The Kosher Bookworm: Part One: Perek Shirah As Nature’s Song

With the advent of the Jewish month of Shevat, and Shabbat Shirah, can an early spring be not too far behind? With this warm thought in mind our focus for the next two weeks will be upon several literary works that hopefully will give you a clearer picture concerning the importance that this time of year represents in the Jewish tradition.

An interesting tradition has gained the attention and support of many in our community, almost as if spontaneously, the daily recitation of Perek Shirah. This ancient text according to some dates back to ancient times, at least a thousand years according to Rabbi Nathan Slifkin. Its content is both mystical and cryptic. As a result its rote recitations by many among us, are in need of commentary to further enhance a deeper understanding of its purpose and appreciation of its message.

In a book entitled, “The Mystical Power of Music” by Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman, {Targum/Feldheim, 2005] there is a segment,”The Song of Creation”, wherein the purpose and rational behind Perek Shivah is both briefly and eloquently dealt with.

According to Rabbi Trugman,“The idea that every creation has a special song that it sings forms the basis of an intriguing and mysterious midrash called Perek Shirah, literally translated as ‘Chapter of Song.’ In this short and concise text, different creations sing specific verses from the Torah. Why each creation sings its particular verse is not explained, though many explanations are obvious.”

The author goes on to briefly give several examples to buttress his premise.

Further on Rabbi Trugman notes that “The first question asked by commentators down the ages is who exactly is singing the songs attributed to each creation. Four basic answers are given, each one true from its own perspective. Thus ,the four answers are not in contradiction with each other, but rather they ultimately complement each other.”

This presentation deserves your attention as serves as an adequate introduction to this subject.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin, who will be hosted by Rabbi Kenneth Hain , at Cong. Beth Shalom of Lawrence next weekend, Shabbat Shirah, is the author of the most comprehensive commentary to date on Perek Shirah.

For all who recite Perek Shirah, this work is a must read.

Aptly entitled, “Nature’s Song”, this 440 page comprehensive work consists of a line by line commentary of the entire Perek consisting of six chapters. Each chapter consists of about ten subsections for each of the natural phenomena that are dealt with in the Perek

In his introduction, Rabbi Slifkin details the following:

“While Perek Shirah’s recent publicity as a segulah has caused its popularity to soar, many people are unaware of important classical views on the nature of Perek Shirah.”

This ten page introduction goes on to explore the origins of this work, the different perspectives on its nature, style, content and aspects of its literary structure.

The introduction comes with twenty seven extensive footnotes thus enabling those interested to further pursue their studies on this work, to do so, including the thorough academic study of the work on this subject by Malachi Bet Arie’s Ph.D thesis at Hebrew University in 1966.

This work by Rabbi Slifkin is the singular English commentary to date on Perek Shirah making use of numerous rare commentaries as well as modern insights from the fields of zoology, geology and meteorology. This later factor is what gives it its theological shine.

This will enable all who choose to recite this ancient work as part of their daily spiritual regimen to better understand its content , and purpose from the mind and pen of one of its premier commentators and elucidators.

For more on the works of Rabbi Avraham Trugman you can reach him at trugman@netvision.net.il

For Rabbi Natan Slifkin you can reach him at his website at: www.zootorah.com