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Songs Stay Alive Long After Words Are Forgotten - Parshat Ha'azinu - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

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Hidabroot - Torah & Judaism

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I remember as a teenager being able to sing the words of every single pop song in the top 20. I never sat down and tried to memorize them and yet 60 years later, if I hear the opening bars of one of those songs, I can sing you the whole thing from beginning to end. Somewhere in the back pages of my memory, those songs are alive and well. They become part of me. Words spoken may be understood, but then forgotten. Words sung penetrate deeper. The melody sneaks the words past the intellect and lodges them deep inside us. In 1703, Andrew Fletcher said, "Let me make the songs of a nation and I care not who writes its laws." Perhaps that's why the Torah calls itself a song. "Now write for yourselves this song." The goal of Torah learning is not just that we can retrieve the information when we need it. We've got to bring the Torah into the deepest part of our being until the Torah begins to sing inside us.