[Avodah] Shabbos Shira

[Rich Wolberg]

  "שִׁירוּ לוֹ, זַמְּרוּ לוֹ, שִׂיחוּ בְּכָל-נִפְלְאוֹתָיו"  Psalms 105:2
  "Sing unto Him, make melody unto Him; Speak of all His marvelous works."

Interestingly the verse has singing followed by melody prior to "speaking."
Rav Kook zt"l describes this as three stages. The first stage is shirah (song) which is an initial flash of insight not fully developed. The second is zimrah (music) expressing our inner emotions and feelings of gratitude. And the third is sicha (speech) which is contemplative discourse.

As a chazzan, I see it a bit differently. Before we can have the ability to speak, we need the foundation of individual singing. Next, we add instruments in order to bring that singing to a higher level, and only at that point, can we speak (intelligently) of "all His wonders." In other words, without the emotion as our foundation, we can't really reach the optimum level and intensity of speech. Before a little baby can speak, he or she makes all sorts of noises and song. In order to study Torah, we must have the chant. And as the Beis Hamikdash had all types of musical instruments, it gave the emotion for the sicha. 

May the song we sing have the exalted melody with which to bring us to the quintessential sicha.

ri


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