Arugat ha-bosem (Bed of Spices)

Chapter Twenty-Seven, Explanation of the Ways of the Cantillation Marks and How They Are Lights to Understand and Learn the Truest of Truths

I have already hinted at this in the previous chapter: how high and exalted without limit are the sources of the letters and the vowels and the accents. In the chapters at the beginning of this work of mine I explained as best I could the grammar of the letters and the vowels, in accordance with the necessary order of study, and now it is a propitious time to deal with the accents and their characteristics.

However, I almost passed on without mentioning something, for I did not find what my soul loves [see Song of Songs 3:4], which is the topic of melodies, to which is ascribed the voice of the Lord in splendor, which gives a soul to every single utterance. Melody provides proof of the understanding, as it is arranged according to its subject, for correction, for his land, or for mercy (Job 37:13), and thereby the powers of the soul are aroused to learn and perform goodness, as in the verse: when the musician played [the hand of the Lord came upon him] (2 Kings 3:15). Alas for us, for since we have been exiled from our land, in our sins, the voice of Jacob has become slight, and, over the long exile, there have ceased to be singers and musicians among the Jews. What is my strength, that I wait (Job 6:11), if there is with us no one who knows the songs of Zion? Who will place before us its proportions and the grace of its worth? Who will guide us in its paths, for do we not lie in our shame; and the daughters of music shall be brought low (Ecclesiastes 12:4).

Although a prolonged wail has darkened the light of intellect and extinguished the flame of learning, behold how good it is to tread on the paths of the great souls who, after the breakdown, their hand faithfully reinforces all that needs repair, and they live with what remains. I, too, shall do likewise; I will climb and ascend to grasp the palm fronds of the nature of the accents, to remove the fruits of harvest from them, as much as my intellect can grasp. I trust in my Lord, that He will support my soul, and my tongue will utter His righteousness, and be acceptable before Him.

You should thus know that the authors have sought many explanations [see Ecclesiastes 7:29] of the meanings of the shapes and names of the accents, and they strove to find the entrance (Genesis 19:11), because they sought to make them correspond to the melodies. But they were unable to do so, because of their many changes among the people of the exile, for each community differs from the other in their singing in their various countries. Nevertheless, approach and listen to what I think is firm and correct in this inquiry. The first thing is that the accents are also lights that sparkle with holiness upon the words, so that we may understand something fully, as we shall explain, by pausing and interrupting and continuing and the like. This impresses ideas upon the heart of the readers, similar to winking and gestures and raising and lowering one’s voice, which a face-to-face speaker does to facilitate. Alternatively, they indicate the melody that will arouse the soul when sung, as noted above. Since the noble sages of the Jews assessed—and some of the sages of the nations agreed with them—that the movement of the celestial spheres and the stars creates a kind of pleasant harmony, for by virtue of the combination of the numbers, the harmonies are arranged in their souls. This causes the ordering of their movements, until the ninth sphere is established, which calls out pleasantness upon pleasantness by the melody that is drawn from it, as it calls and shouts: When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38:7). Therefore, it is virtually correct to say that the forms of the accents are the garments over the garments of the light that descends in a chain from Holiness upon the spheres, the stars of heaven, and their constellations, that is, to those from which the values of the melodies in their kinds are renewed. Consequently, when a man begins to read a verse with its melodies according to these written letters and notes, and the masses answer after him in a short time, they will sound marvelously ordered voices, and the souls will thereby be aroused to glorify their Creator with joy. This is what the sages of blessed memory meant when they said: Moses said, I will sing to the Lord, and they said, I sing to the Lord; Moses said For he has triumphed gloriously, and they said, I will sing to the Lord (Exodus 15:1) [see b. Sotah 30b]. This is because the melodies of I will sing to the Lord that emerged from the mouths of every one of the singers were coordinated and similar, and it was as though they were answering one another through the melodies of their mouths. Likewise, the voices that sung the words he has triumphed gloriously were arranged to the melody of I will sing to the Lord, for this is one of the phrases of music. This is the meaning of and Miriam answered them (Exodus 15:20) and rise up, well, sing to it (Numbers 21:17). Perhaps this is also the meaning of and they called to each other [and said: holy, holy, holy] (Isaiah 6:3), which is stated regarding the ministering angels, for the sages of blessed memory said: Three choruses of ministering angels sing every day, one says “holy,” and one says “holy, holy,” and one says “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” [b. ḥullin 91b]. However, the melodies of the singing of the ministering angels are like spiritual voices arranged in marvelous pleasantness high above, while the melodic arrangements of the spheres are more revealed to us, either through hearing their sounds or through other means. The relation of the signs of the accents to the signs used by the astronomers is like the relation of the holy letters to the conventional letters. Just as the vowels are like the spirit in relation to the letters, so too the accents are like the soul in relation to the vowels. Since the source of both of them is more hidden than the source of the letters, in accordance with the concealment of the sources, so the garments upon the garments will multiply in order to the spread their light down below. Therefore, the erasure of vowels and accents is not prohibited in those names [of God] that may not be erased, according to the instruction we have received from the pure of soul. They further suggested that it is possible that this is the reason why vowels and accents are not written in Torah scrolls. Since one of the purposes of the accents is to indicate the melody, as noted, and the sounds of melodies change until the octave, and above that it is the same, for it is preserved as it rises higher and higher [see Ecclesiastes 5:7], as is known to the masters of this science, therefore the accents are placed underneath the letters to indicate the heavy voices that lie below, and others are placed above the letters to indicate the strong voices that fly with eagles’ wings. Both of these melodies have been forgotten from our nation, for from the time of the destruction of the First Temple such special matters have been faded away. This is attested by the conduct of the House of Garmo [who refused to reveal their secret method] of making the shewbread and the House of Avtinas [who refused to reveal their secret method] of preparing the incense and Ben Kamtsar [who refused to tell about his unique way] of writing, and Hugras Ben Levi who did not want to teach his manner of singing.¹ Upon the destruction of the Second Temple such matters were utterly lost until a priest rose to the Urim [i.e., until the end of days; see b. Sotah 38b]. Therefore we will speak about the accents according to our understanding alone, until a spirit is poured upon us from on high (Isaiah 32:15) to restore our past glory.