Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

October 3, 2025

Moses’s Farewell Song Reminds the Jewish People Who They Are

The religious power of music.

If you spent yesterday in synagogue, you may—like me—still have the holiday’s cantorial tunes echoing in your head. Indeed, song has been a crucial part of Yom Kippur for over a millennium, if not much longer. It is also the theme of tomorrow’s Torah reading of Ha’azinu (Deuteronomy 32). Matt Austerklein, concluding an extended reflection on the relationship among music, repentance, and work, writes:

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