Now let’s return to Moshe Rabbenu  – Moses our Teacher!  Earlier I shared two Malayalam language songs about him, “Baby Moses Taken from the Water” and “Redeemed from Egypt,”  and I ended with a promise to send more.  After some delay, here’s another of my favorites.

In the biblical book of Exodus, Chapter 19 begins the story of how the children of Israel (Bene Israel) wandered through the desert of Sinai after crossing the Red Sea and escaping from Paroah’s army.  It was there on a mountain in the desert that Moses received the Torah.

 How to explain the multiple meanings of Torah? I looked in the Encyclopedia Britannica, as my (very non-Jewish) father would have advised.[1] In the narrowest sense, Torah is the contents of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. It is also a parchment scroll, on which all those words are inscribed by hand. A Torah scroll is kept in the Ark of each synagogue – from which it is removed with great ceremony on certain occasions, to be read aloud.  In a broader usage, Torah refers to the entire Hebrew Bible – or most broadly to “the entire body of Jewish laws, customs and ceremonies. ”

 As you will see in this song, Torah is personified in various ways.  Not surprisingly, the vast collection of Midrash (post-biblical Hebrew commentaries on the Bible) includes many stories about what happened on Mount Sinai; and there were Kerala Jewish families who owned and studied old Hebrew books of midrash.  I made use of a splendid scholarly resource:  the seven-volume publication Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society: 1919, 1937) – in an effort to identify contributing sources for this song and others.  

1. O Holy Tamburan[2], be for us the first help.
Torah we received from You, received her with Your help.
To us she brought good fortune, to the children of Israel,
The children who belong to You, to You the only One.
In clearest joy we walk along, saying as we go:
“Beneath the Torah’s glory is the only way we’ll go!”
………………………

3. When Eternal God appeared in majesty—
In all His royal splendor, in majesty He came—
All the earth and all the sky were a-tremble then,
With lightning and with thunder and blasts of the shofar;
With music ringing out, ringing with the sounds
Of violins and trumpets, vīṇa and āraga. [3]
Oh, how great Your glory! All were gathered there—
Twenty-two thousand angels and the servants of God.
4. The mountains and the hills came jumping like deer.
The bigger ones were mocking the little crooked hills:
“O bent-over mountains, why are you jumping so?”
The little hills answered, and this is what they said:
“We want His royal procession upon us to descend!”
But small “Hunchback” Sinai stood silent and shy.
When God beheld the greatness of humble small Sinai
God raised up Sinai, above all the rest.
5. This is the famous mountain, the famous Mount Sinai,
Blessed by the righteousness of the Fathers three. [4]
Beholding its greatness, the greatness of Sinai,
All the noble children and Moshe Rabban
Gathered there together, proclaiming on Sinai:
“Now we are ready to hear what God commands.”
But when they heard the voice of God, they fainted dead away!
And there were none remaining to wake them up again.
6. Then the divine Torah responded with this plea:
“O God most Pure and Holy, I cannot help but ask:
Is this the proper way that You should behave?
Behold Your holy children, unconscious as if dead!
They came to receive me - Your daughter to receive,
To rejoice in the marriage of the daughter of the King.
They came to my wedding; they came to celebrate.
And here lies my bridegroom: Moshe Rabban!”
7. On the word of Torah, God responded then—
Responded for the sake of the children of Israel.
The dew of redemption He showered over them,
So all who were unconscious came to life again.
Arising, they sprang up, jumping up with joy.
Rejoicing they sprang up, with praises to God.
With singing and with dancing, they celebrated now,
And there with them also was Moshe Rabban.
8. Moshe Rabbenu received the command:
“I give the shining Torah into your hands.”
With joy they accepted her; the Torah they received.
And the first-born children by Torah were redeemed.
So we must sing Your praises, sing out the praise of God,
Exalting You with praises to the highest degree.
Oh, gather us together—Your beloved children—
And in Yerushalayim[5] grant that we may be.

This song about the giving of the Torah combines several narratives from midrash with unique and charming Kerala flourishes.

A dramatic element is the appearance of those 22,000 angels and all the heavenly servants of God (Ginzberg 1968, 3:94, 4:38n207). The midrashic story portrayed in stanza 4 is a narrative that Ginzberg calls “The Contest of the Mountains” (3:82–85). In explaining how Mount Sinai was chosen as the site of the revelation, the Kerala song creates a verbal anthropomorphic image of Mount Sinai’s shy, humble personality and character as well as its physical appearance, using the Malayalam epithet “hunchback.”

            The remainder of the song is built on another tradition from midrash – that the people of Israel were struck dead with terror on hearing the first word proclaimed by God at Sinai. In response, the Torah intervened on their behalf, and God restored them to life by sprinkling on them the dew that will ultimately be used to revive the dead—and then sent two angels to support each of the listeners so they would not fall dead again while the commandments were being given. (Ginzberg 1968, 3:95, 6:39n110).

In contrast to this awe-inspiring story, the Malayalam song quite playfully personifies the Torah as a disappointed bride.[6] The singers and listeners in Kerala might well have imagined her dressed in the finery of a Kerala bride as she sweetly but firmly questions God—Who apparently has rendered unconscious all the wedding guests and even her bridegroom—by asking “Is this the way to behave?” After being showered by the dew of redemption, the wedding guests in the song do not need angelic help to leap up singing and dancing, both to celebrate the marriage of the Torah with Moshe Rabban and to accept the Torah with joy and songs of praise.

The overlaid mental images of Torah and bride are enhanced by appreciation of Kerala’s confident and elegantly adorned brides.  Here’s an example of one:

                 The Gold-Clad Bride

1. This woman whose body is all clad in gold,
This woman causes the whole world to shine.   (x2)
2. Of precious jewels, the diamond is she;
Of scented beings, camphor and rose.   (x2)
3. Expert in needlework, stitched with gold,
Her skill with a needle was given by God.   (x2)
4. Proudly she walks now, swinging her arms.
Greatness You gave to her, Lord Tamburan.   (x2)
5. You are the One Who sustains the world.
In the beloved Shekhina [ 7] she dwells.   (x2)
6. Her marriage pendant is worn on a thread.
Long may she live, for one hundred years!   (x2)
7. We are the People of the Jews.
In our synagogue let us bow down;
Let us bow down in our Jutapaḷḷi.[8]
                                                                                      Translations by Barbara C. Johnson &  Tzipporah (Venus) Lane

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[1] In those days the encyclopedia  was accessed in many old green volumes on the bottom shelves of the bookcase, not “online.”

[2] Tamburan (Lord) is one of the Malayalam words for addressing God.

[3] The shofar is a ram’s horn trumpet (blown in battle and on high religious occasions in the Bible and today in synagogues on Rosh Hashanah).  The vina is a large seven-stringed instrument which is central to South Indian classical music.  I have not been able to identify what is an araga.

[4] The three Fathers (Patriarchs) were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

[5] Jerusalem in Hebrew.

[6] There is one midrashic tradition that God was the bridegroom and Israel the bride on Sinai (Ginzberg 1968, 3:92) and another that Israel was the bridegroom and Torah the bride, with God and Moshe as the best men (Ginzberg 1968, 3:454 and 1968, 6:36n200), but I am not aware of any with Torah and Moshe as bride and groom.

[7]  Shekhinah (Hebrew) is the divine presence of God in the world.
[8] In the Malayalam language, a palli is a building for non-Hindu worship, so a Jutapalli is a synagogue.