It’s one of the least-sung songs in the Bible. Known as the
“Song of Moses,” or shirat ha’azinu among traditional Jews, the
poem that takes up almost the entirety of this week’s Torah
reading is twice as long as Moses’ better-known Song of the Sea,
which appears right after the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus
and is part of Judaism’s traditional daily morning prayers. If
the Song of the Sea was Moses’ hit single, the Song of Moses was
the B-side. Yet in many ways, the Song of Moses is by far the
more important of the two. Nearing the end of his final address
to Israel, just after being told he is about to die, Moses calls
upon the Israelites “to write this poem for yourselves, and
teach it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that
this poem may be a witness for me against the children of
Israel” (Deuteronomy 31:19). Witness, indeed. On the cusp of the
Promised Land and what looks like the end of their seemingly
endless trials, Moses serves up a shocking warning to the
Israelites: My song may be ov