Parashah of the week: Beshallach

This week of Parashat Beshallach is also known as Shabbat Shirah, the “Shabbat of Song,” which takes its name from the climactic moment when the Children of Israel sing the Song of the Sea.

I have often wondered why this Shabbat gets to stand apart with its own special name. The Torah is full of myriad unique events such as the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah yet those Shabbat days don’t receive their own specific label. What is it about the Song that means that this Shabbat gets to stand out with its own special description?

In order to find an answer, we have to understand why song, specifically, was the natural response to the miracle of the splitting of the sea. The Children of Israel had witnessed the ten plagues. They had seen the devastation of Egypt. And yet, standing at the shore of the Red Sea the Egyptian army behind them and the waters before them, they faced what seemed to be an impossible situation.

Only after crossing the sea, standing safely on the other side, could they look back and fully appreciate the magnitude of their deliverance. It was then that they burst into song, a spontaneous outpouring of gratitude and faith.

We were finally free. We could finally breathe. We had a moment of repose to catch up with ourselves and consider all that had occurred since Moses first arrived and promised that redemption was on its way. And it was because we had that pause, that moment of clarity, that we naturally began to sing out our praise in awe of the Creator who had been holding our hand the whole time.

The truth is that if we are careful to eke out a sanctified space each week, Shabbat can provide us with a similar sensation. During the six days of relentless work demands when we remain inseparable from our phones and glued to our screens, we lack the perspective needed to truly sing out from the depths of our souls.

But when Shabbat arrives, it brings the opportunity to pause, reflect and recognise the hidden blessings and salvations that punctuate our lives. When we breathe, pause and take those moments to spiritually and mentally recalibrate Shabbat becomes a time of personal shirah, a day when we can sing our own song of gratitude for the miracles, both big and small, that we often overlook.

As we celebrate Shabbat Shirah, let us sing not only of the miracles of the past but also of the salvations in our own lives. Shabbat is our opportunity to see the “sea” of challenges part before us, to reflect on the blessings that sustain us and to sing our own heartfelt song of gratitude.