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    The Power of Song: Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman א"טילש

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    The document summarizes Rav Ozer Glickman's insights into the power of song based on the Torah portion of Beshalach. It discusses how song brought Moshe and the Jewish people together at the splitting of the Red Sea into a shared experience of exaltation and intimacy with God. Song has the ability to elevate people from detached observers into passionate participants. While ritual reading is important for structure, song is needed to inspire passion. Both are necessary parts of the Jewish experience.

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    The Power of Song: Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman א"טילש

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    The document summarizes Rav Ozer Glickman's insights into the power of song based on the Torah portion of Beshalach. It discusses how song brought Moshe and the Jewish people together at the splitting of the Red Sea into a shared experience of exaltation and intimacy with God. Song has the ability to elevate people from detached observers into passionate participants. While ritual reading is important for structure, song is needed to inspire passion. Both are necessary parts of the Jewish experience.

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    The document summarizes Rav Ozer Glickman's insights into the power of song based on the Torah portion of Beshalach. It discusses how song brought Moshe and the Jewish people together at the splitting of the Red Sea into a shared experience of exaltation and intimacy with God. Song has the ability to elevate people from detached observers into passionate participants. While ritual reading is important for structure, song is needed to inspire passion. Both are necessary parts of the Jewish experience.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    512 views3 pages

    The Power of Song: Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman א"טילש

    Uploaded by

    outdash2
    The document summarizes Rav Ozer Glickman's insights into the power of song based on the Torah portion of Beshalach. It discusses how song brought Moshe and the Jewish people together at the splitting of the Red Sea into a shared experience of exaltation and intimacy with God. Song has the ability to elevate people from detached observers into passionate participants. While ritual reading is important for structure, song is needed to inspire passion. Both are necessary parts of the Jewish experience.

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    ‫בס"ד‬

    ‫פרשת בשלח תש"ע‬ ‫שיחות רב עוזר‬


    Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman ‫שליט"א‬
    ‫ר"ם בישיבת רבנו יצחק אלחנן‬
    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    The Power of Song


