6/13

I went to college at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where as soon as the temperature reaches above 50° F, Christian preachers of all types storm the street corners preaching the saving power of the Gospel to the masses. You’ve probably seen these people before. Bible thumpers thumping away. Sometimes they would say something so inflammatory (not too difficult on a campus as liberal as Madison’s) that they would draw large crowds and endure defensive retorts of all kinds from jocks and hippies alike. Once, a Jewish friend of mine had attended one of these impromptu street corner revival meetings at which the preacher was particularly focused on the Ten Commandments.

“You do know that there are 613 commandments, right?” she shouted at the preacher, “How could you miss 603 commandments?”

It was awesome.

But I had to admire these preachers who had found some way of identifying with their holy texts that gave them the chutzpah to just start shouting things that they found powerful at random people on the street. It got me thinking. Was there anything I found so powerful it would make me want to just start shouting things to the world at large? Or worse yet, start blogging?...

Then one day, I found out what the 613^th commandment is. The last mitzvah mentioned in the Torah, according to Maimonides' Sefer HaMitzvos, is that each Jew must write a Torah scroll. But he gets it from this verse in Deuteronomy:

וְעַתָּה, כִּתְבוּ לָכֶם אֶת-הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת, וְלַמְּדָהּ אֶת-בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, שִׂימָהּ בְּפִיהֶם: לְמַעַן תִּהְיֶה-לִּי הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת, לְעֵד--בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל

Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach thou it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. [Deut. 31:19]

“This song” is the Torah, and since I believe G-d wrote the Torah, that makes G-d a songwriter, like me. It’s like I’m doing mitzvah #613 just by being me and doing what I do. That’s why Stereo Sinai chose this particular day to launch our music project and our website.

G-d is a songwriter. For me, it doesn't get any more powerful than that.