Words Vs. Songs
בס"ד ,יום ג' חנוכה, כז כסלו תשסז
I wil be trying to keep up here with more, shorter posts, more often BE"H. Stay tuned. In the mean-time, here's a morsel.
A lot of singing goes on at the Yeshivah I attend. It’s an awesome experience to wake up in the morning with a bunch of guys who are so inspired in their devotion to Hashem that song bursts forth in praise of their creator. That being said, I believe there is a problem with singing and being joyful to the exclusion of focusing on the words, which I occasionally feel going on, especially when a tune is chosen that doesn’t fit the words (and hence the words have to be smushed into the tune, often losing the proper sentence breaks, etc.). A friend of mine was trying to argue that since Tehillim were written as songs, they should ALWAYS be sung, and that in fact since the letters themselves are arranged in a certain, holy way by King David, even saying them without knowing what they mean is better than just saying the words—and understanding them—without singing.
As far as I’m concerned this is almost a form of idolatry. For one, we don’t have access to a tradition of tunes from David ha-Melech, so the only part of Tehillim which goes all the way back is the words, not the tunes we use. Second, to be joyful and sing out the words is well and good, but if you don’t know what the words mean or if you have an incorrect understanding of them, what are you being joyful about other than satisfying your own desires, even though they may be pointed heavenward? That may be well and good, or maybe not, but it’s definitely not ideal. In perek 10 of Hilchot Teshuvah, Rambam discusses how loving Hashem is dependent on correct knowledge of Hashem. You may well truly love your conception of Hashem, but if that conception is flawed, you are in love with a fiction, or worse, with an idol you have constructed of your own imagination. It’s analogous to when people say they are/were in love with the ‘idea’ of a person. They didn’t really love the person for who they were, but rather an idealized fiction resembling them. Similarly, if you are joyful about a jumble of Hebrew letters you don’t understand (or are not understanding at that time), you are not being joyful about the Psalm you are reading, you are joyful about the music, about the dancing, about whatever you are constructing in your mind to be joyful about, but not necessarily about praising G!D, and definitely not about the prayer in question.
I wil be trying to keep up here with more, shorter posts, more often BE"H. Stay tuned. In the mean-time, here's a morsel.
A lot of singing goes on at the Yeshivah I attend. It’s an awesome experience to wake up in the morning with a bunch of guys who are so inspired in their devotion to Hashem that song bursts forth in praise of their creator. That being said, I believe there is a problem with singing and being joyful to the exclusion of focusing on the words, which I occasionally feel going on, especially when a tune is chosen that doesn’t fit the words (and hence the words have to be smushed into the tune, often losing the proper sentence breaks, etc.). A friend of mine was trying to argue that since Tehillim were written as songs, they should ALWAYS be sung, and that in fact since the letters themselves are arranged in a certain, holy way by King David, even saying them without knowing what they mean is better than just saying the words—and understanding them—without singing.
As far as I’m concerned this is almost a form of idolatry. For one, we don’t have access to a tradition of tunes from David ha-Melech, so the only part of Tehillim which goes all the way back is the words, not the tunes we use. Second, to be joyful and sing out the words is well and good, but if you don’t know what the words mean or if you have an incorrect understanding of them, what are you being joyful about other than satisfying your own desires, even though they may be pointed heavenward? That may be well and good, or maybe not, but it’s definitely not ideal. In perek 10 of Hilchot Teshuvah, Rambam discusses how loving Hashem is dependent on correct knowledge of Hashem. You may well truly love your conception of Hashem, but if that conception is flawed, you are in love with a fiction, or worse, with an idol you have constructed of your own imagination. It’s analogous to when people say they are/were in love with the ‘idea’ of a person. They didn’t really love the person for who they were, but rather an idealized fiction resembling them. Similarly, if you are joyful about a jumble of Hebrew letters you don’t understand (or are not understanding at that time), you are not being joyful about the Psalm you are reading, you are joyful about the music, about the dancing, about whatever you are constructing in your mind to be joyful about, but not necessarily about praising G!D, and definitely not about the prayer in question.
posted by Eitan at 09:00
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