Yet another chapter in the Grateful Dead Passover genre…
A few months back I had a chance to share the world-changingly beautiful tune, “Box of Rain” with a group of middle school students. In looking at the lyrics I asked them what they saw. Since they were Jewish kids at a Jewish school, they saw Torah in the words of the song.
“Your tongue is twisted with words half-spoken and thoughts unclear.”
— That’s Moses! He had trouble speaking!!
“Walk into splintered sunlight inch your way through dead dreams to another land.”
— Dead dreams– Joseph had dreams, but he died. Another land? That’s the promised land.
“A Box of Rain”
— It’s like the Pillar of Cloud and Fire that guided the Israelites in the wilderness!!
And so it turns out that Box of Rain is about a kind of spiritual exodus– something I’d never really considered before. What a beautiful moment it was to witness my students building these bridges.