Pho to By Charles Rafshoon
ENTERTAINMENT
Teach your children well: Rabbi Steven Lebow, wearing kippah, instructs teens about Jewish themes in rock and roll.
"It's only rock and roll, but I like it."
DAVID HOLZEL
Special to The Jewish News
ob Dylan's 1965 retell-
ing of Akedat Yitzhak
— the binding of Isaac
— is not the cynical view of
the Bible it first appears to
be. Rabbi Steven Lebow of
Atlanta believes the song is a
rock and roll version of the
traditional process of inter-
preting the Torah.
"This is Midrash," the
rabbi recently told members
of the youth group at Re-
form Temple Kol Emeth in
surburban Atlanta. "You
take a biblical story and in-
terpret it in the light of your
own life."
Rabbi Lebow told the
teen-agers he has found 40
to 60 biblical citations, ref-
erences to Jewish sources
and discourses on God in
rock and roll music. Songs
range from the Byrds' 1960s
hit "Turn, Turn, Turn,"
whose lyrics were taken
from the book of Kohelet, or
Ecclesiastes, to Tracy
Chapman's "If Not Now,
When?" a reference to a say-
ing by the sage Hillel.
As the group pored over
album covers and lyric
David Holzel is a staff writer
for The Atlanta Jewish Times.
sheets, Rabbi Lebow played
a medley of songs to illus-
trate how writers have
drawn on the Bible to ex-
plain their own lives. By us-
ing the medium of youth —
rock and roll — the 36-year-
old-rabbi was attempting to
draw a new young genera-
tion to the Torah.
"People are enlightened
all the time by the Torah,"
he said. "After love, God is
second on the list of topics in
rock and roll."
In the 1960s, music was
the religion of youth, Rabbi
Lebow explained.
"We waited for the latest
album by Bob Dylan or the
Beatles to hear what they
would have to say to us,"
the rabbi said.
So even a song as ap-
parently flippant as Mr.
Dylan's "Highway 61 Re-
visited" was probed for
lessons it could reveal. And
like any Torah text, the
song's meaning is more easi-
ly understood with the help
of a teacher.
The real Highway 61 runs
north into Canada from Mr.
Dylan's birthplace, Duluth,
Minn. And, Rabbi Lebow
pointed out, the name of Mr.
Dylan's father was
Abraham. With these keys,
the song is revealed as an
angry personal account of
the struggle between the
young singer and his father.
If Mr. Dylan is Isaac, the
child sacrifice, Bruce Spr-
ingsteen is Cain, the son
driven from home. Mr. Spr-
ingsteen, who is not Jewish,
left home at 17 after a per-
petual battle with his father.
Mr. Springstein recounted
his experience in the song
"Adam Raised A Cain."
"My daddy worked his
whole life for nothing but
the pain/ Now he walks
these empty rooms looking
for someone to blame..."
More recently, composer-
pianist Bruce Hornsby
wrote a song called "Jacob's
Ladder," a reference to the
patriarch's dream in which
angels climbed and de-
scended a ladder spanning
heaven and earth. Mr. Horn-
sby used the image of a lad-
der to symbolize a step-by-
step climb to a better life.
"You get all of Judaism's
main men in rock and roll,"
Rabbi Lebow said, counting
on his fingers, Adam, Cain,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob.
The prayer book is an-
other source of inspiration,
the rabbi explained.
"Teach Your Children" a
song by Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young, echoes the
commandment in the
God said fa Abitakaut,
Kitt toe a au
Abe mid,
you
mutat be ',Wife pa OR
Ga. mitt, Kt
Abe said, Wkat?
Gott mid, Yea caa
da witat you Luau/ Abe
but The ;text time
you see Nte Midi
gaul beitet kuu
Abe said, Mete you tout
We lab(' clue?
Gad said, Out
au fligleag 61.
"Ve'ahavta" prayer,
Veshinantam livanecha-
"You shall teach your chil-
dren diligently."
The priestly blessing,
Yevarechecha HaShem
veyishmarecha — "May
God bless and keep you al-
ways," was recast by Bob
Dylan in "Forever Young."
Rabbi Lebow called Mr.
Dylan rock's most spiritual
songwriter. The singer's
close reading of the Torah is
evident in the numerous bib-
lical references in his work.
"All Along the Watch-
tower," a song of Mr.
Dylan's popularized by Jimi
Hendrix, is based on verses
11 and 12 in the 21st chapter
of the book of Isaiah. Mr.
Dylan also wrote an ironic
defense of Israel called
"Neighborhood Bully" in
which the Jewish state, sur-
rounded by bloodthirsty
enemies, is hypocritically
vilified as the local thug.
Judaism turned up in
some bizarre places during
the 1960s.
Dipping briefly into his
moldy oldie archive, Rabbi
Lebow told the teens about
the band Spirit, whose
leader, Randy California,
changed his name from
Schwartz. On one album,
Mr. California sings "Hinei
Mah Tov." Even stranger is
the psychedelic group the
Electric Prunes' version of
the Yom Kippur prayer Kol
Nidre.
Becca Greenhill, a member
of the synagogue youth
group, said Rabbi Lebow's
presentation was more
stimulating than conven-
tional teaching approaches.
Jeff Pearlman, a 17-year-
old dressed in a tie-dyed
Jerry Garcia T-shirt, agreed.
"It's more subliminal," he
said. ❑
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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