D'var Torah

Did you ever have one of those moments when you realize something for the first time and wonder why you hadn’t discovered it before? That happened to me this week as I was doing some research on this week’s Torah portion, Bamidbar, the first portion in the Book of Numbers (Numbers: 1:1-4:20). I read a Torah commentary by one of my friends, Cantor Josh Breitzer (Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn, NY) on this portion who taught about how the cantillation of this portion paints a picture of what must have been happening at the foot of Mt. Sinai when the Israelites were ready to depart on their journey through the wilderness. I asked him if I could share some of his ideas with you.

First, some background. We are starting a new book of the Torah, the Book of Numbers. It’s called “Numbers” because the first part of it is Moses counting all the male Israelites over the age of 20 by tribes so that they know how many will be able to join in battle and bear arms. In Hebrew, the name of the book is “B’midbar” which translates to “In the desert.”

Second, a little bit about cantillation. We chant the Hebrew of the Torah using a special system of marks that were developed centuries ago to help readers of Torah with pronunciation and punctuation. Each mark has a melody that was created and passed down by an oral tradition. The melodies that we use come from the Western Ashkenazi tradition and are just a bit different than Conservative and Orthodox congregations whose melodies come from the Eastern Ashkenazi tradition.  In most cases, it is hard to see a connection between the choice of trope (created by the Masorites in the 8^th century) and Ashkenazi melodies (created much later). You would think that the melodies would paint a picture of the words. Most times they don’t. Except this week.

So, imagine you are standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The 10-commandments are securely in the portable Mishkan (tabernacle) that was built to be carried to the Promised Land. A cloud over the sanctuary is God’s presence making it holy. There are hundreds of thousands of freed Hebrews anxious to get moving. They are pumped and ready to go through the desert and get to this special place that God promised them.

Moses then invokes a rally of sorts. He must “take attendance” and count! But the people are so excited and talking amongst themselves. It must have been a loud, enthusiastic moment there at Sinai. And this is where Cantor Breitzer’s d’var Torah inspired me. He writes, “How can Moses compete with that noise? Perhaps he quiets them down the same way teachers today hush their classroom: ‘Shh, shh, shh, shh; tz, tz, tz….’ If you listen to the end of the first sentence in the Book of Numbers, Cantor Breitzer suggests that “we can detect in the repetition of select consonants an alliteration, insistent summoning to attention. Note the letters in bold:

Listen to a recording of that sentence. Listen to it imagining Moses saying these words, emphasizing that alliteration, to quiet the excited Israelites, as Cantor Breitzer suggests.

Now that they are quiet, all 600,000+ of them, it’s rally time! Let’s listen to how the chants of the roll call goes! Almost every verse calling out the name of an individual tribal leader (Rueben, Simeon, Judah, etc…) is punctuated by a trope called a Zakef Gadol. It looks like this for the name Judah. Note the Zakef Gadol trope mark over the Dalet in this name: לִֽיהוּדָ֕ה

That trope, the Zakef Gadol, is a triumphant exclamation, like jumping up the steps to the landing and then back down. Listen below to just the trope mark sung.

Click here to hear Cantor Breitzer chanting the verse with all the names.

To me, it sounds like Moses, leading the rally, shouting out these names, and one can almost hear the shouts of yelling and applause after each name. Cantor Breitzer says it this way:

“These verses are shorter than most, but richly resonant with the zakef gadol trope: they rise, crest, and leave us leaning in to hear what comes next.

As a cantor, I find myself attuned to the sounds of these names. I imagine each tribe breaking into applause after their chief gets his shout-out. Other passages in the Torah contain a series of short verses, but here, each name is followed by a list of affirmations, of "yes-ands," much like improv. Each name carries with it layers of meaning, some obvious, some hidden. When pronouncing them aloud with their trope, I'm aware of how alien these unique and mystical combinations of consonants and vowels feel in my mouth.”

This is why I love trope! Thank you Cantor Breitzer for reminding me of this. These are the moments when we can imagine, through the sounds of the cantillation of the words, exactly what the scene looked like in the desert. The Israelites are ready to go. They are excited, enthusiastic, and ready to head on that 40-year desert wandering period. Let’s go!

Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Michael Shochet