January 27th, 2018 — Shabbat B’Shalakh
Rabbi Adina Lewittes
As Jews we know well the limitations of a single story; we are the inheritors of a core sacred narrative whose holiness, we’re taught, is sustained by the multivocal, multilayered interpretations that have enriched and strengthened it over four thousand years.
The Torah’s epic story we read this morning of B’nai Yisrael crossing the Sea of Reeds and bursting into song upon reaching the other shore of freedom is a compelling example of the importance of multiple layers in the telling of a singular narrative, for it’s those multiple layers that help us understand our story’s deeper complexity and its fuller message. We learn that through our parasha’s insights into the redemptive power of song.