Not-Just For Dead Fans...

How the , Jewish Text and Worship Explain One Another and Raise Interesting Questions

I believe that even those who actively dislike the Grateful Dead, or always happily ignored them, will find ideas worth considering in this comparison.

“I guess they can't revoke your soul for trying.” – Hunter

------PREFACE------

Some years ago, my husband and I dragged our kids (then 11 and 13) to see the Dead. The kids asked why the folks in the parking lot were staying outside, even though the concert was scheduled to start: “How do they know when to go inside? Or, is waiting for them?”

My husband, a non-Jew, noted that he was often similarly mystified by worship services: “How do they know when to it's time for....?”

Not long after that I was part of a small havurah gathering waiting for a minyan, and we got to talking about when we might expect various regulars. This started me thinking about when, how and why Jews show up to services. I realized my husband's sentiment about worship services – like my kids befuddlement about Dead concerts – is shared by many Jews, even regular service-goers....

Over the years, I've been thinking about ways that Jewish text and worship and the Grateful Dead parallel one another. The result is this chart.

This was originally presented as part of a dvar on parashat Shelach (Numbers 13:1-15:40) at Temple Micah in Washington, DC.

Comments are encouraged. Please visit “A Song Every Day,” songeveryday.wordpress.com for more thoughts on Jewish text and prayer. ------

Spatz Dead Chart by Virginia A. Spatz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. How the Grateful Dead, Jewish Text and Worship Explain One Another and Raise Interesting Questions

