When a Person Sings, He Immediately Becomes Bound to Hashem – Parashat Beshalach by Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A SPEAKS IN THIS POWERFUL SHIUR ON PARASHAT BESHALACH ABOUT THE ABILITY OF SONG AND FAITH TO LIGHT UP ONE’S PATH IN THE MIDST OF DARKNESS: “THEN MOSHE AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SANG THIS SONG TO HASHEM” (SHEMOT 15:1) When a person sings a song or melody (niggun), he immediately becomes bound to Hashem.  Song and melody are the most phenomenal connection between a person and the Creator.  Our soul comes from supernal worlds where it was accustomed to hearing the songs of the ministering angels.  Therefore, also now, while inside a body, it so longs for song and melody.  A person needs to accustom himself to going with a melody, because this is what causes him to be happy, since this is what arouses his heart to Hashem.  Melody is such a wondrous thing!  If you ever see a person sing a melody softly to himself, it’s a sign and indicator that joy rests in his heart. Rabbeinu tells us in Sippurey Maasiyot about a princess who became lost and how they searched for her.  A wind came and carried the one who searched for her and brought him to a golden mountain and fortress of gemstones.  The wind is the melody, which takes us to the loftiest, most wondrous places. A person was created in order to utter songs and praises.  Hashem wants specifically our singing, more than the singing of angels.   [He wants] the singing of someone who is situated below, who was born with difficult urges and who fights to overcome them throughout his life. The prayer that is most accepted is the prayer with melodies and songs.  If a person wants to draw down “yeshu’ot (salvations)”, he needs to dress his prayer in songs and melodies.  “Give thanks to Hashem, for His kindness is eternal.”  There are always kindnesses.  Kindnesses are always drawn down.  There are always miracles, and King David says that we need to always thank God for them. Since the creation of the world, the Kadosh Baruch Hu longs for us to sing before Him.  He split the sea because He knew that afterwards there would be the Song of the Sea.  What does Hashem choose amongst everything else?  “Who chooses musical songs of praise” [from the liturgy of “Yishtabach”]. On Shabbat Shira, we sing emuna (faith).  The sea was in front of us, the Egyptians behind, and to the sides were hostile beasts – where do we flee?  We flee to Hashem, because only He can rescue.  We scream to Hashem from the deepest place – “From the depths, I cried to You Hashem.”  And what does Hashem respond to them?  “Speak to the Children of Israel and start moving,” that they should strengthen themselves in emuna with all their hearts and enter the sea before it splits.  In the merit of that trust, I will perform a miracle for them [from the holy Or HaChaim].  This is exactly what Nachshon ben Aminadav -- who became for us the idea of being bound to the goal despite all the dangers – did.  He stood before a raging sea and entered it, continuing to walk even when the water reached his nose.  He continued walking and then the sea split and all the Jewish people entered after him.  Such emuna!  Such trust!  Such devotion to the goal! And us?  What will be with us?  We don’t really believe that Hashem can do everything for us.  Our day is full of such examples.  According to the natural order of things, there’s no chance.  We haven’t even begun to believe that this could happen.  Instead, we forget that Hashem is great and that He is truly capable of everything. If a person throws aside his intellect, then there is no limit to solutions and yeshu’ot.  He suddenly believes that Hashem can rescue him, because emuna is the loftiest intellect that there is.  The intellect says to you to throw aside the intellect.  The intellect says to you: “You know what?  Believe!”  People returned in repentance because they received intellect, a sort of Godly revelation that it’s a good idea to throw aside the intellect and to follow after emuna. The primary faith is that everything that Hashem does, He does for the best, and this is the thing which clashes with intellect most.  Because we see the difficult things in life, and we ourselves go through difficult things, and if we don’t put emuna before the intellect – the faith that everything is good and that there is no bad – then we are, God forbid, weak in faith. > Hashem wants us to make an effort.  To make an effort to believe in Him.  To make an effort to believe that He doesn't do anything bad to us in life.   To make an effort [to understand] that in every path that we reach in life – every path, [even] the worst in the world – when we’ve been thrown here and thrown there, through such difficult paths we have reached in life, when we suddenly see that all roads are closed to us, that we are having such hardships, when we suddenly reach a place where we cannot see Hashem at all, where we see nothing, where everything is dark, everything is closed off – yet, there is a melody there… such a powerful melody… A melody that we merit to hear when we do not pay attention to all the confusions, when we fight the doubts, when we say, “There is Hashem in the world, Who does everything, and everything is with compassion!” Hashem created the world in order to reveal His tremendous compassion.  He took counsel with the angels about whether to create man, and they told Him that it isn’t worthwhile, because he cannot withstand tests.  And what did the Kadosh Baruch Hu say to them?  “You do not know how much compassion I have.  I have such awesome and concealed compassion, and with this compassion, I am creating man.” This compassion is amidst the judgments, amidst the hardships.  Because if there was only kindness, then it would be taken for granted, because there’s nothing else.  However, when there is judgment on a person, God forbid, and amidst the judgment, amidst the hardships, he sees how Hashem has mercy on him, how Hashem performs a miracle for him, then he begins to feel Hashem, to draw close to Hashem: “Hashem is so great!  What a miracle He performed for me.  Hashem, You are so compassionate!” Emuna is the secret of happiness.  Emuna is when we say that there is no evil in the world, that Hashem Yitbarach is good and beneficent and does what’s best for us.  Every lack, every difficulty, everything mishaps, every delay, every hardship, every illness is only good, because Hashem sees that only in this way will we merit to reach our ultimate purpose, which is to believe in Hashem, to draw close to Hashem, to know Hashem. Holy emuna takes this gray, difficult, and confusing life – where a person does not find himself and everything is blocked – and all the difficult things that happen to us, each person with their own issues.  It appears to him that he fell into the trash.  By one person, there is a family problem.  By [another] person is such-and-such an issue.  By this one, there is such-and-such a child, and by this one, is a problem with peace in the home – all the types of problem that people have.   Holy emuna comes and turns everything into such a powerful and wondrous melody, a melody that says that everything is planned from the beginning, that outside of Hashem, there is nothing here in the world.  That Hashem does everything, and everything is for the best.  Ribbono Shel Olam (Master of the World), help me to always remember that You do everything for me, that exactly like this, You love me, that what happened to me is because of Your love for me. How do you know when someone merited to complete faith?  When he says “thank you” all the time, in every situation.  He lives with Hashem, he lives with the faith that everything that happens to him is from Hashem, and everything is for his benefit.  Just say, “Thank you!”  Say “thank you” about everything.  There is darkness in this world, and we don’t see any good.  We need to believe that this is good, that everything that happens is good. When we begin to say “thank you,” it shows that we believe that this is good, that everything that Hashem does, he does for the best.  And what yeshu’ot people see when they go on this path of gratitude, miracles above nature, mamash above nature!