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The Song of the Sea
llana Kurshan
In 1934, the American poet Wallace Stevens wrote “The Idea of Order at Key West,” a poem about a woman singing by the sea. But was he really writing about Key West, or about the splitting of the Sea of Reeds in our parashah?
“She sang beyond the genius of the sea,”
Wrote Wallace Stevens at the Sea of Reeds.
Or so I thought until I saw the title—
“Key West.” But is that really where he means?
The poet visited Key West. I know that.
But it was she and not the sea I heard.
And she was Miriam, who sang at seaside,
With tambourine and dancing, ‘til she lured
The women who came forth and joined her circle,
And sang midst grinding water, gasping wind
“Horse and rider hurled into the ocean,”
They sang, once-mighty horsemen now chagrined.
“I’ll sing to God for he has triumphed greatly,”
The women sang by tragic-gestured sea
Where chariots sank deep beneath the surface
No longer water-walled, they couldn’t flee.
“O blessed rage for order!” wrote the poet,
That order is the Seder, where we sing
To God, who orchestrated our redemption.
That we might be His people, He our King.
Who else among the gods can split the sea?
We sang then, and sing now, triumphantly.
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The Talmud teaches that the Torah was given in black fire on white fire (Y. Shekalim 6:1). The black fire is the letters of the Torah scroll, and the white fire is the parchment background. In this column, consisting of a poem on each parashah, I will try to illuminate the white fire of Torah – the midrashim, stories, and interpretations that carve out the negative space of the letters and give them shape.
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