Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
לְבֵינָה עַל גַּבֵּי לְבֵינָה - Big bricks on big bricks
And now, time for another chance to see how the Torah looks.
Way back in Parashat Beshallah, we looked at the special shape of שִׁירַת הַיָּם (Shirat Ha-Yam), the section that is about how Moshe and Miriam led Benei Yisrael in joyous song after God split the sea for them. We saw how the design of that song was in a shape called אָרִיחַ עַל גַּבֵּי לְבֵינָה (ariah al gabei leveinah, small bricks on top of big bricks). This week, we have the Torah’s other major song, שִׁירַת הַאֲזִינוּ (Shirat Ha’azinu), the farewell poem of the Torah. And if you open up the Torah, you’ll see right away that something different is happening here. It looks like this:
It looks like two stacks of bricks, doesn’t it? A special book about how to write the Torah—Massekhet Soferim—tells us that we have to keep the shapes of these two songs distinct:
הַאֲזִינוּ שֶׁעֲשָׂאָהּ שִׁירָה, שִׁירָה שֶׁעֲשָׂאָהּ הַאֲזִינוּ...אַל יִקְרָא בָּהּ.
If you write Ha’azinu in the style of Shirat Ha-Yam, or Shirat Ha-Yam in the style of Ha’azinu…you should not read from that Torah scroll.
Why do you think this shape is so important? Do you think the shape of Ha’azinu has something to do with its message? Whatever you think, try to sneak a peek at it when it is read this Shabbat!
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