Characters in Torah: what does all this have to do with chant?

Chant affects the telling of a story in subtle ways. My description in the last posting of Judah’s dramatic speech before Joseph (Gen 44: 18-34) is illustrative. The simplicity and eloquence of the speech is accentuated by the simplicity and rhythm of the chant. The verses are short, and the trop (chant indicators) simple, basic and rhythmic until the first relatively minor flourish is introduced in verse 25. This verse departs from the “you said/we said” account of the brothers’ first trip to Egypt, to weave in the theme of the attachment of Jacob to Benjamin, first depicting Jacob’s loss of his beloved Joseph. Judah “quotes” his father in words singularly straightforward, the first indication that he has moved beyond jealousy of the favored son to a deep sympathy for a bereft and inconsolable old man.
The holding trop Revi’a on the word “And now…” in verse 30 recalls us and Joseph to the present. It is a common device in Torah chant as well as in modern song to hold an initial “time-word” to emphasize a particular moment in time. Revi’a also takes us into the future on the next verse (And it will be…) as Judah declares that he cannot return to his father without Benjamin and offers himself in his stead.

There is one more chant indication that changes the way one should hear this episode in public recitation, a stage direction missed by virtually all translations. The speech begins (JPS translation): “Then Judah went up to him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to by lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are like Pharaoh.” Chant would have you hear the lines pronounced much like the well known opening of Mark Anthony’s funeral speech. I was ten years old, used to declaiming the lines in a high oratorical fashion until I saw my first production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. It was an awakening moment for me. The scene was angry. The people of Rome had sided with Caesar’s assassins, who had saved the Republic from a power hungry tyrant. Anthony, Caesar’s protégé, was allowed to speak only because the conspirators reasoned that he could do little harm. Who would listen? So it was with a sense of urgency that the Anthony blurts out, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” The crowd becomes still and momentarily receptive, and Anthony can gently and slowly turn their worldview upside down.

Chant gives a similar direction to our scene before Joseph. Confronted with Joseph’s decree that Benjamin should stay as his slave, the brothers (out of guilt? inability to face their father?) offer to all remain as slaves. But Joseph rejoins, “Far be it from me to do so. The man with whom the goblet was found – he shall be my slave. And you – return in peace to your father.” I like to picture Joseph turning away, his stratagem having achieved the desired reunion with a long lost brother, when…
“And Judah approached him and said[urgently], ‘Please my lord!’ [pause, a shocked silence]
‘Let your servant please speak to my lord, and let my lord not be angry with his servant, for you are like Pharaoh. My lord asked his servants,’...”
The pause after the words “my lord” is indicated by the trop zarka-segol which imparts a sense of finality/conclusion, and also indicates a strong stop at the end of the phrase. Only occasionally does Torah include the first word of a quote at the strong stop segol, and it is usually with similar effect (Compare, for example, Exodus 14:13, at the shores of the Red Sea).

I chose the example of Judah’s speech to illustrate how chant makes very good text even better in public recitation. Unlike songs, whose verses sound awkward when read without their music, Torah can stand without chant, but it too is enhanced. A simple speech is more eloquent and moving when sung to the rhythm of the chant. An initial word is held, giving emphasis to a change in scene. Finally,trop serves as "stage direction." Here, the speech is given a dramatic urgency which could otherwise be missed. Judah emerges in this account as a heroic figure. As the Sages taught, “Who is heroic? He who conquers his own inclination.”