It's hard times by all accounts. Everytime I wake up with a brighter look at the world, the pervasive thoughts of the bereaved families, the soldiers risking their lives, the parents who wonder whether they will get a knock at their door and the state of affairs of our People everywhere comes flooding back.

The Israeli music my girls and I listen to in morning carpool lifts the spirits and breaks open the heart. Songs about those that will dance forever, the child who recognizes that Israel is a hard place to live but will live no where else, and the words of a young woman who foretold of her untimely passing "and if one day I die before my time has come, I want you to celebrate...".

In the Song of the Sea that Moshe led, the words are offered "I will sing to Hashem for He is exceedingly exalted". According to the great mystics, these words capture the secret of the paradoxical times we live in.

It is because G-d is exceedingly exalted that we have to work extra hard at the surrender to that which is beyond comprehension. To sing when it is the last thing we want to do, the dance when we'd rather curl up, the open our heart when we want to shut it down.

You know that feeling when you are just not in the mood but someone says a humorous truth that touches your core. You resist the smile, the laugh and then you can't any longer and it comes out. And you feel a little better.

Leaning in to the truth that Hashem is beyond our comprehension and allowing that to move us to dance and sing is how we access the Exaltedness.

In a sentence, Joy, Simcha, breaks all boundaries.

It's hard times.
It's time to sing!

Shabbat Shalom for this Shabbat Shira (Shabbat of Song)