According to Dr. Rachel Kolander of the Department of Music of Bar Ilan University,”The Hebrew word shirah has three meanings:

poetic writing,often incorporating rhyme and having a specific, known meter;

musical vocal production, combining acoustic parameters and textual meaning;

instrumental musical production.

“When the Red Sea was parted it appears that all three meanings of the word – words, voice, and instruments – came together as one, to express the inner joy, spiritual elation, and divine revelation experienced by each and every person who came out of Egypt.”

Thus from the very beginning of our people’s existence, music played a decisive and defining role. To this day, that very song, Az Yashir is recited in the daily morning service of our people.

This coming Shabbat we recite the Torah reading for the conclusion of the Exodus experience, the parting of the Red [or Reed] Sea. According to tradition, this Shabbat also is the harbinger of spring, a season that is most welcome by all for its spirit of optimism, liberation and….. song.

Recently, one of our community’s most gifted and respected educators, Rabbi Elysha Sandler of Mesivta Ateret Yaakov penned a most unusual and informative work entitled, “Through Music and Song: Music from a Torah Perspective” [Israel Bookshop Publications, 2011] wherein are described in clear language the power of music in the Jewish religious tradition that includes the songs of Shabbat and the tunes of tefillah, prayer. It is to this later part of this work which will serve as the focus for this week’s review.

Setting the tone for this book we read from Rabbi Naftali Jaeger’s gracious michtav brachah the following teaching from Rav Yitzchak Hutner of blessed memory.

“….although people are lazy by nature, we nevertheless see that through music they begin to move and even dance. This is because music is vested with the power to ‘liven’ a person.”

Such is the regard that our religious tradition invests music, that being the all powerful motivator for the enhancement of our liturgy and of our understanding of its meaning and purpose.