    ָ ‫ה ֔ ָוה נֶאְדָ ִ ּ֖רי ַב ּ֑כ ֹּ ַח י ְמִ ֽינְ=֥ י‬-ְ ‫י ְמִ ֽינְ=֣ י‬
    ‫הו֖ה תִ ְּר ַע֥ץ אוֹ ֵי ֽב׃‬-ְ
    I had the privilege a few weeks ago of reconnecting after decades with my dear-
    est friend growing up in Philadelphia, ‫ידיד נפשי‬, Chazzan Hesh Weitz ‫נ"י‬. Hesh, a
    Chabadnik for many years, introduced me to the Lubavitcher community in Northeast
    Philadelphia when we were in high school. I often joined Rabbi Aaron Popack ‫ ע"ה‬in his
    shteibel a few blocks from my home. It was my first contact with the selfless tzidkus of
    ‫ חב"ד‬and I cherish recollections of Rabbi Popack and his fine family. Northeast Philadel-
    phia was the home of many prominent figures in the Lubavitcher movement including
    ‫ יבלח"ט‬Rabbi Abraham Shemtov ‫ שליט"א‬and Rabbi David Krasnjanski ‫שליט"א‬. Their kind-
    ness toward my family, especially my late mother ‫ע"ה‬, has left behind a warmth in my
    heart toward ‫ חב"ד‬that will likely never cool.
    What I remember best are the niggunim. It was the interplay of words and music
    that moved me. I could never deeply relate to the niggunim without words. In the end, I
    remain a misnagged (my definition: a Jew for whom ‫ כיצד מרקדין לפני הכלה‬is primarily a
    ‫סוגיא‬, not a song).
    My favorite niggunim started slow, plantively, simple tuneful melodies. Most of
    the men around the table were elderly. Hesh and I were, other than Rabbi Popack and
    occasionally his son Mendel home from Crown Heights, the only singers under sixty. I
    was self-conscious at first, a teenager afraid to betray emotion in a public place. The
    melody would build and we would gradually lose ourselves in the fervor I saw in
    Hesh's face and he in mine. It was an experience I could never capture in my own home
    alone. ‫ שירה‬is a group activity.
    ‫ שירת הים‬is no exception. The ‫ מכילתא‬describes how ‫ משה רבנו‬and ‫ עם ישראל‬recited
    the song at the sea:
    ‫ וישראל עונין אחריו‬,‫ משה היה פותח בדברים תחלה‬:‫ר' אליעזר בן תדאי אומר‬
    ‫ "אשירה לה'" וישראל עונין אחריו וגומרין‬:‫ משה היה פותח ואומר‬.‫וגומרין עמו‬
    ".‫ "אשירה לה' כי גאה גאה‬:‫עמו‬
    R. Eliezer ben Tedai said: Moshe began and Israel responded, com-
    pleting together with him. Moshe began and said: "I will sing to
    Ha-Shem" and Israel responded and completed with him: "I will
    sing to Ha-Shem for He is greatly exalted."
    The ‫שליח הציבור‬, as it were, recites the first words and the ‫קהילה‬, the entire people of Is-
    rael, repeat them and they finish the verse together. If we read the text carefully, we can
    see the power of the ‫ שירה‬on the assemblage. At first, ‫ משה רבנו‬and ‫ עם ישראל‬sing describ-
    ing the events that have just occurred. They are somewhat detached from the moment,
    looking on like outsiders who have just witnessed the drama of the sea and its devastat-
    ing force on the army of ‫פרעה‬:
    ‫הוָה֙ ֽכִּי–גָאֹ֣ה גָּאָ֔הֿ ס֥וּס וְרֹֽכְב֖וֹ רָמָ֥ה בַיָּֽם׃‬-‫אָשִׁ֤ירָה לַֽי‬
    They sing of the events in the third person, objective observers of the scene before them,
    not yet in the moment, dependent on their leader to prompt them as he describes his in-
    tention to sing. God has overturned the rider and cast him into the sea. This they ob-
    served with their own eyes and their song describes the events in the third person.
    As the ‫ שירה‬builds, we sense their ‫ התלהבות‬as they sing of the ‫ יד השם‬they have just
    witnessed. At the height of their rapture, elevated to ‫דבקות בגואל המושיע‬, they sense the
    immanence of ‫ הקב"ה‬and address Him directly:
    ָ ‫ה ֔ ָוה נֶאְדָ ִ ּ֖רי ַב ּ֑כ ֹּ ַח י ְמִ ֽינְ=֥ י‬-ְ ‫י ְמִ ֽינְ=֣ י‬
    ‫הו֖ה תִ ְּר ַע֥ץ אוֹ ֵי ֽב׃‬-ְ
    Your Hand, HaShem, is gloriously powerful; Your Hand, HaShem, smashes the enemy.
    The greatest of the ‫ נביאים‬leads the people in ‫שירה‬, a song so powerful that it inspires
    even the lowest of them to ‫נבואה‬. In the words of the ‫מכילתא‬:
    ‫ראתה שפחה על הים מה שלא ראה יחזקאל בן בוזי‬
    A housemaid saw by the sea what Yechezkel ben Buzi never saw.
    Even the humblest were raised to a level that far surpassed the visionary who glimpsed
    the ‫מעשה המרכבה‬, the esoteric mysteries of God's essence. Such is the power of ‫שירה‬.
    Because ‫ שירה‬breeds intimacy with ‫הקב"ה‬, it cannot be attained on command. We
    need the inspiration of wondrous events to bring us into the moment. The ‫ ר"ן‬cites a
    ‫ תשובה‬of ‫ רב האי גאון‬that reflects this notion in a halakhic context. We do not, the ‫ גאון‬de-
    cides, recite a ‫ ברכה‬over ‫ הלל‬on ‫ ליל פסח‬since we do not recite it as a mandated act of ‫קריאה‬
    but as a natural response of ‫ שירה‬to the wonders we are re-enacting. One recites ‫ברכת‬
    ‫ המצוה‬over imperatives, whether they be compelled by the authority of the Torah or the
    Rabbis.
    The ‫ מרדכי‬cites the ‫ גאונים‬somewhat differently but which reinforces our analysis.
    Writing in the name of the ‫ גאונים‬and mentioning ‫ רב האי גאון‬specifically, the ‫ מרדכי‬ex-
    plains that ‫ הלל‬at the ‫ סדר‬is not preceded by ‫ ברכת המצוה‬because we break it up into two
    parts, a sign that we are only ‫קוראים בעלמא‬, implying not ‫קוראים משום מצוה‬. The ‫חידושי‬
    ‫ הגרי"ז‬recasts the ‫'מרדכי‬s ‫ חילוק‬as a demonstration that there are two types of ‫הלל‬: one as
    ‫ קריאה‬and the other as ‫שירה‬.
    Both are necessary. We live our lives in the calmer interstices between the peaks
    of emotion that occur on joyous (and sad) occasions. The miraculous aspects of our his-
    tory cannot keep us in a perpetual state of rapture even as they provide the sacred con-
    text that makes our existence meaningful. Without ‫קריאה‬, there is no structure; without
    ‫שירה‬, there is no passion. ‫ קריאה‬informs; ‫ שירה‬elevates. A Jew needs both.
    ‫שבת שלום‬
    These sichos are published by students of Rav Ozer Glickman shlit"a. We can be reached at [email protected]
    Rav Glickman can be reached directly at [email protected]
    Come hear Rav Glickman on the road:
    Sunday, February 6, Teaneck, N.J.
    Community Shiur
    Halakhah and Human Reason: Can a Command-based Legal System Accomodate Rationality?
    Evidence from Sugyot, Rishonim, the Rav, and Modern Poskim
    Congregation Rinat Yisrael
    Rabbi Yosef Adler ‫שליט"א‬
    February 13-14, Philadelphia, Pa.
    Scholar in Residence
    Congregation B'nai Israel-Ohev Tzedek
    Rabbi Aaron Felder ‫שליט"א‬

    February 15, Bala Cynwd, Pa.


    an Advanced Level ‫שיעור בעיון‬:
    ‫בענין עד אחד נאמן באיסורין‬
    Young Israel of the Main Line
    Rabbi Avraham Steinberg ‫שליט"א‬

    February 20-21, Dallas, Texas


    Scholar in Residence
    Congregation Shaare Tefilla
    Rabbi Ari Perl ‫שליט"א‬
    In honor of the Quadrennial Chag ha-Semikhah and local musmakhim Rabbi Joe Hirsch ‫ נ"י‬and
    Rabbi Jay Weinstein ‫נ"י‬.

    TO BRING RAV GLICKMAN TO YOUR COMMUNITY, KINDLY CONTACT:


    Ms. Rebecca Goldberg
    YU Center for the Jewish Future
    [email protected]
    212-960-5400 ext.6350

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