The Song of the Torah
ליקוטי שמואל | December 13, 2025
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The Song of the Torah

ליקוטי שמואל | December 31, 2025

In the previous issue of Wonders, we briefly mentioned the model of the four levels of Torah understanding based on the Hebrew letters. This model is referred to by the acronym: TaNTA (טנת"א). The Ta is for ta’amim, the musical cantillation marks that describe the way the Torah text is meant to be sung—the song of the Torah. The N stands for nekudot, the vowel signs which tell us how to pronounce each word. The T is for tagin, the calligraphic crowns inked on the top of some of the letters. Finally, the A stands for the otiyot, the letters themselves.

For everyday use, we now use printed volumes of the Torah text. In the typical printed volume, only three of these levels appear: the letters, the vowels and the cantillation marks. In an actual handwritten Torah scroll from which we can read publicly, only the letters and crowns appear. The vowels and music cantillation marks, handed down to us through the Oral tradition, do not appear but the person reading the Torah in public memorizes the vowels and cantillation marks so that they can properly read the text.

Crowns on the Letters

There are various traditions regarding the inking of crowns on letters in a Torah scroll, but generally six letters receive a single tag or crown and seven letters in principle have three tags or crowns. This leaves nine letters which usually do not have a crown:

  • no crowns: א ו כ (ך) ל מ (ם) ס פ (ף) ר ת
  • 1 crown: ב ד ק ח י ה (bedek chayah)
  • 3 crowns: ש ע ט נ (ן) ז ג צ (ץ) (sha'atnez getz)

A highly symbolic Talmudic passage recounts an episode that occurred when Moses was learning the Torah from the Almighty at the top of Mount Sinai. Moses was surprised to see that God was placing crowns on some of the Torah’s letters. He asked God what the purpose of these crowns was, and God responded that in the future a man named Akiva, the son of Joseph, will derive mounds of practical Torah laws from these crowns. We learn from this that every element of the Torah text holds infinite layers of meaning and mystery to be accessed and activated through inspired exegesis.

Models of Four and God’s Name

In this model, the letters of God’s name correspond to the four levels of the Torah’s text from above to below:

letter of Havayahpart of TorahHebrew nameyudcantillation marksטעמיםheivowelsנקודותvavcrownsתגיןheilettersאותיות

Since the Torah is the manifestation of God’s will and God’s essential Name, Havayah has four letters, it is not surprising that this model of the Torah text’s components parallels what is perhaps the most famous four-part model of the Torah. This model is known by the acronym PaRDeS referring to four different interpretative modes that can be applied to every word, verse, story, and mitzvah in the Torah, simultaneously.

The P stands for Peshat and refers to the plain, or literal meaning of the text. The R stands for the Remez mode of interpretation, which employs what are usually technical linguistic tools such as gematria (numerical values), letter substitutions, shorthand analysis (notarikon), and many others, which are all usually categorized as allusions. The D stands for Derash, which seeks the homiletic, allegorical, metaphorical, or symbolic meaning of the text. Finally, the S stands for Sod, the mystical or secret meaning, revealed by the Torah’s concealed tradition documented in various Kabbalistic works.

When we place these two models, side by side, we get the following correspondence:

letter of Havayahpart of Torahmode of interpretationyudcantillation marksSodheivowelsDerashvavcrownsRemezheilettersPeshat

The letters are considered the lowest and most basic level of the text and are connected to the peshat, the literal meaning of the text. The crowns (tagin) which were described above, correspond to the remez, the allusions in Torah interpretation. The vowels (nekudot) are the mobilizing, moving force in the text. Without the vowels we would not know how to articulate the letters and words. The dynamism of the vowels corresponds to the drash, the allegorical, metaphoric and symbolic understanding of the Torah.

The musical cantillation marks (ta’amei hamikra) are considered the highest level of understanding the text. Though they reveal an element of song, they are strictly bound to the text and thus reveal its secrets. This level of exegesis corresponds to the sod, the secret, mystical, Kabbalistic expounding of Torah text.

Ta’amei hamikra have three basic functions: they provide the Torah’s text with punctuation, they denote proper intonation and emphasis within a verse, and they serve as musical notes to indicate how the text should be chanted or sung.