(Grateful) Dead Jewish Text/Tradition Additional Note(s)/Questions The (Grateful) Dead frequently took the Sanhedrin 2a: In some Jewish traditions, If a prayer leader – or the stage without greeting and began such “...But how do we know that a congregation individuals participate in person in the next seat – extensive set up that the uninitiated consists of not less than ten? It is written, prayer largely on their own, announces the service might assume that A) they were how long shall I bear with this evil 'edah. expecting to join in unison progression with care and watching roadies or that B) the concert Excluding Joshua and Caleb, we have ten....” prayer only for the barchu, someone regularly tells you would consist of endless sound checks. verses appear without quotation marks, kaddish, repetition of the “what page we're on,” is that Sometimes the final chords of one song discussion seems always to be already in Amidah and a few other a sufficient clue as to what flowed directly into the next; other progress. Related points follow in places; spots. A visitor unfamiliar others are doing and/or how times, stretches of equipment fiddling apparently endless digressions separate other with this worship style might you might experience and/or improvisation separated songs. points in an argument or exposition. find it hard to participate. anything in the service? Long sound checks, tendency to drift Elements of style visible in San 2a above -- Worship style is not irrele- How do we – as individuals into individual or collective equipment weaving together of biblical sources, use of vant to how participants view and as a congregation – view adjustment, and habit (at least in older narrative Torah to explain a practicality, like what is happening in the the service? How much is days) of barely acknowledging the the minimum size of a “congregation” – are service: With few exceptions internally directed? focused audience were not irrelevant to the not irrelevant to understanding either the – Humanist prayer, e.g. – the on wider concerns? relating band's purpose (cf. acid test history). or the passage from Numbers. main siddur text is part of to others present? to “”? The Dead interact with one another, The ancient rabbis and the texts are in a an ancient, on-going con- to/for God, however defined? relating to an audience without conversation with one another, relating to versation between Jews and Do these elements vary by addressing music TO it. future generations but not speaking TO us. God, not written TO users. person? gathering? moment? Are extended improvs and long drumming (Sanhedrin 2a continued) It's the “digression” here that We can sing prayers, chant, sessions time for a break or the point of a “...excluding Joshua and Caleb, we have ten, proves relevant to this week's dance; re-order or re-focus concert? Is melody just a launching point for and whence do we derive the additional portion and the definition of a the prayers; write new ones; the “real,” improvisational music? Or are three?...” minyan. Similarly, moments share intentions. Sit silently. instrumentals sometimes just pauses, The passage returns to what is ostensibly the after a chant and spaces be- What is essential – for each perhaps unduly long, in the melody? Which “main discussion,” of how it is known that 23 tween words are as crucial as of us and for us as a group – is “digression” and which is essential? men are needed for a small Sanhedrin. carefully crafted siddur text. for prayer to “work”? At ticket time, many best seats for a In Shelach-lecha, the People believe the spies' Sefat Emet (R. Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter, 1847-1905) identifies (Grateful) Dead concert were empty “evil reports” about the Land and refuse to “go the last-ditch aliyah attempt with yearning for a kind of un- while true stayed outside, up.” This ends in death and disaster. Then, grounded, self-serving spirituality. In comparison, he urges: doing business and partying, until the after being told that they will now die in the Before doing anything, you have to offer up your soul as an concert began in earnest, and/or the desert for failure to take the Land immediately, emissary, gathering together all of your desires, in order to Dead did not really get going until the some make a last ditch effort to “go up” negate them, so that you can fulfill only the will of God. seats filled. So, one might ask: How did (14:40ff). This ends in disaster and death. How – 1998 trans. w/commentary by Arthur Green, Shai Gluskin anyone – band or fans – ever know did the People (and God) learn the right time? Can we manage this on a collective scale: In group prayer? when it “was time”? Did they? Were 40 years enough? Too much? In group decision-making? How? Spatz Dead Chart by Virginia A. Spatz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. (Grateful) Dead Jewish Text/Tradition Additional Note(s)/Questions Despite lack of introductions on stage and Arachin 15a 1] 2nd--3rd Century CE (third More fanatical Deadheads absence of album liners, many fans could “It was taught: R. Eleazar b. Perata1 said, generation Tanna); believe(d) that being a identify current and past band members, Whence do we know [the power of an evil 2] 3rd -4th C (Fifth generation worthy listener required knew each's musical history, and often tongue]? From the spies: for if it happens Amorim, post-); knowing, e.g., which years referred to band members by first name as thus to those who bring up an evil report 3] of priestly family, Rabbah Donna Jean and Keith though speaking of near neighbors or against wood and stones, how much more bar Bachmani 3rd-4th C, Godchaux were with the cousins... will it happen to him who brings up an evil (third generation Amora); band, who wrote and sang ...and just when you thought you had the report against his neighbour!...Perhaps it is 4] Shimon ben Lakish, 3rd C which songs, etc. Similar band identified, the person in the next seat as explained by R. b. Papa2; for R. (early Amora) former claims are sometimes would begin muttering, “I miss Donna,” or Hanina b. Papa... Rather, said Rabbah3 in the gladiator, brother-in-law of suggested about Jewish “It's not the same without Pigpen.” name of Resh Lakish4...” R. Yohanan bar Nappaha learning or prayer. Some histories of the band long known Like San. above, all Talmud tractates begin on Taking as a given that we're, On the other hand, failing to as “the Grateful Dead” might begin page 2a. The first words of the first tractate – none of us, yet on page 1 can recognize that we're jumping with the first concert in 1965, but many “From what time may one recite the evening be freeing, an invitation to into an on-going enterprise, would say you have to start with the Shema?” – assume so much that it's clear the jump in and experience extending beyond our own Warlocks or Mother McCree's Uptown conversation is already in progress. “2a” is a Jewish learning or prayer – lives and times, can narrow Jug Champions or when band members printer's convention, yes, but also a reminder or even a (Grateful) Dead the experience into nonsense met in 1962 or first learned music... that no amount of learning brings us to page 1. recording – wherever we are. and noise. “Let the words be yours. I'm done with The reader, in his own fashion, is a scribe.... Teachings at left are from a re- To enjoy the Dead, it is not mine.” – John Barlow, “Cassidy,” 1972 the Revelation [is a] word coming from... cent Jewish Study Center class necessary to know that Sweet outside, and simultaneously dwelling in the taught by Sheldon Kimmel, Jane, who “lost her sparkle...... no more Grateful Dead songs will be person who receives it....some of its points Adas Israel member and former living on reds, vitamin C, and written. It appears that after forty years, we would never have been revealed if some Fabrangener, with whom I ,” echoes an old radio can say, truly and finally, that the words are studied for years. Levinas people had been absent from mankind.... commercial: “Poor Millicent yours. That we are done with ours. (Not (1906-1995) was a French the multiplicity of irreducible people is [who] never used Pepsodent, that they ever really belonged to anyone in Talmudist-philosopher. Munk is necessary to the dimensions of meaning; the her smile grew dim and she the first place.) – John Barlow, Complete contemporary orthodox scholar. multiple meanings are multiple people. lost her vim.” It's fun but not Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, 2005 – E. Levinas, Beyond the Verse, p.131 We are essential to Torah, but fundamental that Bertha, who is begged “on bended knees... Lyricist Robert Hunter says he originally so are other “scribes.” Isolat- The relationship that links Israel to the Torah don't you come around here didn't publish lyrics “so people could dub ing a bit of Torah – without ,Israel. anymore,” was not human ישראל is revealed in the very name their own mishearings, adding a bit of reference to other letters' These five letters are the initial letters of the but an off-kilter, room-cool- themselves to the song.” inspiration; without including .There are other Revelation participants ing fan that moved when on' יש ששימ רבות אותיות לתורה :words A song is only ever fully realized when it 600,000 letters in the Torah.' Each Jewish over the ages – is like relating However, to refuse to listen belongs to everyone whose language it soul takes inspiration from one of the letters to only one instrument (>>) to anything except the drums inhabits. – Robert Hunter, Annotated Lyrics of the torah, which remains his own forever. in a band. Even solos exist in – Eliyahu Munk, The Call of the Torah Ex. 12:37 or a single guitar, e.g., would a wider musical context. completely distort the music. Spatz Dead Chart by Virginia A. Spatz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. (Grateful) Dead Jewish Text/Tradition Additional Note(s)/Questions For many years (even now?), there were Moses received Torah from God at Sinai. He “In simultaneously placing There is a tradition (ref.?) folks who maintained that the Grateful Dead transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, each rabbi within the chain of that each new generation, would never be as good as they were when the elders to the prophets, the prophets to the transmission and giving each further from the certainty of Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was piano player members of the Great Assembly... (Avot 1:1) rabbi his own voice, Pirkei Sinai, is less authoritative and front man (he died in 1973, before the Avot makes an essential than the previous. But there is Shemayah and Avtalyon received the tradition height of the band's popularity). statement about the nature of a tradition, too, that all Israel from [their teachers]. Shemayah taught: Love Torah and interpretation: were at Sinai (cf. Jacobs, There were a number of changes over the work; hate positions of domination; do not Even though each generation left). And we have messianic years, mourned with more or less passion. make yourself known to the authorities. interprets and applies the hopes for a better future. Avtalyon taught: ...be careful of what you say Finally, many found it heretical to consider Torah according to the needs “Hashkiveinu: Return us to lest you be exiled by the authorities...Hillel the band's continuation after 's of the time, these interpreta- You as in days of old,” is at and Shammai received the Torah from them. death. But “the Dead” did tour for years. tions have the authority of once backward- and forward- Hillel taught: Be a disciple of Aaron, loving (Long known informally as “the Dead,” they laws given by God at Mount yearning, i.e., a cry to (re-) peace and pursuing peace...Shammai taught: formally dropped the “Grateful” after Sinai.” – Rabbi Jill Jacobs, realize God's rule in our lives, Make the study of Torah your primary Garcia's death in 1995.) MyJewishLearning.com speedily and in our day. occupation... (Avot 1:10-15)

