We're now in Pesukim of Perek Shira, and we're up to the song of the oceans. The song of the
oceans is in Tehilim 93,4 יָמִים אוֹמְרִים. מִקֹּלוֹת מַיִם רַבִּים אַדִּירִים מִשְׁבְּרֵי יָם
אַדִּיר בַּמָּרוֹם יי: (תהילים צג ד)From the voices
of the great/large groups of waters, Great powerful waters that break through
the sea, God is the most powerful One, High and Above.
Rashi tells us that David HaMelech is saying, Mikolot
Mayim Rabim/From the sounds of the waters, I realize that more powerful than
the waters, more powerful than the waves, is Hashem Who controls them all. David
Melech says, I look at the ocean and I hear the power of Hashem, Who's
behind it. The roaring ocean is the power of God. Ibn Ezra adds that there
is a pasuk in Yehezkiel that says, ke kol mayim rabim, the voice of
the waters. He says deaf people don't hear the sound of these waters, just like blind people
don't see the awesome acts of God. The Ibn Ezra is telling us that, of course, if you put your
ear to the ocean, you are not going to hear any sound. Just like the blind man can't see the wonders of God. Here, blind does
not necessarily mean physically blind, it means someone who is not
paying attention. You can walk around and not see the wonders of the
universe, just like you're not going to hear the voice of the ocean singing its
songs. That's on a simple level.
Rabbenu Bachye, in Vayikra 2,13, where it talks about the
fact that you need to put salt on the Mizbeyach,
cites a Midrash Rabba in Bereshit 5,4 that says when God split up
the waters below and the waters above (into waters in the heavens and waters
down here) the waters below started to cry, "Why are we distanced from our cousins upstairs?" They roared (which
is the roaring waves) that they wanted to go up. Why can't we be close to
our creator?
So Hashem told them, "Since you're interested in My honor, the waters
above can't sing their song until you give them permission." And
that's what our pasuk means with the words, Mayim Rabim- First we have to go down to
get permission.
God also said that we're going to use the salt from the
water on the Mizbeyach every day, and that we'll libate the water on
Sukkot, so the water will be part of the services.
The Midrash further says on the same pasuk (in Bereshit 5,1) that the
sea was singing songs. (This was before man was created,
when God split the waters.) But the water has no mouth. God said to Himself, If
that's the song I'm getting from the water without a mouth, imagine what man is
going to do! But in the end, man
sinned. And that's why God brought a mabul and said, "Let's go back
to the waters that sang the songs most beautifully before man came into the
picture." And that, says the sefer Sivtei Kohen on Vayikra 2,13, is why we put salt on the
table- because we are supposed to remember the sea, and the songs of the sea
and say, "If the sea that has no mouth is singing a song, we human beings
with mouths should surely be singing the
songs of God."
That's the song of the sea. It's not necessarily a physical song that you can
hear, but when you sit by the ocean and see the crashing waves, or sometimes even
tidal waves and all kinds of hurricanes and floods, that's
the power of the ocean. That is supposed to tell us, says Rashi, That's the
power of God. On a deeper level, the waves are going high up because they
want to come closer to God. They're crying. And the
water is like salty, like tears, because the water is crying, "We want to
come closer to God." God hears the
cries of the people who want to come closer to Him and that includes us too. We're
supposed to learn the lessons of the sea, and that is why we have salt on our
table.
These are all beautiful thoughts on Perek Shira.
