Tirdefi nafshi oz: “March on, my soul, with courage.”
Ever since I read that verse in the Song of Deborah, it has been resonating in my mind.
The Song of Deborah is a very long haftarah chanted every year on Shabbat Shira. This Shabbat has a special name because it is the Shabbat of Parshat B’Shallach, in which the Children of Israel, lead by Moses, cross the Sea of Reeds as they make their escape from Mitzraim and the tyranny of Pharoah. Moses and the Children of Israel sing the Song of the Sea as they cross. Miriam the prophet, Moses’ sister, takes a timbrel in her hand and leads the women in their own song.
The Song of Deborah comes from the Book of Judges. Deborah was a judge and a prophet, and sings her song in celebration of divine salvation; as did the Children of Israel sing their song in divine salvation.
Often, a verse will jump out as you read. It strikes a chord, it has a good cadence, it speaks to you. The verse “tirdefi nafshi oz” jumped out at me, for all of the above reasons. Sometimes the terseness of the phrase is conversely related to the depth of its meaning.
At the end of a sad week in January which happened to also coincide with one the worst snowstorms to hit Atlanta, this verse in the haftarah was there for me to read. Wow.
I had spent the week leading up to Shabbat shaking my head in sorrow and disbelief for two unrelated events. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords from Arizona was shot point blank in the head as she was meeting her constituents at a shopping center. Debbie Friedman, songwriter, song leader, and teacher extraordinaire, died from pneumonia at an LA hospital. I read all I could about the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords. I had also spent two hours on a snowed-in Monday afternoon watching and listening to the live feed of the funeral of Debbie Friedman. These two events converged to create a need for me to “call up the reserves” of my soul and to march on with courage.
Perhaps we could have heard these two heroic women chanting this same verse:
“Tirdefi nafshi oz”, chanted Gabrielle Giffords as she led her supporters in a place where it was difficult to spread her ideas, and now as she struggles to recover from a gunshot wound to her brain.
“Tirdefi nafshi oz” chanted Debbie Friedman, as she struggled with, and ultimately succumbed to an illness that ended her incredibly powerful life. A life of song and spirit, whose words, each time I listened to them or sang them with her, moved me to a place that allowed my soul to march on with courage.
In one of Debbie’s most well-known songs, Mi SheBerach, Debbie sings a phrase “help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing”. In these times in which we live, it becomes more imperative and indeed necessary to find the courage to make our lives a blessing, as well continue to summon up our souls to march on with courage.
May the memory of Debbie Friedman be a blessing for all of us. And may we continue to recite the MiSheBerach for Congresswoman Giffords for her refuah shlemah, her speedy recovery.
