Q:
Is there a benefit to be gained by singing at certain occasions?
A:
I want to explain something about this.
On Shabbos, it’s a mitzvah to honor the Shabbos by singing. Even if you’re not capable, try it anyhow and learn certain tunes. Not only does it enhance the glory of the Shabbos when people sing—it shows they appreciate the Shabbos more—it leaves an influence on the family. Sometimes even neighbors are influenced when they hear singing at the Shabbos table of an Orthodox family nearby.
When it comes, however, to singing during the tefillos, that’s a different story.
I’ll tell you a little thing I noticed. When I was in Slabodka, they refrained from singing when the shatz was standing at the amud. The shaliach tzibur never sang anything. He was like talking when he recited the tefillos.
Now there was another yeshiva in Lithuania called Telz. And sometimes a Telzer used to visit Slabodka and when the Telzer was standing at the amud and leading the davenen, sometimes he indulged in a little bit of singing. A little suspicion of singing. And the Slabodkers all smiled at that. They considered it not proper to sing.
Why? Because singing is a substitute for thinking. Instead of concentrating on what you’re saying, many people are caught up in the enthusiasm of the lilting notes of the prayers—it’s poetry too—and they get accustomed to singing it and they think that that takes the place of thinking.
Prayer is for thinking. Tefillah comes from the word pillel. רְאֹה פָנֶיךָ לֹא פִלָּלְתִּי. Yaakov said, “I never thought to see your face.” (Bereishis 48:11). Pillel means to think. Pillel means to meditate. It’s a very big achievement if you learn to pray with thought.
And therefore, it’s not recommended—at least from my point of view—to sing in tefillah. Many people do that and they say it helps to enhance their enthusiasm in tefillah. But when a person really wants to pray with meditation, it’s important to listen to what you’re saying.
It could be after you have said the word and you have gained the import of the word, the message, it could be if you repeat it now with song again, it could be it has more effect. But it’s of utmost importance to utilize the tefillah for thinking in what you’re saying.
And the Rambam says, כל תפילה שאינה בכוונה אינה תפילה – tefillah without thought is not called tefillah (Hilchos Tefillah 4:15). And it’s a great pity that people spend their lives in tefillah—many times they even add things to the tefillah before and after; some say Tehillim too—but if it’s not said with thought, it’s really a pity because it’s an opportunity gone lost.
The greatness of tefillah develops your mind in such ways, you actually become ennobled by these great words. Tefillah ennobles the mind. Great teachings in tefillah. You’d be surprised what depth, what profundity there is in the siddur. Only that it requires thinking, and music is not conducive to thinking.
January 1990
