As many of you know, tonight is “Scout Shabbat.” So in addition to TBD members and guests, we’ll welcome area scouts (some from our congregation) and their leaders to learn more about the adventures, values and learning that scouting promotes. We’re also delighted that Larry Levine will be accompanying the service on guitar. Looking forward to seeing you here at 7:00pm!
It's an especially appropriate Shabbat to augment musically, because it is also known as Shabbat Shirah, or Sabbath of Song. Every year when the Torah portion Beshallach falls, it is celebrated with dance and song. The reason for this is that Beshallach tells of the Israelites’ actual going out (or Shal-ach, being sent out) of servitude in Egypt. After the years of oppression and misery, after the plagues, the loss, the uncertainty… the time indeed came. The people could only express their exultance through song, and thus the Song of the Sea was born. At its conclusion, we read that “Miriam the prophet… took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her in dance with timbrels. And Miriam chanted for them: Sing to Adonai, for God has triumphed gloriously.”
In Tractate Shirata, the rabbis of old pose an interesting Midrashic question, which they answer posthaste! “But where could the Israelites have gotten timbrels and flutes in the wilderness? It was simply that the righteous ones had been confident and knew that God would do miracles and mighty deeds for them at their going out from Egypt and they prepared for themselves timbrels and flutes.”
Mulling over the rabbis’ response, we may feel that degree of confidence is enviable in our own day. When do you recall last feeling so certain that liberation, whether personal or collective, would find us? In the midst of dark, anxiety provoking and nonsensical times, we can only look to the recent past for a degree of hope and groundedness. We can parse out our energy wisely, and we can work together for a world we want to live in and pass on to our children, grandchildren and the generations that will follow them.
We have known the narrow places of Mitzrayim before. We have also known the blessing and the tremendous responsibility of freedom. And somehow we have sung our way forward through all of it. As a matter of fact, we still are.
What might your timbrel be? An actual tambourine?! A book or quotation that makes the world seem bigger? An old photograph, or a card from a loved one that represents sweet memories? Tuck it away, and remember where it is. Its time will come.
And so will ours.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rebecca Gutterman
