Passover 2021
The Midrash says that this Shabbat, the Seventh day of Pesach, commemorates the day on which the Jewish people crossed the sea. Thus, the Torah reading is the splitting of the sea and Az Yashir, the Song at the Sea. The Talmud has three opinions as to the mechanics of the way in which Moshe and the Jewish people sang this first song of praise to God.
“Rabbi Akiva taught that at the time that the Jewish people ascended from the split sea they set their eyes on reciting a song of gratitude to God. And how did they recite the song? In the same manner as an adult man reciting hallel on behalf of a congregation, as his reading enables all who hear to fulfill their obligation, and the congregation listening merely recites after him the chapter headings of Hallel. Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili, says: The Jewish people sang just like when a child recites Hallel and the congregation who hear him repeats after him all that he says, word for word, as hearing the recital of a minor is insufficient for fulfilling one’s obligation. Rabbi Neḥemya says: They sang the song of the sea like a cantor, who recites aloud the introductory prayers and blessings before Shema in the synagogue; he begins by saying the first words of the blessing, and they repeat after him the initial words and continue reciting the rest of Shema together with him in unison (Sotah 30b).”
In summary the Talmud suggests that either, (1) The Jewish people sang independently but together -in community as we do, (2) as individuals-Moshe teaching them line by line, which they then repeated, or (3) together like one individual, saying “halleluyah” as Moshe sang the song on everyone’s behalf.
The Talmud’s argument is really the product of different perspectives about who we are as a people when we engage in serving God. In prayer, the tension between individual and community is hightended. The best way to pray is as a community, yet, the apex of prayer is the silent amidah in which we are alone as individuals before God. For Jews this tension is a fundamental dialectic between individual and community. It is not a matter of one or the other opinion, but of integrating all three. In our tefilah we move back and forth between self and community, engaging along with others and yet intimately encountering God. It is essential that the Jewish people experience this conflict the first time they pray at the sea, for it is fundamental to who they, and we, are.
Last Pesach our shul was closed - we were isolated and the fear of being in community lingered in the air- and so we were incomplete as Jews. Thank God, this Pesach we feel that a return to community is around the corner. Already some of our older congregants who are vaccinated have started returning to shul, we are singing a bit more, and davening feels slightly larger and more communal. As the Jewish people at the sea engaged, I believe, in all three essential ways of being in prayer at once, so too this Pesach may God grant that speedly we return to being more complete as a community of individuals, all together.