If one were to compare a Torah text to food, the letters would correspond to the color and shape of the food, the crowns of the letters would correspond to the source of the food, whether from mineral, vegetable, or animal. The vowels would correspond to the texture of the food and the musical cantillation marks would relate to the taste of the food. The root of the word for the cantillation marks, ta'amim, means both “taste,” i.e., the flavor of the food and “reason,” the rationale as it were behind the text. But there is one level even higher than the cantillation marks, which are connected and bound by the text. This fifth level is the music the cantillation carries independently of the words. This music, which is the most hidden level of the Torah, can be compared to the aroma of the food.

letter of Havayahpart of Torahmode of interpretationHebrew nametip of yudwordless musicSha’ashu’imשעשועיםyudcantillation marksSodטעמיםheivowelsDerashנקודותvavcrownsRemezתגיןheilettersPeshatאותיות

The fifth level is known as the recreation or amusement level of Torah. The first four levels of Torah interpretation follow known rules of reasoning. At the fifth level, these rules are superseded in a certain sense by an amused creativity in learning Torah. This is the type of learning that only those who have achieved a mastery of Torah at the highest levels can engage in. The analogy to music is quite powerful. Though playing existing pieces of music is rewarding and enjoyable, it is only when one strikes out to create new music that expresses one’s essence that the true joy of music is felt. In the Midrash, this type of Torah interpretation is described as “a novel Torah will emerge from Me” (תצא תורה חדשה מאתי). The “me” in this phrase carries two meanings. On the one hand it refers to Torah that comes from “Me,” i.e., the Almighty, as it is a perfect extension of the Torah given at Sinai and does not in any way contradict anything already established, on the other hand it refers to “me,” i.e., to the individual, because the feeling is that this revelation of the Torah’s wordless song is a perfect reflection of my deepest most inner core.

Rebbe Hillel of Paritch referred to it as the melody that every soul heard in the Garden of Eden, before being born into a physical body, and which it searches and yearns to find again all its days on earth.

Torah as Song

The Torah’s song, its wordless music, constitutes a fifth level that is currently mostly inaccessible to us and reaches beyond the four revealed levels of the Torah text. This fifth level is alluded to in various places in the Torah, one of which is in the famous statement from the Zohar that there are three knots that are tied to one another: Torah, the Jewish people, and the Almighty. This well-known statement from the Zohar continues, “and each of them has a hidden and a revealed level. This hidden dimension is the musical dimension of Torah, of the Jewish people, and of God. The hidden musical dimension in Torah is the Song of Torah.

Significantly, in the Book of Deuteronomy, the Almighty Himself refers to the Torah as a song, “And now write this song for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites.” The sages explain that even though this is ostensibly referring to the Song of Ha’azinu, in practice we learn from these words that every person is commanded to write themselves a complete Torah, for the entire Torah is considered a song!

In the previous issue of Wonders, we briefly mentioned the model of the four levels of Torah understanding based on the Hebrew letters. This model is referred to by the acronym: TaNTA (טנת"א). The Ta is for ta’amim, the musical cantillation marks that describe the way the Torah text is meant to be sung—the song of the Torah. The N stands for nekudot, the vowel signs which tell us how to pronounce each word. The T is for tagin, the calligraphic crowns inked on the top of some of the letters. Finally, the A stands for the otiyot, the letters themselves.

For everyday use, we now use printed volumes of the Torah text. In the typical printed volume, only three of these levels appear: the letters, the vowels and the cantillation marks. In an actual handwritten Torah scroll from which we can read publicly, only the letters and crowns appear. The vowels and music cantillation marks, handed down to us through the Oral tradition, do not appear but the person reading the Torah in public memorizes the vowels and cantillation marks so that they can properly read the text.

Crowns on the Letters

There are various traditions regarding the inking of crowns on letters in a Torah scroll, but generally six letters receive a single tag or crown and seven letters in principle have three tags or crowns. This leaves nine letters which usually do not have a crown:

  • no crowns: א ו כ (ך) ל מ (ם) ס פ (ף) ר ת
  • 1 crown: ב ד ק ח י ה (bedek chayah)
  • 3 crowns: ש ע ט נ (ן) ז ג צ (ץ) (sha'atnez getz)

A highly symbolic Talmudic passage recounts an episode that occurred when Moses was learning the Torah from the Almighty at the top of Mount Sinai. Moses was surprised to see that God was placing crowns on some of the Torah’s letters. He asked God what the purpose of these crowns was, and God responded that in the future a man named Akiva, the son of Joseph, will derive mounds of practical Torah laws from these crowns. We learn from this that every element of the Torah text holds infinite layers of meaning and mystery to be accessed and activated through inspired exegesis.

Models of Four and God’s Name

In this model, the letters of God’s name correspond to the four levels of the Torah’s text from above to below:

letter of Havayahpart of TorahHebrew nameyudcantillation marksטעמיםheivowelsנקודותvavcrownsתגיןheilettersאותיות

Since the Torah is the manifestation of God’s will and God’s essential Name, Havayah has four letters, it is not surprising that this model of the Torah text’s components parallels what is perhaps the most famous four-part model of the Torah. This model is known by the acronym PaRDeS referring to four different interpretative modes that can be applied to every word, verse, story, and mitzvah in the Torah, simultaneously.

