An Introduction
I'm a Black female rabbi with Southern roots living and loving life in North Carolina. I am on a journey of learning and discovery. Learning, discovering and embodying the music that came from my ancestors who were slaves in this land. I don't remember a time when I did not love Blues music. I can hear the sadness and history of the blues in my mother's voice singing in the kitchen. And the joy and the hope from my Dad singing blues-influenced country songs. Over the years, I've grown to love other types of roots music that grew out of the American South, such as Bluegrass and Country music. Roots music comes from the lived experiences of ordinary people, many of whom in our society are defined by race, class, and gender. Music has often been a way for black, brown, and white people to come together and transcend our social limits imposed by segregation, racism, and sexism.
Roots music is the music that was sung on porches and in the fields. Blues music, in particular, grew out of the unimaginable struggles of American slaves, and later chain gains of black prisoners and sharecroppers in the American Jim Crow South. Blues music is American music, but music that grew out of the Black experience. Blues music communicates the hopes, sadness, and beliefs of ordinary people doing the best they can, living their everyday lives.
As far as I know, the slaves that created the melodies and songs that cry for freedom and hope of a promised land were not Jewish. And neither were (as far as we know) the Blues musicians who later recorded the music, sealed it and added their pain of sharecropping, forced labor, and living in the Jim Crow South. Blues music is genuinely American music and, as far as I am concerned, profoundly Jewish.
The Torah of the Blues
Today I am starting a new online project. I'm calling it the Torah of the Blues. This project is my way of learning more about our history and the music that is the foundation of American music. I know I am not the first Jewish person to make a connection between Jews and the Blues, but I do bring a unique perspective as a black rabbi with Southern roots. I see blues music as a window to my heritage, my culture, and I see it as a legacy that was left for me by my ancestors to discover.
Years ago, I hired someone to teach me acoustic blues, and no matter how hard I tried every time I sang a blues song, it sounded like the Indigo Girls because, at the time, I was and still am a huge fan of the Indigo Girls. Today, I'm older, have more life experiences, and maybe that's why I can now embody the blues songs I sing and claim them as part of my ancestry. I think this is because I believe, at least for me, that black music must be lived before it can be truly understood.
There is so much Torah in this music that we as Jews can learn. This music will teach us about the past, and I hope it will also teach us a little about ourselves today. We, as Jews, are currently in the book of Exodus. The book where we are slaves, and we cry and pray for freedom. Throughout the book, we follow the Israelites from slavery to freedom. A lot of how I view myself as a Jew and my activism come from the book of Exodus. My plan for this project is to look at blues songs that come from the black experience. Learn them, understand them, play them, and write about my journey of learning them from the perspective of a black Jew. Now I make no claims to be a great guitar player or a great singer. I am learning as I go.
The first song in this series is from the Reverend Gary Davis. The song Death Don't Have No Mercy.
Death don't have no mercy in this land
Death don't have no mercy in this land
He'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death don't have no mercy in this land...
This song reminds me of the climax of our struggle as Jews for freedom and my ancestors' probably praying for death during the Middle Passage. I can almost imagine the screams of captured human souls onboard ships with death all around them. I can believe that my ancestors were afraid of dying under the brutal conditions of slavery, Jim Crow and poverty. I can also imagine the Egyptians waking up in the night screaming as they see death all around them, and it's not hard to believe that Israelites were fearful that death would come to them as well.
In the book of Exodus, we learn that plague after plague has hurt the Egyptians and Pharaoh is finally willing to let some of the Israelites go free, but Moses insists that all of us be free. Moses wants freedom for all, Pharaoh refuses, and we come to the final plague, the death of the firstborn.
The Torah says
וַיָּ֨קָם פַּרְעֹ֜ה לַ֗יְלָה ה֤וּא וְכָל־עֲבָדָיו֙ וְכָל־מִצְרַ֔יִם וַתְּהִ֛י צְעָקָ֥ה גְדֹלָ֖ה בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם כִּֽי־אֵ֣ין בַּ֔יִת אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֵֽין־שָׁ֖ם מֵֽת׃
And Pharaoh arose in the night, with all his courtiers and all the Egyptians—because there was a loud cry in Egypt; for there was no house where there was not someone dead (Exodus 12:30).
Here is my version of Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Lyrics
Death don't have no mercy in this land
Death don't have no mercy in this land
He'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and somebody be gone
Death don't have any mercy in this land
Well Death will go in any family in this land
Well Death will go in every family in this land
He’ll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and one of your family be gone
Death will come for your family in this land
Death will come for your firstborn in this land
Death will come for your firstborn in this land
He'll come to your house and you'll cry in the night
You'll look in every bed and someone dead
Death don't have no mercy in this land
Death don't have no mercy in this land
Death don't have no mercy in this land
He'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll see them punished and they will be gone
Death will have some mercy in this land
Death don't have no mercy
I said Death will have some mercy
Death will have some mercy in this land