Each and every morning the following words are recited as part of the morning service: “Blessed is the One who spoke and the world came into being.” Are these words meant to be taken figuratively or literally? Is it an allegorical image or is there a reality behind the words? The same could be asked regarding a verse in one of the psalms recited each Shabbat and holiday in pesukei d’zimra: “By the word of God were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth…For He spoke and it was, He commanded and it stood fast” ( Psalms 33: 6 and 9).
In Pirkei Avot, The Ethics of the Fathers, it is written: “With ten utterances the world was created” (Avot 5:1). Pirkei Avot, far from being considered a mystical treatise, is a collection of ethical and moral teachings of the Sages. The normative tradition as brought in Pirkei Avot is that the instrument through which God created the world was Divine speech.
It is not hard to see where the tradition comes from when reading the Torah account of creation. On the first day of creation it is written “And God said let there be light - and there was light.” The pattern of a Divine utterance, followed immediately by the very creation spoken about in the utterance, is repeated throughout creation. The oral Torah, handed down along with the written Torah, understood the idea of Divine speech as the instrument of creation quite literally.
Further, we are taught that creation is actually constructed from the Hebrew letters, considered the building blocks of creation. Similar to a scientist who would describe the building blocks of creation as atoms, molecules and elements, Jewish tradition views the Hebrew letters as the very foundation of the universe. The letters that form the word for any particular entity or action are more than linguistic symbols - they are the animating Divine force forming its actual essence and basic reality. Therefore, the letters that make up the word for light, for example, are what light actually is. Not only are the letters the building blocks of creation, but the Torah is considered the actual blueprint of creation, as is taught in the Zohar (2:161b): “God looked into the Torah and created the world.”
Just as today we know of the incredible energy packed into an infinitesimally small atom, the Hebrew letters are intensely contracted conduits of Divine light and energy, serving as the channels of Divine speech. In the Divine creative process speech is action - there is no separation between the two.
In human terms we can understand this to a certain degree when considering the various results of our own speech. We know how words spoken in anger or impulsively can instantaneously pierce through the heart, destroy a life long relationship in a minute, ruin a reputation, cause murder or lead nations to war. In the more positive sense, compassionate and loving speech can heal old wounds, give strength to the weary, resurrect hope from despair and inspire masses of people.
The ten utterances of creation are essentially connected to the ten archetypal songs sung throughout history. They are the more human face of the same basic energy in a more microcosmic way. Each of these structures of ten encompasses the full array of their respective realms of creation and human history. In turn, both sets of ten are clearly interconnected with the ten sefirot, the basic model of all existence, from the physical to the spiritual.
One other model of ten needing mention are the ten commandments, the quintessential “kernel” of all the commandments in the Torah. The idea of the ten commandments representing all the commandments can be seen in a beautiful mathematical gem. There are 613 commandments in the Torah, as well as seven universal commandments known as the seven commandments of the children of Noah. Together they equal 620, the exact number of letters in the ten commandments!
The word keter, crown, also equals 620. In many synagogues around the world the curtain hanging before the ark where the Torah is kept is decorated with a crown, as are many mantels around the Torah scroll itself. Additionally, many congregations put a silver crown on the Torah when it is taken out of the ark. Keter in Kabbalah represents the unconscious and super conscious source of intellect. This is considered the source of music and song in the soul, as discussed above.
Significantly, the Torah itself is called song. After God revealed through Moses the blessing and the curse and the prophesies concerning the future of the Jewish people, God taught him the song HaAzinu, whose teachings are to be impressed upon all the people: “And now write this song for yourselves and teach it to the children of Israel…” (Deuteronomy 31:19). The oral Torah explains that this verse is commanding not only the song of HaAzinu to be written down, but that each person is commanded to write the entire Torah. From this we learn that all the Torah is considered song!
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One of the methods used by Kabbalah to delve into deeper and deeper levels of Torah understanding is by permuting letters of words to find associated connections and correspondences. Through this exercise we become aware of the inner dynamics and essence of the word. This method was used in a classic work of Kabbalah, the Tikunei Zohar, which takes the first word of the Torah, breishit, “in the beginning,” and through permuting its six letters reveals profound secrets of the very mechanics of creation.
One of the combinations of letters of breishit spells shirat av/b, “the song of the father” or “the cardinal/essential song.” (The letter beit, the first letter of the Torah, has two possible pronunciations: v or b). The letters a-b/v, “father” are the two initial letters of the alef-beit, or alphabet. Thus, another way of reading the above combination of letters would be “the song of the alef-beit.” These two combinations of letters of the opening word of the Torah reveal an awesome insight - the Divine speech of our Father in Heaven was in fact song, the song of the alef-beit, the Hebrew letters. God in effect sang the world into existence!!
Another permutation of the letters of breishit are shir ta’av, “the song of longing.” This permutation relates to the enigmatic statement explaining the purpose of creation: “God desired to have for Himself a dwelling place in the lower worlds” (Midrash Tanchuma, Naso 16) The world, the product of Divine song, is mysteriously the object of God’s desire for a dwelling place below.
To write a Torah is considered the last of the 613 commandments. The Torah and creation begin with “the song of the father,” “the song of the alef-beit,” “the song of longing,”while the last and concluding commandment is to write the entire Torah which is called song. This fulfills what is written in the Sefer Yetzirah (1:7), the first classic book of Kabbalah: Their end is embedded in their beginning and their beginning in the end.”
It is written in the Talmud that one who sings his Torah will not forget it. Singing the Torah means to fully integrate its teachings and wisdom into our hearts and our minds. We must connect the Torah we learn to our most essential being and not treat it as an intellectual pastime or pursuit. Singing our Torah connects its teachings to our deepest selves.
We are taught that there are four basic levels to learning Torah text. The acronym for these four levels are PARDES, which means “orchard.” Beginning from below to above, the P is for pshat, the literal meaning; the R is for remez, the hinted to, or alluded to meaning; the D is for drush, the homeletic or allegorical meaning and the S is for sod, the secret or Kabbalistic meaning. There is in additional, parallel structure of four levels of learning called by another acronym: TANTO. These four levels are from above to below. The T is for ta’amim, the musical notes denoting the way the Torah is chanted, the song of the Torah; the N is for nekudot, the vowels; the T is for tagin, the crowns upon certain of the letters; the O is for the otiot, the letters. The musical notes are considered the highest level of understanding, the song which reveals the deepest secrets of the letters themselves.
Until now we have been able to merely trace the known qualities of music and song throughout human and Jewish history and describe its universal appeal and effect on body and soul, without fully understanding from where this unique power comes from.
Here though we begin to touch upon the source of the mystical power of music. For the Divine creative process as expressed in the ten utterances and the ten sefirot produces what poets have called the “harmony of the spheres.” To be in tune with this celestial symphony is to be connected to the very fabric and pulse of creation and herein lies the underlying power of music and its effect on the soul of man. For if God created the world through Divine speech and song, then it is this energy we come into contact through music.
When we sing we come into contact with a force much greater than ourselves. When we listen to music it resonates so well within us, because similar to prayer being something more than something we do, rather something we are, so too music is not something we merely enjoy, but on a deep level is the essence of Divine creation and the universe we live in and who we actually are. Music opens us up to the myriad of physical and spiritual forces all around us, allowing us to unify and identify with all creation and the Infinite Source of all.
