Praise: A Song of Woe and Triumph

 Singing has never been my strong suit. More than once I've had people plug their ears - my grandfather included - when I sang in hearing range. Gladly, my wife can still tolerate my voice (or at least she says she can), and when I sing zemirot, my daughters beautifully chime in. I used to tell people that I was tone deaf, but then a music teacher told me that if you can talk, you're not tone deaf, so I'm really left with little in the way of an out. But that notwithstanding, I was happy to see the definition the Targum Onkelos gave for the word, shira, or song in this past week's parsha, Vayelech, namely, "praise." A song is meant to praise in the words of the bible; songs can be joyful, have elements of sadness, but essentially serve once clear and very precise function, praising and bringing honor to the one for whom the song is about or otherwise intended. 

There is an odd verse though that prefaces the song. The last verse of Vayelech states: 

"Then Moshe recited the words of this song to the very end, in the hearing of the whole congregation of Israel." 

Why, I thought, would it say that Moshe recited the words of the song "to the very end?" 

When have you heard a dignitary give a speech and not complete it? Or a prized orator stop before the final crescendo? Stopping in the very middle, halting mid-stride would seem strange, would it not?

Luckily, I found an answer in the commentary of the Seforno, a rabbi of Italian descent who lived in the late 15th century. He writes that were one to think that the song only includes the annals of what once was, think again, because the song that Moshe sung not only tells the story of Hashem's revelation to our people, the protection Hashem granted us and then had to rescind because of our malfeasance, but also, the future retribution Hashem will exact against our enemies. 

The Ramban's words, are ever so prescient in understanding the Seforno: The Ramban relates that what's so majestic about this song is that it tells the whole story of our people, not only our height points, the pinnacles we have reached, but also, the nadir to which we have fallen. But in the end, relates the Ramban, a judgment will be invoked against our enemies, a judgment so glorious that it serves to annul the degradation seared into our very flesh.

The words of the Ramban are painful in a certain way - because he writes that Hashem sends our enemies against us to avenge His wrath; and, in the end, at some future, undisclosed point, the redemption will be so great because the nations of the world will sing our praise. 

O nations - sing the praises of His people

for He will avenge the blood of His servants

He will bring retribution upon His foes,

and He will appease His land and His people.  

                                                                       Deuteronomy 32: 42-43

On these verses, from the end of Ha'azinu, the Torah's song, the Ramban writes that Moshe prophesied a time yet to be experienced, because we ourselves have heretofore never seen the vindication of our people, our exultation and exaltation, a time when we understand that all the scars of the past were God-given, and that His enemies, our enemies, will be meted out justice for what they have perpetrated against us. 

And, at that time, when the justice is served, the nations will exalt, calling out that Hashem is One. For those of us who still live in the shadows of the Holocaust, how we yearn for such a day - for we know that it is our song, a song of praise, littered with frustration and anger, and agonizing pain, but which ends with our return to our Father in Heaven, realizing that all He did was to bring us closer to Him. 

Shanah tova,

Yoav