Timeless Torah

Close your eyes and try to picture the Great Seal of the United States. What should appear on your mental screen is the image of an eagle. But the official seal did not always look this way. At one time it resembled what would later become the American flag, a mixture of stars and stripes. Even earlier than that, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin concerned themselves with the design of this important symbol.Their proposal was a scene (are you ready for this?) from this week’s Torah portion! “Which one?” you ask. Well...

There they stood. Moses, Aharon, Miriam, and all the other Hebrews. Poised on the shore of the Red Sea, they were ready to embark upon the road to freedom. Turning around, they allowed themselves one final glimpse of their former tormentors, who are experiencing Divine retribution.

It was this very scene of the triumph of freedom over tyranny which Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin conceived of. This picture represented all that they had fought for, and in their proposal the Great Seal was to be encircled by the words “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to G-d.”

If, centuries later, individuals from another nation were able to appreciate this moment in history, imagine how the Jews themselves must have felt. It is no wonder that they broke out in song. According to our Sages, this is one of only ten songs that mark Israel’s receptivity to innumerable G-dly moments that dot our millenial landscape. Yet of all the songs which the Rabbis enumerated, only this musical composition is relived in the ongoing conscious ness of the Jew, as every morning at services, its entire text is recited.

This outburst of melody has become the paradigmatic call to liberation; not only for Jews, but for all people and from all enslavements. Ultimately we will all sing the twenth and final song, the ballad of redemption. Until that time, however, we are reminded that miracles alone can no more sustain our faith than one huge meal can end our hunger. Our existence then depends on our ability to discover G-d between the songs, even in our daily, prosaic activities.