The Desert

Remember to praise G-d continuously. From chapter one of Perek Shirah: The image depicts an oasis in the desert and "The desert and the wasteland shall rejoice, and the arid region shall blossom like a rose." Isaiah 35:1. Deserts, hot, dry, and lifeless, make up almost one third of the Earth’s land surface. Why did Hashem make a world with so much “dead space”? Rav Chaim Kanievsky says that Hashem made the desert because from here we can understand that in the future Hashem will make the desert bloom. Obviously if Hashem made it, it will not stay barren forever. The Radak says that Eretz Yisrael, Yerushalayim, and the Beit HaMikdash in their destruction are like the desert. They one time all bloomed, as the rain or Shefa from Hashem poured down on the world. We grew to become tall, strong trees reaching the Shamayim with our avodah. Desert plants can survive through the harsh desert climate, but they do not grow very tall. The day will yet come when the Bais HaMikdash will once again bring the rains down on our dried out neshamos, which have managed to survive all these years on a few drops of rain. When that happens, Am Yisrael will once again stand tall, covering the land and reaching the heavens. We will be Hashem’s showcase. Perek Shirah (Hebrew פרק שירה), literally "Chapter of Song") is an ancient Jewish text, at least two thousand years old; that some commentaries attribute to King David . It contains 84 sections, in each of which elements of creation, including elements of the sky and of the earth, plants, birds, animals, and insects , use biblical and rabbinic verses in order to sing God's praises. The concept behind Perek Shirah is that everything in the natural world teaches us a lesson in philosophy or ethics, and the verse gives a clue as to what that lesson is. The result is the "song" of the natural world, the tapestry of spiritual lessons for life that the natural world is telling us. Rav Chanoch Zundal Luria, z " l ) compares the Shirah to an orchestra with different instruments. Each makes its own individual sound, and the conductor puts them all together to make wonderful music. Perek Shirah used to be prevalent in the daily liturgy and medieval philosopher Joseph Albo wrote that whoever recites Perek Shirah is guaranteed a place in the World to Come. The vast majority of the verses of Perek Shirah are biblical, and most of these are from the book of Psalms, but there are also a few verses from the Babylonian Talmud. Perek Shirah is organized into six chapters. Many of the utilized verses make mention of the speaker. For example, the song begins with the heavens who say, "the heavens speak of the glory of God, and of His handiwork the skies tell." (Psalms 19:2) This, however is not a rule, as the book ends with the dogs who say "come, let us prostrate and bend our knees, and kneel before God our maker" (Psalms 95:2). Though this mentions an action that dogs physically perform, it doesn't specifically mention them by name. It also includes verses based upon actions, such as giving the reaction of a cat before and after it catches a mouse as well as the response of the mouse. Perek Shirah, a work of tremendous historic value, is itself extremely mysterious and cryptic. However, various commentaries have been written on it over the last five hundred years, which give an insight into what the verse is telling us to learn from the creature.