The P stands for Peshat and refers to the plain, or literal meaning of the text. The R stands for the Remez mode of interpretation, which employs what are usually technical linguistic tools such as gematria (numerical values), letter substitutions, shorthand analysis (notarikon), and many others, which are all usually categorized as allusions. The D stands for Derash, which seeks the homiletic, allegorical, metaphorical, or symbolic meaning of the text. Finally, the S stands for Sod, the mystical or secret meaning, revealed by the Torah’s concealed tradition documented in various Kabbalistic works.

When we place these two models, side by side, we get the following correspondence:

letter of Havayahpart of Torahmode of interpretationyudcantillation marksSodheivowelsDerashvavcrownsRemezheilettersPeshat

The letters are considered the lowest and most basic level of the text and are connected to the peshat, the literal meaning of the text. The crowns (tagin) which were described above, correspond to the remez, the allusions in Torah interpretation. The vowels (nekudot) are the mobilizing, moving force in the text. Without the vowels we would not know how to articulate the letters and words. The dynamism of the vowels corresponds to the drash, the allegorical, metaphoric and symbolic understanding of the Torah.

The musical cantillation marks (ta’amei hamikra) are considered the highest level of understanding the text. Though they reveal an element of song, they are strictly bound to the text and thus reveal its secrets. This level of exegesis corresponds to the sod, the secret, mystical, Kabbalistic expounding of Torah text.

Ta’amei hamikra have three basic functions: they provide the Torah’s text with punctuation, they denote proper intonation and emphasis within a verse, and they serve as musical notes to indicate how the text should be chanted or sung.

If one were to compare a Torah text to food, the letters would correspond to the color and shape of the food, the crowns of the letters would correspond to the source of the food, whether from mineral, vegetable, or animal. The vowels would correspond to the texture of the food and the musical cantillation marks would relate to the taste of the food. The root of the word for the cantillation marks, ta'amim, means both “taste,” i.e., the flavor of the food and “reason,” the rationale as it were behind the text. But there is one level even higher than the cantillation marks, which are connected and bound by the text. This fifth level is the music the cantillation carries independently of the words. This music, which is the most hidden level of the Torah, can be compared to the aroma of the food.

letter of Havayahpart of Torahmode of interpretationHebrew nametip of yudwordless musicSha’ashu’imשעשועיםyudcantillation marksSodטעמיםheivowelsDerashנקודותvavcrownsRemezתגיןheilettersPeshatאותיות

The fifth level is known as the recreation or amusement level of Torah. The first four levels of Torah interpretation follow known rules of reasoning. At the fifth level, these rules are superseded in a certain sense by an amused creativity in learning Torah. This is the type of learning that only those who have achieved a mastery of Torah at the highest levels can engage in. The analogy to music is quite powerful. Though playing existing pieces of music is rewarding and enjoyable, it is only when one strikes out to create new music that expresses one’s essence that the true joy of music is felt. In the Midrash, this type of Torah interpretation is described as “a novel Torah will emerge from Me” (תצא תורה חדשה מאתי). The “me” in this phrase carries two meanings. On the one hand it refers to Torah that comes from “Me,” i.e., the Almighty, as it is a perfect extension of the Torah given at Sinai and does not in any way contradict anything already established, on the other hand it refers to “me,” i.e., to the individual, because the feeling is that this revelation of the Torah’s wordless song is a perfect reflection of my deepest most inner core.

Rebbe Hillel of Paritch referred to it as the melody that every soul heard in the Garden of Eden, before being born into a physical body, and which it searches and yearns to find again all its days on earth.

Torah as Song

The Torah’s song, its wordless music, constitutes a fifth level that is currently mostly inaccessible to us and reaches beyond the four revealed levels of the Torah text. This fifth level is alluded to in various places in the Torah, one of which is in the famous statement from the Zohar that there are three knots that are tied to one another: Torah, the Jewish people, and the Almighty. This well-known statement from the Zohar continues, “and each of them has a hidden and a revealed level. This hidden dimension is the musical dimension of Torah, of the Jewish people, and of God. The hidden musical dimension in Torah is the Song of Torah.

Significantly, in the Book of Deuteronomy, the Almighty Himself refers to the Torah as a song, “And now write this song for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites.” The sages explain that even though this is ostensibly referring to the Song of Ha’azinu, in practice we learn from these words that every person is commanded to write themselves a complete Torah, for the entire Torah is considered a song!

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ליקוטי שמואל | December 13, 2025