Two Great Songs

The reading for the Seventh Day features the Song of the Sea—the song that the Israelites sang after their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15). Actually, this same song is recited every day as part of the synagogue service—and it’s also mentioned in two other places in the morning and evening prayer service. It’s these two passing mentions that seem to demand further explanation.

 

Our prayer book says, “Moses and the Israelites sang the Song to You in great joy, and everyone said, ‘Who is like You among the heavenly ones, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, working wonders.’” The words in italics are a quote from the Song itself (Exod 15:11). But what is unusual is that this quote comes from the middle of the Song. Normally, when people want to refer to a famous song, they start off by quoting its first verse—in this case, “I will sing to the Lord, for He has gloriously triumphed.” Quoting a line from the middle of the Song is a bit like saying, “At the start of the game, everyone stood up and sang, ‘And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…’” If you want to report that everyone sang the national anthem, wouldn’t you say that everyone stood up and sang, “Oh say, can you see…”?

 

Adding to the strangeness is what comes next in the prayer book: “The rescued ones sang a new song to Your name on the edge of the [Red] Sea. Everyone gave thanks and proclaimed Your kingship, saying, ‘The Lord will reign forever and ever’ (Exod 15:18).”

A new song? This is the last verse of the same song that we were just talking about, the Song of the Sea. What makes it “new”? And why quote the last verse?

 

The answer to all these questions lies in the actual contents of the Song of the Sea. It indeed starts out as a song of thanksgiving for God’s splitting of the Red Sea. The Israelites sing about what has just happened to them, right up until verse 11, “Who is like You, majestic in holiness…” But then the Song goes on to mention all sorts of things that the Israelites couldn’t possibly have known at that moment: “In Your kindness You guided the people whom You saved, in Your strength You led them to the abode of Your holiness.” Presumably, this refers to the entrance into the holy land—which hadn’t happened yet! The Song continues: “When the nations heard they were astounded, a shaking seized the inhabitants of Philistia, the Edomite chiefs were panicked,” and so on and so forth, right up until “The Lord will reign forever and ever.” How could the Israelites know that these things were going to happen? And who were they to say that God would reign forever and ever?

 

Our rabbis’ answer to these questions is surprising. They essentially drew a line in the middle of the Song of the Sea: the first part was indeed thanksgiving for what had already occurred, but the second part was more in the nature of a prophecy, perhaps uttered by the prophet Moses and then just echoed by the assembled masses. After all, only a prophet could know that God would lead His people to Canaan or how the Philistines, Edomites, and so forth would react to the news.

 

So, when it came to mentioning the first song, the rabbis referred to it not by its opening verse, but by the point at which this first song is divided from the second one, namely, at verse 11, “Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, working wonders…” Then, as the words of the prayer continue, Israel sang a new song, a prophetic description of all that was to happen thereafter. (It may be that this original rationale for thinking that there are two songs was eventually forgotten; see b. Talmud Rosh ha-Shanah 31a concerning the Shabbat minḥah service in the Temple.)

 

If so, then the Song of the Sea was not one song but two—or one might say, thanksgiving for the obvious sometimes leads to the recognition of what is not.

 

Happy holidays!