It has been forever since I posted here. I hope to start up again but I often get taken in different directions. I love writing about Torah but sometimes I do that for my teachers to help with their classes and have little energy here. But my birthday just passed and so maybe a time of renewal of this. So last year on Parasha Korach I was at CAMPJRF now known as Camp Havaya, the Reconstructionist movements camp in Pennsylvania. Rabbi Fred Dobb and I were the faculty-in-residence for the week and part of the deal is to write a parody song about the Torah portion. So we wrote it around the widely popular Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Maranda. He reminded me of this today with an email that I will share here with you all. Please to enjoy.
Korach and Moses – “Your Obedient Servant / The World Was Wide Enough”
For Camp JRF, Summer 2016 – George Kelley and Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, after Lin-Manuel Miranda
[KORACH (BURR)]
How does Moses, an arrogant, unpopular, stutterer-killer, Egypt-son somehow endorse that guy Aaron, his brother, for the Kohen Gadol, here in the 9th inning,
just to keep me from winning?! [pause]
I wanna be in the Holy of Holies!
The room where it happens – the Holy of Holies
He’s kept me from the Holy of Holies
For the last time! [beat box interlude]
Dear Cousin Moses:
I am slow to anger but I toe the line
as I reckon with the effects of your life on mine
I look back on where I failed
and in every place I checked
the only common thread
has been your disrespect.
Now you call me “ungodly,”
a “dangerous disgrace” –
If you’ve got something to say
name a time and place – Panim el Panim
I have the honor to be Your Obedient
Servant: ben Yizhar.
[MOSES/HAMILTON]
Rebel Korach:
I am not the reason no one trusts you
No one knows in Whom you believe
I will not equivocate on my opinion
I have always worn God on my sleeve
Even if I led how you say I led
You would need to cite a more specific grievance
Here’s an itemized list of all the
years of disagreements
[KORACH] Sweet Moses!
[MOSES] Hey, I have not been shy
I am just a navi in the public eye
tryin’ to divine what’s best for the Tribe
I don’t wanna fight but I won’t apologize for
standing up for the Almight…y
I have the honor to be Your Obedient
Servant: ben Amram.
[KORACH] Careful how you proceed, good man
Rav lachem (you overstepped) indeed, good man
Answer for the accusations I lay at your feet
or prepare to bleed, good man
[MOSES] Korach, your grievance is
legitimate; I stand by what I said:
democracy is good, let’s work toward it.
You stand only for yourself, that’s how you fly
I can’t apologize because I stand with Adonai!
[KORACH] Then stand, Moshe:
Tent of meeting. Dawn. Fire pans. Drawn.
[MOSES] You’re on.
[KORACH AND MOSES]
I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant
[MOSES] ben Amram. [KORACH] ben Yizhar.
…
[KORACH] I see how death discriminates
between my sinners and your saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
The ground simply obliterates our entire legacy
we go down, in a great earthquake.
But dear old Moses looked to the sky
He truly walked with Adonai
And I’m the one who paid for it –
me and my followers, we paid for it
Now I’m the villain in your history
I was too full of myself to see:
We could have
grown – together,
shown – The world
was wide enough
for both Moses
and me
The world was
wide enough
for both Moses
and me
Korach and Moses – “Your Obedient Servant / The World Was Wide Enough”
For Camp JRF, Summer 2016 – George Kelley and Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, after Lin-Manuel Miranda
[KORACH (BURR)]
How does Moses, an arrogant, unpopular, stutterer-killer, Egypt-son somehow endorse that guy Aaron, his brother, for the Kohen Gadol, here in the 9th inning,
just to keep me from winning?! [pause]
I wanna be in the Holy of Holies!
The room where it happens – the Holy of Holies
He’s kept me from the Holy of Holies
For the last time! [beat box interlude]
Dear Cousin Moses:
I am slow to anger but I toe the line
as I reckon with the effects of your life on mine
I look back on where I failed
and in every place I checked
the only common thread
has been your disrespect.
Now you call me “ungodly,”
a “dangerous disgrace” –
If you’ve got something to say
name a time and place – Panim el Panim
I have the honor to be Your Obedient
Servant: ben Yizhar.
[MOSES/HAMILTON]
Rebel Korach:
I am not the reason no one trusts you
No one knows in Whom you believe
I will not equivocate on my opinion
I have always worn God on my sleeve
Even if I led how you say I led
You would need to cite a more specific grievance
Here’s an itemized list of all the
years of disagreements
[KORACH] Sweet Moses!
[MOSES] Hey, I have not been shy
I am just a navi in the public eye
tryin’ to divine what’s best for the Tribe
I don’t wanna fight but I won’t apologize for
standing up for the Almight…y
I have the honor to be Your Obedient
Servant: ben Amram.
[KORACH] Careful how you proceed, good man
Rav lachem (you overstepped) indeed, good man
Answer for the accusations I lay at your feet
or prepare to bleed, good man
[MOSES] Korach, your grievance is
legitimate; I stand by what I said:
democracy is good, let’s work toward it.
You stand only for yourself, that’s how you fly
I can’t apologize because I stand with Adonai!
[KORACH] Then stand, Moshe:
Tent of meeting. Dawn. Fire pans. Drawn.
[MOSES] You’re on.
[KORACH AND MOSES]
I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant
[MOSES] ben Amram. [KORACH] ben Yizhar.
…
[KORACH] I see how death discriminates
between my sinners and your saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
The ground simply obliterates our entire legacy
we go down, in a great earthquake.
But dear old Moses looked to the sky
He truly walked with Adonai
And I’m the one who paid for it –
me and my followers, we paid for it
Now I’m the villain in your history
I was too full of myself to see:
We could have
grown – together,
shown – The world
was wide enough
for both Moses
and me
The world was
wide enough
for both Moses
and me
