10. ALL HANDS ON DECK

Jews and Blues – there seems to be a connection between these two. Pouring out one’s heart like water before the Lord was also King David’s way of doing things. The 2,700 years of Scattering and Exile gave birth to Jewish music in all the lands of the Dispersion, colored by local cultures and instrumentation. As we come to the close of this present chapter of Jewish history, we remember the prophecy of Ezekiel 37:9-10: “Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “YHVH GOD says this: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, so that they come to life.”’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, a great army much much [heyl gadol me’od me’od].” The return of the Jewish people from shtetl dreams to their Promised Land will catalyze one of the most dramatic and earth-shaking events of human history – the rise of the Ezekiel 37 Army. People get ready!