(15) All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance.
(15) Now then, get me a musician [m'nagen].” As the musician played [k'nagen ha-m'nagen], the hand of the LORD came upon him.
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: "The Maggid [of Mezeretich] explains the phrase as follows: 'When the musician (ha-m’nagen) becomes like the instrument (ke-nagen), then the spirit of God shall rest upon him.'"
במקום רנה שם תהא תפלה
Where there is song, there is prayer.
"לדוד מזמור" מלמד ששרתה עליו שכינה ואחר כך אמר שירה.
"מזמור לדוד" מלמד שאמר שירה ואחר כך שרתה עליו שכינה.
If a psalm begins: "Of David a psalm," (l'David mizmor) this teaches that the Divine Presence [shekhinah] rested upon him first and afterward he recited the song. However, if a psalm opens with: A psalm of David (mizmor l'David), this teaches that he first recited the song, and afterward the Divine Presence rested upon him.
״שירו לו שיר חדש״ (תהילים לג, ג). חדשו לו שיר תמיד. היטיבו נגן בתרועה, בפה ובית השתדלו לרנן לו.
David Kimhi (RaDaK, b. 1160, France)
Commentary on Psalms 33:3
"Sing a new song to God" (Psalms 33:3): refresh the melody to divine, always. Make a beautiful nigun that calls out, with your mouth and with your hand try to make joyous music to God.
ר׳ פנחס מקורצ, מדרש פנחס, א׳, צ-צא
(צ) אמר שטוב לאדם לישן עם בניו הקטונים, שהוא בסוד, אתדבקות רוחא ברוחאת, והוא טוב לחלומות.
גם אמר שלפעמים, כאשדם מנגן ואי אפשר לו להרים קול. וכשבא איש לעזור ורים את קולו,גם הוא יכול להרים את קולו, הוא גם כן מסוג: אתדבקות רוחא ברוחא.
R' Pinchas of Koretz (b. 1728, Russia), Midrash Pinchas, vol. 1 (Lvov, 1872)
90. He said that it is good for a person to snuggle with their small children, which [actualizes] the secret meaning of uniting (devekut) soul-to-soul, and this is good for dreams.
91. He also said that sometimes, when a person sings, he cannot raise his voice. But when someone comes to help and sings strongly, this in turn gives the first person the ability to raise his own voice [to match]. This is of the secret significance of uniting, soul-to-soul....
36. Sometimes, a person must build ladders to climb to the heavens. A niggun (melody) is one of these ladders, specifically when its singing comes from the joy of a mitzvah, and with a heart broken open.
The meaning of a nigun is reawakening, to awaken a sublime concept, of triumph of being laid low, and to awaken the essence of humanity and its deep significance that canot be revealed save by other means.
We don't necessarily need to compose new melodies, just as you would not prescribe to someone who wants to gladden himself through drink to press his own wine, or one who wants to awaken themselves or another through words, that they must compose a new discourse.
[Here is an exercise:] Take a musical phrase, turn your face to the wall, or simply close your eyes and remind yourself that you stand in the presence of God. With your heart breaking open, you are here to pour out your soul to God with music and melody, emerging from the depths of your heart. Inevitably, you will begin to feel the emergence of your spirit in great joy and delight. At first it was you singing to your soul, to wake her up, but slowly you will feel your soul singing her own song.
Each song is always a riddle; its voices, what are they, its rises and falls, what are they? Why is it sometimes long and sometimes short in coming
All this has already been witnessed, with its voice your soul blazes a trail upward, up to the highest realms, grabbing it with its stirrings and drawing it with its tongue. Your heart, guts, and interior go out with your spirit's song, and the way of songs is upward, and its ascent and descent, all of its revolutions are carved, each movement of the musician is etched, and the melody is engraved in the timbre of the voice. The melody bears your spirit in its guts, pouring it out before the Divine.
... You do not need to be in a community to sing this way. Even when you are at home, any time you feel capable, you can sing as described above. And you do not need to scream and shout. There is music made even with a whisper or a breath that can still be heard in heaven.
Repetition is important. The aim is not just to run trough the niggun a couple of times but to let it build -- 'soaking in the niggun (er veykt zach in dem niggun),' we used to say. Body language is important, too. Even if you are just singing on your own, get your body involved. Beat time on the table or your knee. Close your eyes. Sway back and forth if you can. Tell your body where you want to go, and let your body help communicate this to the rest of you. The Baal Shem Tov would sometimes ask his followers to put a hand on the shoulder of the person next to them as they sang. Forming a physical circle, he believed, would actualize the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself...
We are not merely singing melodies -- this is the point. A niggun is a path to God, a 'song of ascension.'... We must travel with that intention in mind... Get together with friends, tell stories, swap songs. Soak in the niggunim. See how far they can take you.