Chayei Sarah and the Music of Life

Shabbat Shalom. Mazel tov to the Levine family. Anna is doing beautifully this morning. You should all be proud.

As some of you know, I have now been a member of Facebook for almost five months. Nevertheless, I am still being surprised – both pleasantly and not so pleasantly - by what people who are my "Friends" are posting. Last week I got a pleasant surprise as somebody posted a quote that I have been thinking about ever since. It was a picture of a quote, attributed to someone named Alice A. Barrett that read: "If music is the language of the soul, and the language of the soul is the language of God, then music is the language of God."

With those words floating in my mind, I recalled other quotes I have read over the years about music. One by Martin Luther, was: "Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world." Another was by the Greek philosopher Plato who said that "music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue."

All three of these quotations make it clear that music is a natural good, as beneficial as fresh air and water. As someone who spent years attending music lessons and playing in school bands, and then has turned around and done the same for my own children, I certainly believe that music is a treasure that touches our souls, that it can and does connect us to God and I know it can move us to be our best selves. Music can motivate us, make us happy, give us hope, and more.

That is, I believe the appeal of Katy Perry's wildly popular song "Roar." Some of the lyrics to that great song are:

I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath, scared to rock the boat and make a mess,
So I sat quietly, agreed politely, I guess that I forgot I had a choice,
I let you push me past the breaking point, I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything.

You held me down, but I got up (HEY!), already brushing off the dust,
You hear my voice, you hear that sound, like thunder gonna shake the ground,
You held me down, but I got up (HEY!) get ready cause I've had enough, I see it all, I see it now,
I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire, and you're gonna hear me roar.

The beat is quick, the message is uplifting, and it puts such joy in our hearts we can listen to it over and over.

Unfortunately, in today's world, not all music is designed, as Plato said, to educate our souls for virtue. While Katy Perry's song is a cheerful message of hope in which the singer talks about learning who she is and what she believes in, how to stand up for herself, that it is her choice how to be better, etc., there are other songs with less helpful messages on the radio. Thus it was that this week I was in contact with a school principal here in the area after teachers at that school danced at a pep rally to the also wildly popular Robin Thicke song Blurred Lines that was the so-called anthem of this summer and that is still playing frequently on most pop stations. For those of you who don't listen to pop radio, that was the song to which Miley Cyrus humiliated herself dancing to at the VMAs. That song does not educate for virtue. On the contrary its title, Blurred Lines, is a reference to the singer saying he hates the blurred lines when a girl says no to him but he thinks she means yes. Other lyrics in the song are so vulgar I cannot say them in polite company and certainly not from the bimah, especially during a Bat Mitzvah. Parents in the room though, if your child has been listening to that song you may want to look at the lyrics and have a conversation with your child about why they shouldn't EVER listen to that song again.

But it is Shabbes this morning, and I am supposed to be delivering to you a D'var Torah, a word of Torah ON the Torah portion we read today. So what does pop radio have to do with what we read in parashat Chayei Sarah a few minutes ago? Actually, quite a bit.

Eliyahu Wittenberg of Yeshiva University recently wrote: "The first...verse, in [the portion] tells us that Sarah the Matriarch lived to the age of 127, while in Megillat Esther we read that Esther ruled over 127 provinces." According to Rabbi Akiva this was not coincidental, as God decreed that Esther, a descendant of Sarah who lived for 127 years serving God, should rule over 127 provinces in which her people could be safe to also serve God. That is, for each day of Sarah's life, Esther was given a village to rule, for each month a city, for each year a province. What does this mean? That, according to Rabbi Akiva and the Torah, each moment is fraught with potential significance and can have lasting value. Sarah, by doing what was right, being compassionate, welcoming of strangers like Abraham, and eager to serve God no matter the challenge was able to affect not only her life, but the life of her future descendant and all those who she ruled, for the better.

The same idea is put forward by Moshe Kempinski in his D'var Torah on this week's portion. He wrote: "In the Jewish understanding the Hebrew word for time , "Zman" is related to the Hebrew word for "Zimun" or invitation. [Rabbi Moshe Shapiro explains] This means that time actually beckons us forward towards our destiny. In that forward movement we can come to that destination empty handed and bereft of significant days or we can arrive filled with "days"." In the portion both Abraham and Sarah had days that were full.

A little later on in the morning I will recite the Sheheyanu blessing with Anna's family. That blessing thanks God for allowing us to reach ha-zman ha-zeh. This time, this moment, filled with joy and gratitude.

Embracing each moment, thinking about how we fill our days are important lessons for us in our individual walk of faith. It is so easy to be swept forward. It is easy to allow one's self to become a victim of life, rather than to fashion it. That is what Katy Perry is talking about in her song; saying she didn't voice an opinion, let others push her down, let herself be a victim. But then she realizes each moment is precious, and SHE herself is precious, that it is HER choice how she behaves, and she won't continue the way she did before. She is going to brush off the dust, make herself heard, fashion her life and make each moment count.

Sarah and Abraham made each moment count. Katy Perry says she's going to make each moment count. It is a message for us all. We must make each moment count. We must realize it is our choice every minute of every day how to fill our days. Do we listen to good and uplifting music or music that is violent, angry, and full of hate? Do we read "trash" or do we read to educate and uplift ourselves? What do we watch on TV and at the movies and why? How do we dress and speak? Every single thing we do each day can either bring us up or weigh us down, raise our level of spirituality higher or debase us. Our challenge today is to take the time to reassess, contemplate and perhaps change our behaviors. If we do so I know that we will be able to find the light in each day and the blessing of each moment as we move forward to the future that beckons us.

Rabbi Michelle "Mina" Goldsmith
October 26, 2013