When Bob Weir, of Grateful Dead fame, wrote the song “Truckin’” he was thinking of the immense toll being a rock and roller can have on a person’s body and soul. As he told the Wall Street Journal:
“[Our touring schedule] was relentless. We’d play a gig, stay up late and then fly to our next gig first thing in the morning. Most of the time, our equipment was trucked overnight to the next destination.” The song describes visits to Chicago, New York, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, and, of course, Buffalo.
When he passed last week, I thought of his journey in comparison to our people’s journey through the wilderness. This week’s Torah portion, Bo, is most definitely a long strange trip, as we encounter the push and pull between Pharaoh and Moses, culminating in the final plague, the Death of the First Born, and our eventual release next week in the Song of the Sea. While not rock and rollers, our ancestors knew what it meant to have our souls tested. And, like the Grateful Dead, how to survive. From 1965 to 1995, the band wandered far and wide, developing a following all over the world, including many in our own community. Goodbye Bob, hoping you are still Truckin’ in the world beyond.
Shabbat Shakom,
Rabbi Alex