Shabbat, a Day of Joy

By Hazzan Jenna Greenberg.

With Shavuot behind us, and the summer ahead of us, that only means one thing: the High Holidays are coming! (And don’t forget to complete your ticket requests for…check your email for more info). But what do the Yamim Noraim have to do with this week’s parsha? Well, in Behaalotcha, we read a passage that is very well known for those who stick around for the end of Rosh Hashana Musaf. The shofarot section quotes Num. 10:10, saying (or shall I say “blasting”): “And on your joyous occasions—your fixed festivals and new moon days—you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I, the ETERNAL, am your God.”

Uveyom simchatchem, and on your joyous occasions, is followed with a 2 part list including Yom Tov and Rosh Chodesh. Shabbat seems to be missing from this list, and yet, the midrash in Sifrei Bemidbar 77 says that this refers to Shabbat as well. For as we know from so many of our Shabbat prayers, we sing about joy, with texts like Yismechu in Musaf, v’Samcheinu in all of our Amidot as well as the Friday night liturgy. We have the wonderful Zemer, or song, of Menucha v’Simcha, traditionally sung on Shabbat day, celebrating the restful and joyous nature of our weekly holiday.

And what makes Shabbat even more joyful is singing all of these texts, bringing these words to life through the melodies that we sing. While we do not blow the shofar daily (at least not until Elul in a few months), we are like the shofar described, sounding our voices to be heard by ourselves, by our community and by God. 

Having just attended a “Song is Prayer” Retreat, led by Joey Weisenberg from Hadar, held at Beth El this week, I can’t help but wonder how deliberate it was of him to plan this program during the week that we read this very verse from the Torah. In one of his teachings, and yes, we balanced the singing with text study as well, he shared the metaphor of the ladder. When we pray, we work our way up the ladder of holiness, changing our volume along the way. We begin with communal singing in our preliminary prayers. We then proceed with a combined focus of both singing and listening, as the latter is the theme of the Shema and its blessings. And this is followed by silence, the Amida, at the peak of the ladder. At the top of the ladder, we find ourselves perhaps closest to God, at the highest point of holiness. And then we work our way back down the ladder as the service comes to a close, and our volume increases in song once again with our final prayers.

There is great joy, simcha, in this cycle of communal prayer, as we olim v’yorim bo, to paraphrase the Jacob’s ladder verse, as we go up and down the ladder of holiness, both in song and in silence. For the quiet listening that we also do is just as important as the beautiful music that we make. The balancing of the niggunim, the melodies that we sing with the silence between them, have the potential power to bring great joy to each of us.

May we each find simcha, joy, in the song-filled moments as well as the quieter moments of our Shabbat prayers.

Shabbat Shalom