I've been known to read the parsha online when between assignments at the office. Here's another parsha comment that I sent to my husband after an online reading:
כא וַתַּעַן לָהֶם, מִרְיָם: שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה כִּי-גָאֹה גָּאָה, סוּס וְרֹכְבוֹ רָמָה בַיָּם. {ס}
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21 And Miriam sang unto them: Sing ye to the LORD, for He is highly exalted: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. {S}
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Note the grammatical construction of the Hebrew: "lahem"
Last I heard, that would be the masculine form of the third person plural. In other words, Miriam sang to the entire camp, not just to the women. So much for Kol Isha.*
[ ¶ ]
- *Kol Isha (literally, "a woman's voice): the prohibition against a man hearing a woman sing, observed to varying degrees within the Orthodox community.
- Mechitzah (too lazy to format this link for the comment section.)
7 Comments:
To be fair, the word "VaTa'an" doesn't mean "and she sang" but rather "and she answered."
The Wolf
Sigh. BrooklynWolf, you just *had* to go rain on my parade.
:)
Actually, I've always wondered about the various translations of the various forms of the verb "la-anot." It's often translated "sing/sang," yet I thought that "la-anot" meant "to answer," and my pocket Oxford Hebrew-English dictionary confirms this translation. This verb also appears in the siddur/prayer book right before "Mi Chamocha," a quote from this parashah, and it's translated "sang" there, too. Nu, what gives?
You didn't mention the even bigger scandal that those women were dancing without a mechitza. ;)
Brooklyn Wolf - I have yet to encounter a situation in which any answer that starts with the word "Sing!" is not itself sung.
I can only conclude that Moses and Miriam were precursors to Donny and Marie.
Another wiseguy heard from. :)
On a serious note, so to speak, er, sing, :), Miriam did answer "Shiru laShem. . . Sing to G-d. . ." So, all kidding aside, you do have a point, Reform BT.
Brooklyn Wolf - I have yet to encounter a situation in which any answer that starts with the word "Sing!" is not itself sung.
http://tinyurl.com/6euhu7 :)
The Wolf
Thanks for the link, Brooklyn Wolf. Just about all video (YouTube, MySpace, etc.) and social-networking sites are blocked at the office, so I watched this at home. I assume that Shatner would have sung this song if he could sing. :)
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