Parashat Beshalach, Exodus 13:17-17:16

This week's parasha is generously sponsored by Karen Gold in memory of her father Melvin Gold.

For a long time we missed out on hearing women's voices as part of a community in prayer.

Barbra Streisand and Beverly Sills share more than a monogram. They each have the gift of a beautiful voice perfectly suited to a particular musical genre. How could they not excel as singers? They are part of a sisterhood of musically talented Jewish women which is breathtakingly diverse. It includes Britain's Amy Winehouse and Israel's Chava Alberstein. While we're at it let's toss in Bette Midler, Carly Simon and Dinah Shore. Go back a few centuries and you can add Madama Europa, sister of the Italian composer Salamone Rossi. Let's not forget the trailblazers in liturgical music: Barbara Ostfeld, of the Reform movement who was the first invested female cantor, Erica Lippitz and Marla Barugel the first two female cantors in the Conservative movement, and the influential singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman.

Then there's Miriam, remember her? We first met her as an unnamed child in chapter two of Exodus, keeping a watchful eye on her baby brother as he is put in a basket and floated down the Nile. When Pharaoh's daughter finds the basket, the young girl leaps into action: Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?" And Pharaoh's daughter answered, "Yes." So the girl went and called the child's mother. (Exodus 2:7-8) In this week's parashah, Miriam, now called a prophetess, is witness once again to an act where her people are saved through the medium of water: the parting of the Sea of Reeds.

This formative event in the relationship between God and Israel leads to a song of victory commonly known as Shirat Ha-Yam, the Song of the Sea, which gives this Shabbat its designation as Shabbat Shira, the Shabbat of Song. Upon witnessing God's might
… Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said:
I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea. (Exodus 15:1)
The song continues in great detail for eighteen verses, after which
… Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, 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 the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea. (Exodus 15:20-21)

Is this plagiarism or sampling? Can't Miriam come up with an original song? Well, let's look at it closely. Commentators explain that this was a particular type of song. According to the first century writer Philo (On the Life of Moses 1:180) there was a male chorus and a female chorus singing Shirat Ha-Yam. Moses led the men, and Miriam the women. The Hebrew reads va-ta'an Miriam. Though translated as "Miriam chanted," it can also be read as "Miriam responded," and in fact that is the choice given by Ibn Ezra. The twelfth century commentator Bekhor Shor understands the verb to mean that the entire song was repeated. Writing in the early twentieth century, Umberto Cassuto envisioned it somewhat differently, commenting that Miriam and the women sang antiphonally, responding "at the end of each strophe."

A very different perspective was put forward by biblical scholars Frank Moore Cross and David Noel Freedman in "The Song of Miriam" (1955). According to their analysis, what we call the "Song of the Sea" is actually the "Song of Miriam," which was eventually ascribed to Moses. In this view, the shorter text is the older and original piece. Why was it necessary to include the short mention of Miriam and her song unless this was the original version of the text? Other scholars following up on this hypothesis explain that the language used indicates that Miriam calls all the people to sing, hence the term Sing to the Lord (Exodus 15:21), at which point Moses and the people respond I will sing to the Lord (Exodus 15:1).

If this is true, the song as it appears in the Torah illustrates a modern problem that even the prophetess Miriam faced: the woman who is not heard. The linguist Deborah Tannen illustrates this phenomenon familiar to many women from business meetings:

Cynthia was a member of a committee to raise funds for a political candidate. Most of the committee members were focused on canvassing local businesses for support. When Cynthia suggested that they write directly to a list of former colleagues, friends, and supporters of the candidate, inviting them to join an honorary board (and inviting them to contribute), her suggestions was ignored. Later that same suggestion was made by another committee member, Barry. Suddenly, the group came alive, enthusiastically embracing and planning to implement "Barry's" idea.

Deborah Tannen, Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work, p. 277

Further support for Miriam's musical leadership role is found in the extent of her participation. In addition to leading the singing, she also drummed and danced. (Scholars point out that “timbrel” is not an accurate translation of the musical instrument tof, which was probably a hand-drum.) Women in ancient Israel were very much involved in making music, and we've got the archeological evidence to prove it, as the accompanying picture attests. According to Carol Meyers, figurines of ancient musicians only depict women as drummers.

Women in the biblical world apparently were expert percussionists. Because ancient Semitic music was more rhythmic than tonal or melodic, hand-drum skills would have made women essential for most musical performances. The victory song genre itself was exclusively female because of the performance context — that is, in the wake of a military victory. In a world with men as the primary combatants the women who remain behind typically are the ones to greet triumphant soldiers returning from battle. It is no wonder that the composition and performance of celebratory hymns became a women’s genre in ancient Israel.
…the performers of victory songs composed and performed hymns that were imbued with religious meaning, the celebration of God’s redeeming acts. The Song of the Sea, as one of the earliest theological statements in the Bible, therefore is arguably a contribution of female creativity.

Carol Meyers, New Cambridge Bible Commentary, Exodus, pp.117-18, 119

Why is it so important to determine Miriam's role in offering thanks to God at the Sea of Reeds? It is because her voice was muffled and the voices of her daughters eventually silenced. Somewhere between Miriam's joyful reaction to the act of redemption and Madama Europa's singing her brother's liturgical compositions in sixteenth century Italy, kol isha became the reason to deny women this religious outlet. The term kol isha, a woman's voice, comes from the Talmudic phrase kol be-isha erva, a woman's voice is indecent (Berachot 24a). The third century sage Samuel used this phrase to explain that the Sh'ma should not be recited while a woman was singing, because the lustiness of her voice would be a distraction from holy matters. From this developed the traditional prohibition against women's participation in music.

That is not to say that Jewish women stopped singing. Babies over the centuries have been lulled to sleep with the sound of a mother's lullaby. In many Jewish communities women were professional mourners. Women may have also been performers and teachers. But for a long time we missed out on hearing women's voices as part of a community in prayer. Think of it as the vocal equivalent of painting with only half the colours of the spectrum.

There is a reason Torah is chanted and tefillot (prayers) are sung. When words and music embrace, we encounter a new dimension of spirituality. For this reason it is so important to savour the words va-ta'an Miriam, Miriam responded. How fortunate we are that today men and women alike, laity and leaders, can strive to follow her example. Miriam was able to join a momentous occasion with a heartfelt response, creating a transformative experience. This is soul music in its truest sense; it is prayer.

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Michal Shekel

Picture credit: Iron Age terracotta figurine of woman playing the drum excavated at Shiqmona, Israel, scanned from A Feminist Companion to Exodus to Deuteronomy, Athalya Brenner (ed.), p. 212. (Original photograph from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem.)