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The first instance of a choral performance
recorded in the Bible took place in the spring of 1312 BCE as
part of the drama of the exodus from Egypt. Pursued by Pharaoh's
army, the Israelites were able to pass through the Sinai Peninsula
as the Sea of Reeds dried up; the waters then receded, drowning
the Egyptian army. At this point the jubilant Israelites burst
into song.
According to Zamir Chorale conductor Joshua Jacobson's reading
of the verses in Exodus, the ancient Israelite choir had two conductors,
both of whom were Levites. The first was Moses, who conducted
the basses and tenors: "Then Moses and the men of Israel
sang this song to the Lord: I sing to the Lord for He has greatly
triumphed…."[1]
The
second conductor was his sister Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's
sister, who led the sopranos and altos; when she took the drum
in her hand, all the women followed her with drums and dances,
and the men and women sang antiphonal: "I sing to the Lord
for he has greatly triumphed, casting chariots and horses into
the sea."[2]
—
The editor
Prof.
James Kugel, offers a different approach.
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CHOIR
Table of Contents
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The
Shirah (Song) in the Liturgy
The
Song at the Sea assumed a special place in the Jewish liturgy
quite early..... [more]
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Exodus
15:20-21 reports that Aaron's sister Miriam sang a song along with all
the women at the Red Sea. Much speculation surrounded this song. The
only words cited from it, "Sing to the Lord, for He has acted gloriously,
horse and rider he has cast into the sea," match almost perfectly
the first line of the men's song. Did Miriam thus simply form a women's
chorus to sing along with the men, yet separately? Such modest behavior
seemed altogether praiseworthy, and a number authors specifically mentioned
it:
Philo
of Alexandria (c 20 BCE - 40 or 50 CE):
They set up two choirs, one of men and one of women, on the beach, and
sang hymns of thanksgiving to God. Over these two choirs Moses and his
sister presided and led the hymns.[3]
Ephraem
Syrus (309 - 373 CE):
The people were divided into two groups on that day, so that they might
sing the wondrous hymn to Him who split the sea and drowned their oppressors
on that day. Moses led the men in singing and Miriam, the women.[4]
Or
was that one choir?
Philo:
This wonderful sight and experience, an act transcending word and thought
and hope, so filled with ecstasy both men and women that, forming a
single choir, they sang hymns of thanksgiving to God their Savior, the
men led by the prophet Moses and the women by the prophetess Miriam.
(Philo, The Contemplative Life, 87)
At
the same time ancient interpreters supposed that the Israelite women
must have sung their own song, with different words, at the Red Sea.
One such text found among the Dead Sea Scrolls apparently contained
the words of such a sing attributed to Miriam. Unfortunately, only a
fragment of it has survived:
"Reworked Pentateuch" found in the Dead Scrolls:
You have put to shame…
For You are clothed [?] in majesty…
Great are You, savior are You…
The enemy's hope has perished, and he is forgotten…
They have been lost in the mighty water, the enemy…
Praise to the heights… You gave…
Who does gloriously.[5]
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[1]
Exod. 15:1 [back]
[2] Exodus 15:20-21 [back]
[3] Philo (of Alexandria) (c. 20 BCE - 40 or 50
CE), Moses 1:180.
This Greek-speaking Egyptian Jew is the author of a multi-volume
series of commentaries on the Torah. Philo championed the allegorical
approach to biblical interpretation that apparently flourished
in Alexandria, Egypt. He explained many texts in keeping with
then-current Greek philosophical ideas. [back]
[4] Ephraem, Commentary on Exodus 15:3. Ephraem
Syrus (309 - 373 CE) was an outstanding poet and biblical commentator
of Syriac Christianity. His writings contain numerous parallels
to, and developments of, earlier Jewish motifs attested to in
both contemporaneous rabbinic writings as well as in the literature
of Second Temple Judaism. [back]
[5]4Q364 — Reworked
Pentateuch. The nature of the "Reworked Pentateuch"
found in the Dead Scrolls is still debated: Are they simply loose
versions of the Pentateuch, which happen to change a word or two
here or there, or are they explicative retellings intended to
comment on the text? In any case, some of their deviations and
additions do seem to conform with interpretive motifs attested
elsewhere. [back]
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 From:
The Bible as it Was, James L. Kugel, the Belknap Press
of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass 1997.
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