Considering the musical notes of our parsha

‘Then Moses sang’

This week’s Torah portion, Bershalach (Ex. 15:1), begins, “Az Yashir Moshe” (usually translated “Then Moses sang,” though literally they mean “Then Moses will sing”). In the Talmud the future tense of the verse indicates “Then (thereafter) Moses will sing” (in the future messianic era.)

Rashi suggests that the verse combines past and future; when he saw the miraculous redemption at the Red Sea, he thought he would sing a song about it in the future. Others say we are dealing with a strange Hebrew grammatical form which, though it looks like future tense, refers to history, i.e. to events in the past tense.

Did Miriam sing?

The Bible is not sure that Miriam herself sang at the Sea, but Dead Sea texts say she did.

In the Torah, Moses says “ashirah” (“I sing”); Miriam tells the women, “Shiru” “you sing”). Possibly the women responded with the words beginning with “ashirah.”

The text says “Vata’an,” literally “she answered” (verse 21), but the root “ayin-nun-heh” cannot mean “to answer,” unless there is a preceding statement to which to respond (e.g. Deut. 26:5, 21:7, 27:14-15; II Kings 1:11, I Chron. 12:18); hence it means “to utter” (here, “in song”) or “to chant”.

Targum Pseudo-Yonatan renders “vata’an” as “v’zamrat” (“she sang”). Mekhilta Shirata says, “As Moses recited the song for the men, so Miriam recited the song for the women” (JZ Lauterbach’s translation). In Ex. 32:18, “anot” is “tune” or “song.” In I Sam. 18:7, “vata’anennah hanashim” is, “and the women sang.” Gersonides says they sang a one-verse precis; Chiz’kuni agrees that the Torah gave a precis.

In Onkelos and Peshitta, “vata’an” is “ume’anya” (“and she answered”), i.e. the women responded to Moses’s lead. Malbim says that the women insisted on singing as a contribution to the redemption.

Warming the bread

Chapter 16 verse 3 of Sh’mot — part of this week’s reading — reports that the fleeing Israelites complained in the wilderness that life had become too difficult.

“When we sat by the flesh pots,” they said in recollection of life in Egypt, “we ate bread to the full.”

It seems that in Egypt they had to cook the meat for their masters but they were not permitted to eat it. So their task was limited to warming their bread on the vapour of the roasting meat. They enjoyed the savoury smell even if they got no actual meat.

In the wilderness they didn’t even get any meat vapour.