Beshalach: Facing the Music?
Beshalach: Facing the Music?

The most frequent complaint I get from my Facebook friends is that I am constantly changing my profile picture. They wouldn’t mind if I did it occasionally or if I uploaded different pictures of myself, but I do neither. My profile picture changes with my mood. I might post a picture of a of my favorite athlete of the day, of a famous actor who just passed away, of a cartoon that I find relevant and funny, or any number of varying images as strikes my fancy at the given moment.

Music is another mood changer. One might be having a really bad day, but you’ll break into a smile when one of your favorite songs comes on the radio. If it’s a song you can sing along with, all the better.

This Shabbat is knows as ‘Shabbat Shira’ (Shabbat of Song) due to the glorious Song of the Sea which appears in the middle of this week’s torah portion, Be’shalach. Moses leads the Israelites in song after they experience the miracles of the splitting of the sea and the Egyptians drowning in it. Moses’ sister, Miriam, then leads the Israelite women in dance.

While I can understand why this Shabbat is dubbed ‘Shabbat Shira’, I wonder how unique it really is. I mean, after all, shouldn’t we sing every Shabbat? Not only are parts of the synagogue service sung by the congregation, but in Jewish homes worldwide, families have been singing Zmirot, festive Jewish hymns, around their Shabbat tables for generations. Isn’t every Shabbat really ‘Shabbat Shira’?

While trying to understand the power of song and its influence on the singer, I came across a unique commentary by Rabbi Mendel Rimnover. He discusses the Manna, the divine food descended from the heavens which the Israelites gathered and ate during their 40 years in the desert. The text describing the Manna also appears in this week’s torah portion, just one chapter after the Song of the Sea.

"Each man said to his friend, manna ! For they did not know what it was." (Exodus 16:14) The commentaries explain that the word manna is a Hebrew-Egyptian form of the word "what." Moses then said to them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.”

Rabbi Rimnover explains that when an Israelite ate the manna, the heavenly food, his face would change and take on a different form, until he was unrecognizable. He was not the same person as before. "Each man said to his friend, ‘Who is that?” It’s not the same Reuben as before, his face is different - softer, and more spiritual! Moses said to them, "It is the bread!”- the spiritual food caused it.

To be honest, I had a hard time understanding that explanation until a seemingly innocent verbal exchange some years ago shed some light on it.

My family used to split their Shabbat synagogue attendance between a local shul and one a bit farther away that was a Carlebach minyan, known for its uplifting singing throughout the service. On one Shabbat morning as our family walked home from the further one, we met a neighbor of ours who had been at our neighborhood shul.

“I didn’t see you at our shul this morning,” the neighbor said to my father. “Were you at the Carlebach minyan?

Without missing a beat, my father smiled broadly and replied, ‘You mean you can’t see it on my face?”

When we raise our voices in song, we also raise our spirits. In fact, our facial expression changes into something unique.

It’s not about changing your profile on Facebook, but about changing the profile of your face.

 

 

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