When I was in yeshiva, I wanted to start a music group called “Guys with Mediocre Voices.” The proposed music album was going to be me and my dearest friend Mati Diamond, our mediocre voices singing classic Friday night tunes from davening. The album's hit track would be the classic Magen Avos, sung at the end of Friday night davening. Though this idea, like many of my youthful dreams, never came to fruition, I still think it is a great idea—music that is pleasant enough to listen to, but not professional enough that you feel bad singing along.
But it is not just davening that is meant to be sung—Torah is described as a song as well:
וְעַתָּה כִּתְבוּ לָכֶם אֶת־הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת וְלַמְּדָהּ אֶת־בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל שִׂימָהּ בְּפִיהֶם לְמַעַן תִּהְיֶה־לִּי הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת לְעֵד בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃
Therefore, write down this song and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be My witness against the People of Israel.
Moshe's final commandment to the Jewish People is to write down the Torah, which is, for the first time, referred to as a song.
That song, as the Rambam explains, literally refers to our parsha, Haazinu.
Why is this the first time the Torah is being referred to as a song? Moshe is about to pass on—is this really the right time to share a song together?
Secondly, if you actually read our parsha, the lyrics for the song of the Torah, you will see that it seems to be a pretty depressing song. So depressing, in fact, that Rav Tzadok asks why our parsha is considered a song at all:
ושירה זאת אמת שבתחלתו שבחים מיצ"מ והכנסתן לא"י אבל אח"כ יש בו מצער הגליות וקינה מבע"ל ומה זה שירה
And this song although it begins with praises of God redeeming the Jewish People from Egypt and our entry into the Land of Israel but afterwards it includes the period of pain from the exile, and what kind of song is that?!
—Rav Tzadok, Pri Tzadik, Haazinu #8
To understand the nature of the song of our parsha, let’s explore the efforts to rebuilt the yeshiva world in America.
Read the rest on Substack, and listen to the full shiur above!