Vayelech- Sing, Sing A Song

V’atah kitvu lachem et hashirah hazot v’lamdah et b’nei Yisrael simah b’fihem…

And now, you all write for yourselves this song, and teach it to the Children of Israel; put it in their mouths… (D’varim 31:19)

In 1973 a series appeared on American television. Created by David McCall, one half of a Madison Avenue advertising firm, after noticing one of his children had trouble memorizing multiplication tables, but knew the lyrics to many a rock song. The original “Schoolhouse Rock” series ran twelve years, reappeared for six more years in the 1990’s, a new series in 2009, and is available on video. As a child of the 1970’s and 1980’s, I can still sing my multiplication tables to “Three is a Magic Number” and “Four Legged Zoo.”  We have the series on DVD, and Jesse, Gavi, and Keren have learned math, science, history, and grammar from “Schoolhouse Rock.”

While David McCall and his team take the credit for linking learning to music in the modern age, God and Moshe knew this about 3500 years ago. At the end of Moshe’s life, God commands us all to write “this song.” It must be taught to our children. It must be forever in our mouths and on the tips of our tongues. Like a good jingle, it should stick in our minds, but also be beloved in our hearts.

Throughout the years this verse has been interpreted to say that each of us should write a Sefer Torah. This is a wonderful mitzvah, and can be fulfilled by participating in the writing of a scroll. But even more significant to physical writing is to write these words on our hearts and in our minds, to create from them the mind worm that stays repeating on our lips.  Like the songs from “Schoolhouse Rock” that I can never forget, so too the words of Shema, the melodies of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the words of the Hagaddah, and more are placed in our minds, sealed in our hearts, and forever on our lips, needing just a little nudge, maybe a few notes, a word, or even a scent, to have us singing them together again.

May it be a year of joyous songs of shared love for Judaism, of community, and of peace.