Music is the most immaterial and ephemeral of all the art forms. We can’t see music, we can’t grasp it in our hands, but we can feel it working through us and the world. As such, music represents our connection to the divine, to each other, to everything. Music is a wordless prayer that opens up our imaginations to the divine source of all life.
In the Hebrew numerological system known as Gematria, the numerical value of the words for prayer / tefillah and song / shirah, are identical. From this we can see that music is a form of prayer and prayer is a form of music; two legs of the spiritual throne, mutually supporting each other.
Is it possible that music can open our ears and our hearts so that we can better sense the nuance and subtleties of the world around us, or help us enter different realms to discover alternate realities in which we might pursue better versions of ourselves? Can music open us up to our own inspiration and prayers as it opened up the pathways of the prophets?
Jewish tradition suggests that it can. The prophets of ancient Israel surrounded themselves with music, using its power to help them enter an ecstatic mindset. In one story, the prophet Elisha wanted to hear the word of G-d so he requested that a musician start to play. As soon as the musician played, Elisha’s prophetic abilities commenced: “And when the musician played, the hand of G-d was upon him.” (II Kings 3:15)
In another story, Saul, who had not yet become king, joined a roving band of prophets and musicians who were playing a harp, drum, and flute to help the prophets enter a state of expanded consciousness (I Samuel 10:5-6). Joining the parade of musicians, Saul found that this musical-prophetic experience allowed the spirit of G-d to rest upon him and allowed him to transform into an “ish acher“, a different person, to find an alternate reality of himself in which he became capable not only of prophesying, but ascending the throne of Israel.
Melodies form a divine ladder that connect the earth with the heavens. In Hebrew, the word sulam means both “ladder” and “musical scale.” Perhaps the most famous story of a path to the heavens is the story of Jacob’s ladder, in which the patriarch dreams of a ladder on which angels are going up and down. Angels, according to the medieval authority Maimonides, had one essential function: singing.
Jacob’s ladder must then have been a kind of musical scale, with melodic angels rising and descending along with the prayers of mankind. When we sing, we hope to allow ourselves to experience a state of elevation, a taste of the heavens, a glimpse of the best versions of ourselves.
Ultimately, melodies are just a bunch of notes—whether they’re fundamentally meaningless or transcendent depends entirely upon how we choose to listen, how we choose to direct our intentions, and whether we let ourselves join the song. Singing signals not an escape from life but an imaginative attempt to remind us what is yet possible. Music offers us rung after rung to climb to the heavens, where we hope to discover our best selves, so that we can then emulate that holiness in our regular lives. Let us find our melodies, and let us find our prayers, and let us bring the world to life.
Many thanks to Cantor Steve Hevenstone of the North Shore Synagogue in Syosset, NY for your many years of FJMC friendship, musical guidance and inspiration, as well as to our friends at “My Jewish Learning” for sharing the post “Why Music is Fundamental to Jewish Prayer” by Joey Weisenberg. To link to the full post on My Jewish Learning, please visit: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-music-is-fundamental-to-jewish-prayer/.
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