Session 5: Parashat Beshallach
"America the Beautiful", Katherine Lee Bates, 1895/1911
As we prepare for Shabbat Shirah, we reflect upon music’s power to unite and inspire groups as it perpetuates shared narratives. At that same time, music can also cover over complexity and problematic parts of those narratives. Mi Chamocha is a case in point. Like the midrash in the Hagadah (BT Megillah 10b), the temptation to sing in victory is also an affront to God. “America the Beautiful” is one of our most powerful national hymns, and its plea that God “Crown thy good with Brotherhood,” brings us together as a country. But the second and third stanzas (which we often skip) contain harder ideas worthy of our attention. This session asks, how can we sing proudly and patriotically, and still recognize that justice is incomplete?
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