain. Along with the Torah text 
itself, we also have traditions, passed down over centuries, that teach us how to sing the words and how to emphasize particular phrases. This week, we sing one of the most famous musical pieces in the Torah, the Song of the Sea. Moses and the Israelites walk safely through the Sea of Reeds, and escape the clutches of their Egyptian pursuers. They are free... and they sing! On Saturday morning, we'll talk more about the song itself, but here on the blog, I want to talk about the words that introduce this piece. How does the Torah prepare us to hear it sung, and why are certain, strange words emphasized for this purpose?

The Song of the Sea has its own tune. It doesn't sound like anything else in the service, and you won't hear it used anywhere else. The Song itself begins in chapter 15, but three times in the preceding chapter, in verses 22, 29, and 31, the melody begins to seep into our reading and into our heads. What caught my eye is 

the fact that two of the three instances are essentially the same verse... and the choice of words to emphasize is quite surprising. Verse 22 states: "... and the Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left." So which part gets the prestigious honor of sharing a tune with the Song of the Sea? The words 'on their right and on their left." Seems odd, no? Is that the most majestic part of that verse? I don't think so. And then again, in verse 29, we see the same thing: "But the Israelites had marched through the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left." Sure enough, the same two words (in Hebrew) are highlighted as well: "on their right and on their left." Why?
My thought is this: The crossing of the Sea of Reeds is a problematic story for the rabbis. Well, it's uncomfortable, at least. Because it was a grandiose, miraculous, fantastical incident where God's Presence was 
unmistakably tangible. And you and I, the readers, might be inclined to judge our own experiences and our lives by this impossible standard: "If this is what it looks like to experience God, then how could I POSSIBLY know this God?? Nothing amazing like this has EVER happened to me; I have NO relationship with this God, and I don't feel God in my daily life at all." The rabbis are worried that you'll read this story and draw a line in the sand - either God starts splitting something in half for me, or God and I are through!

So what do the rabbis do? They emphasize a mundane verse in the story that actually holds a powerful message. God is everywhere. At all times, and in every moment of our lives, God is "to the right of us and the left of us." As we prepare to read the Song of the Sea - this magnificent celebration of God's role in the lives of our ancestors - 
let us pause, twice, and remember how God impacts OUR lives as well. We don't need these overstated miracles to feel God's Presence; God is at our side, both sides in fact, all the time. But we're also not that different from the Israelites. Before the sea split (and not too many minutes after...), they utterly lacked faith. They got disheartened. We don't always feel that God is close by, and neither did they. But we keep working at it. We remind ourselves that God is, indeed, on the left and the right, even when we can't feel it. And hopefully it will give us all some comfort and a sense of security. Some moments in life we can't get there. But other times we can. And when we do, it feels so good to know that God is there to support you, it almost makes you want to break out in song.

Photos in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of Mozartito on Wikimedia Commons
2. CC image courtesy of Chris Lavis on Wikimedia Commons
3. CC image courtesy of Roger McLachlan on Wikimedia Commons
4. CC image courtesy of Fry1989 on Wikimedia Commons