A thought on Parshios Nitzavim and Vayelch
"...divrei ha'shira...""...the words of this song..." (31:30)
The Torah alludes here to the Song of Ha'azinu which we will read next Shabbos. It is referred to as "the shira."
Have you ever noticed that we use both the words shir and shira in reference to song? In the Torah, the word shir occurs only once, and in TaNaCh seventy-six times. The word shira, on the other hand, occurs eight times in the Torah and five times in TaNaCh. It seems as if the more popular term is shira by Torah standard whereas shira is favored in the language of the Nevi'im.
What is the difference between a shir and a shira?
Rabbeinu Bachya offers a midrash to help us:
When a song is about the past, it is called a shira which is the feminine form of the word. When a song is forecasting a future time, it is called a shir which is the masculine form.
What does gender have to do with words which refer to song? What does time past or time to come have to do with gender?
Song is an exclamation of joy. This is why people break into song when they are happy. (Joy and happiness are those emotions we speak about when we use words like simcha.)
In the Holy Tongue, when we recall a happy time in the past, we need to use a feminine term because we acknowledge that past joy is like a woman: she can give birth over and again. So too is our historical happiness: it may be followed by harder times, then replaced with new and better days, only to be overshadowed by times of exile and suffering r'l. Memories of past joy are always in the galus to geula cycle, and geula has always been followed with galus. It is a recurrent cycle of exile to freedom to exile again. For such transitory happiness we can only sing shira. Just like a woman.
In the times to come b'ezras HaShem we will celebrate the geula sh'ain achar'eha galus: we will know the joy which will remain joyful, never to be replaced by sadness. It will be a time of birth that will never be followed by the suffering of rebirth. That is a song of shir. Just like a man, who cannot reproduce.
Sheer brilliance, that midrash.
May the close of 5767 bring an end to songs of the past and may 5768 herald our collective Shir Chadash. Good Shabbos. D Fox
The Torah alludes here to the Song of Ha'azinu which we will read next Shabbos. It is referred to as "the shira."
Have you ever noticed that we use both the words shir and shira in reference to song? In the Torah, the word shir occurs only once, and in TaNaCh seventy-six times. The word shira, on the other hand, occurs eight times in the Torah and five times in TaNaCh. It seems as if the more popular term is shira by Torah standard whereas shira is favored in the language of the Nevi'im.
What is the difference between a shir and a shira?
Rabbeinu Bachya offers a midrash to help us:
When a song is about the past, it is called a shira which is the feminine form of the word. When a song is forecasting a future time, it is called a shir which is the masculine form.
What does gender have to do with words which refer to song? What does time past or time to come have to do with gender?
Song is an exclamation of joy. This is why people break into song when they are happy. (Joy and happiness are those emotions we speak about when we use words like simcha.)
In the Holy Tongue, when we recall a happy time in the past, we need to use a feminine term because we acknowledge that past joy is like a woman: she can give birth over and again. So too is our historical happiness: it may be followed by harder times, then replaced with new and better days, only to be overshadowed by times of exile and suffering r'l. Memories of past joy are always in the galus to geula cycle, and geula has always been followed with galus. It is a recurrent cycle of exile to freedom to exile again. For such transitory happiness we can only sing shira. Just like a woman.
In the times to come b'ezras HaShem we will celebrate the geula sh'ain achar'eha galus: we will know the joy which will remain joyful, never to be replaced by sadness. It will be a time of birth that will never be followed by the suffering of rebirth. That is a song of shir. Just like a man, who cannot reproduce.
Sheer brilliance, that midrash.
May the close of 5767 bring an end to songs of the past and may 5768 herald our collective Shir Chadash. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 10:13 PM
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