As is well known, the
name given to a weekly Torah portion reveals its major theme and this week’s parsha, Masey, is
quite a trip.
Masey are journeys – and
this week the Torah details the journeys of the Children of Israel "bnei yisrael" during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the
exodus from Egypt.
אלה מסעי בני
ישראל אשר יצאו מארץ מצרים לצבאותם ביד משה ואהרון
I
would like to show some parallels between our own people’s journey - a people that pursues truth and light, a marginalized
people that perseveres and succeeds despite small numbers - and other journeys
of modern-day wandering tribes who also seek truth and light.
There is no research and
few data to support my claims, but these tribes feature a very high ratio of
Jews. This group of people embodies an energy
that should be harnessed to bring positive change to the world just as The Children of Israel has done since its formation. These
are the people who are the dedicated and devoted live-music fans of a slew of exploratory
bands known as “jambands.” Having just
seen my favorite jamband play 2 nights in a row right here, live in
Philadelphia, my thoughts on the convergence of Torah and jamband music are
still fresh.
The beginning of the
Torah portion "parsha" lists a litany of locations – venues, as it were. These are the stops on
the tour out of exile. As the verses, "psukim," say:
“vayisu……..vayachanu…..
vayisu, vayachanu…….”
The portion repeats this
cadence of "vayisu," they left, and "vayachanu," they camped, for each of the numerous
locations. Some sound familiar, some less so, places like Rimmon Peretz,
Terach, Chashmonah, The Western Plains of Moav.
This is how we wandered through the desert for 40 years – from one place
to another, always temporary, always seeking out the next place until we were
ready to enter our promised land.
Similarly, fans of Phish
and other jambands, and back in the day, the Grateful Dead, follow their
favorite musicians to numerous locations. Some sound familiar, like Madison
Square Garden and The Mann Music Center, and some less so, like Bill Graham Civic
Auditorium, Deer Creek, The Mothership, The Gorge, and more. While there are many fans, like myself, who
are married with children and live relatively rooted lives, others follow their
favorite bands perhaps for a week or a whole tour. Some in the scene look like they have been
wandering for even more than forty years!
The crews pick up and
leave to reach the next venue, and camp out for at least a while in the parking
lot and tailgate. They are always looking
for the next location, the next venue, the next show, following the good vibes.
Before I get to my point,
I acknowledge some disconnects. These
disconnects include that between Jews on tour and Jews not on tour / "on the bus" (which I
imagine is most of the Jewish
community). There is a disconnect
between Jews on tour who are connected to traditional Judaism (aka "yiddishkeit" which includes me,
a few friends, my husband) and Jews on tour not as connected to our traditions (which
includes many friends and would-be friends, wonderful people who live for the
live music yet rarely if ever light Shabbat candles, prefer things like pagan gatherings,
have xmas trees, marry non Jews, or otherwise shirk anything that seems too “Jewish”). Of course, this overly simplifies things are there are many shades of gray in between.
Shortly after the Torah portion details the list of locations, it takes us to a higher level
והורשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה כי לכם נתתי את הארץ לרשת אתה
Clear
out the land and live in it, since it is to you that I am giving the land to
occupy.
Then we learn that the
land is distributed to the families by a lottery system,
והתנחלתם את הארץ בגורל
Similarly, to score the
insider’s jamband tickets, one enters a lottery months before tickets are made
available to the public through traditional outlets. In this way, tickets are distributed to the various
different inner networks of friends and families, often overlapping circles,
that are so dedicated to their bands.
I’m not the first one to
try to connect these seeming disconnects.
From 1968-1972 Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach ran the House of Love and Prayer in
San Francisco with this in mind. Many
since and many still are on tour with their service to Gd "avodat hashem." My own experiences at shows are enriched and enhanced
by my traditional Jewish vantage point.
At the same time, there have been countless fellow Jews I have chatted
with at shows who claim they aren’t religious and say things like, “being at a
show is my church,” and yet this is
their most intensely spiritual experience.
Like myself, people go to shows to leave life behind for a while and have a taste of what it feels like to be 17 or 21 or otherwise carefree again. Yet they are striving to see through the light (lines). Indeed, there is a lot of fog that surrounds.
The way I see it, light is most illuminated through Shabbat, beginning with Shabbat candles and ending with Havdallah. Personally I can't see how Shabbat candles can glow brightly at the stage of a live music show, but to each her own. Lighting candles far away from a festival stage, however, in one's tent, cabin, hotel room etc, has its own merit. I must add that no mention of Shabbat candles in our generation is complete without gratitude towards the work of the Lubavitcher Rebbe who initiated a widely succesful campaign to encourage Jewish women and children to light Shabbat candles.
I acknowledge the challenge presented in bringing in the light from both worlds - the Jewish and the jamband. A most memorable Havdallah at a jamband festival did exactly this a few years ago. Amidst the beautiful music, a small group of us who connect to both these worlds brought down the light of Havdallah. And yet all the while my friend's crew who was elsewhere on the festival grounds was texting her to return to them, perhaps not realizing the goodness that was happening in our family tent area. The push and pull tension of both worlds are real, and yet we can harness the best of each.
But where is the journey taking us?
אלה מסעי בני ישראל אשר יצאו מארץ מצרים לצבאותם
לצבאותם
We left exile in organized groups, in tribes, as crews, and we need to connect the dots, bring together our collective energies and fulfill our mission, arrive at our destination. When we do this we will all make it to the ultimate show and will merit the ultimate encore.
Then we will be picked up and leave: Vayisu
And we will be taken on the wings of eagles: V'Yachanu
And all of us wandering tribes will camp out together in our land forever.
Theodore Herzl famously said, "If you will it, it is no dream." Especially in these heady times of unrest in Israel, we need to hold onto this modern-day expression of our Gd-given promised land. And of a time when all will be good.
The light will be bright.
The music will ulnite.
We will all be kind.
We will be redeemed.
The jam will be epic.
GOOD SHABBAS!
SHABBAT SHALOM!
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| me at a Jones Beach Phish show , June 2009 |
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