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RABBI’S MESSAGE 

  “Then Moses and the Israelites sang unto the LORD this song…”

 - From the “Song at the Sea,” Exodus 15:1

               Rabbis Lawrence Kushner and Nehemiah Polen, in their wonderful new book,

Filling Words with Light, share this teaching about the miracle of the splitting of the sea.  They write:

 The splitting of the sea happened twice!  We have a second tradition of a “miraculous splitting of the waters” and Israel passing through on dry ground, but few people think of it when asked to envision the splitting of the waters.  The [second] scene is recorded in Joshua 3:16-17, where we read that “the waters

 coming down from upstream piled up in a single heap a great way off….So the

people crossed near Jericho.  The priests who bore the Ark of Adonai’s Covenant stood on dry land exactly in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over on dry land, until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.”

 Yet only the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea endures in the memory of the people.  It is because of this song they sang there.  The miracle of the

splitting of the Jordan has not survived because there was no song.

This teaching points to the way in which memory and song are intimately intertwined for us.  Think of the way you feel when you hear a song from your youth played on the radio.  Suddenly, you are swept back into the past.  You recall how old you were when you listened to that song, when you first heard it or danced to it.  As you hum along, you are in a far-off time and place.

  On Saturday morning, January 22^nd, as we chant Shirat haYam – the ancient Song at the Sea - from the Torah, we will celebrate the compelling power of song and add our voices to the complex and beautiful rhythm of Jewish life. Come inside from the cold and join us at shul for a warm and lively Shabbat at the Center experience.  And get ready to sing!

 B’Shalom,

Rabbi Debra Cantor

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Since April 1, 2007