It's like [Bob] Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”** — one of my favorites from Woodstock. Well, I wasn’t at Woodstock and I’ve never been in a hangman’s noose waiting for the trap door to fall out, so I can’t sing that song? No, we just jump in because it touches us. So part of Jewish prayer is allowing ourselves to say, “These are the words of my people, and I’m connecting to them.” People who weren’t at Woodstock claim it as their music, their generation, as if they were there. I can sing the words of my ancestors and claim Sinai. – Shawn Zevit, in Making Prayer Real by R. Mike Comins, 2010 **I wasn't at Woodstock either and never saw Dylan live, but I did hear the Dead perform this song, and so reading this comment led to last year's drash “You didn't have to be there: Sinai, Prayer and the Grateful Dead,” (Mattot 5771, July 2011), now on my blog, “Song Every Day,” http://wp.me/ptnpJ-Kg ויתרו] Back when folks living or traveling together The episode of the spies and the failed attempt Sefat Emet notes that the spies are told to "tour had to negotiate group music choices, the to take the Land are followed (Num. 15) by v'yatiru] the Land of Canaan.” Relating this verb to “Torah he says the spies were confused about the role of Torah ”,תרה Dead were vetoed as background music. ritual commandments, some specific to the This included a prohibition on starting a Land and some – tzitzit and taking challah – in mundane life. After the failed attempts to “go up,” God song without time for the whole thing: still practiced. These, according to some offers day-to-day Torah, functional ways to “go up.” Listen or don't! midrashim, are offered to the People as a future treat – they will be undertaken later – Taking challah (removing a portion [for the priests] when Some purists rejected recordings: old ones and so an indication of forgiveness. baking a certain amount of dough) elevates the ordinary task were inferior in clarity, obscured lyrics, and of baking. Tzitzit would allow Israelites to see, in everyday failed to translate the gestalt. A guide could A related explanation: these rituals meet the life, what they failed to know directly. accompany you. Recordings – harumph! -- People where they are with an opportunity to might prepare you. But, ultimately, the Dead fulfill “na-aseh v'nishmah [We will do and we “...remember and perform them, tizk'ru v'asitem [all my had to be experienced for oneself. will obey/hear/understand]” (Ex. 24:7). commandments and be holy to your God” (Num. 15:40) The deeper experience is one that wells up from within, transforming consciousness itself from the inside rather than confronting it with sound or sight of that which still manifests itself as "other." – Sefat Emet, The Langauge of Truth, 1998 trans. with commentary by Arthur Green and Shai Gluskin Spatz Dead Chart by Virginia A. Spatz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.