This past February, before the Corona virus and Covid-19 overwhelmed our lives and we were all told to wear masks, keep our distance from each other, wash our hands many times a day, and purchased copious amounts of anti-viral sprays and cleaners and hand gels, I was in the United States. I was performing my one-person show “Shards” for Reform Jewish synagogues in Florida, Texas, and at Rodeph Sholom in New York City.
Anytime I am in Manhattan, I try to go see a few shows on Broadway. There is nothing quite as magical as entering a theater, finding your seat, settling in, and waiting for the lights to dim, the overture to begin, the stage lights to come up, and the actors to take their places. There is nothing like live theater: every performance is slightly different and there is an electricity in the air that cannot be replicated by any other art form.
The last show I saw on Broadway was the exhilarating “Hadestown”- -and when the theaters open up—and they will- put it on your list of shows you must see and I am sure it will come to Italy. It is a contemporary retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story. If you recall your Greek mythology, you will remember that Eurydice is sent to Hades- and only Orpheus can take her back to Earth—with one condition if on their journey out of Hades, Orpheus never turns around to make sure Eurydice is still behind him. But- as myths would have it- he does turn around and his beloved is banished forever to Hades.
So, you are wondering, what does this have to do with this week’s torah portion: Devarim (Deuteronomy). Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Torah and it is not only the concluding book of the Five Books of Moses; it is also a recapitulation of the stories that have come before. When we come to Deuteronomy, we know we are coming to the end of the yearly cycle of reading Torah. In Deuteronomy, we will encounter Moses telling the Israelites over and over to obey God, to not stray from the path God has set before them, to remember where they have been, to recall their Journey, to not forget that they were slaves once in Egypt. And then in the last verses of the entire book, we will read of Moses’ impending death.
As Moses knows his death is approaching, he blesses the Israelites. Moses’ tone changes from a sometimes-angry parent to a loving father and blesses each tribe of Israel offering both a remembrance of the past and hope for the future. Moses then ascends Mount Nebo and dies.
So- you are still wondering, I am sure, what does this have to do with the Broadway musical, “Hadestown”? At the conclusion of “Hadestown” the narrator looks directly at the audience and sings:
It’s an old song…it’s an old tale from way back when…
It’s an old song- and that’s how it ends…
The song was written long ago- and that’s how it goes.
It’s a sad song- it’s a tragedy…
But we sing it anyway…
‘Cause here’s the thing-to know how it ends and still begin to sing it again
These final lyrics remind us how even though we may know the outcome of the story, we read it and retell it again and again. When we hear the myth of Orpheus and Euridice we hope that maybe, just maybe this time, Orpheus will not turn around and the couple will enter the world of the living. When we read torah, there is that hope against hope that maybe, just maybe this time when we come to end, Moses, instead of dying on Mount Nebo aged and alone, will finally enter the Promised Land, hand in hand with his successor, Joshua.
But every time we tell the story, Orpheus does turn around. And every time we finish the book of Deuteronomy, Moses will die. And every time- just like for thousands of years before, we will finish the Book of Devarim and immediately begin from the beginning of the Torah: the story of Creation.
So- join me as we enter the Book of Deuteronomy. We already know what will happen. But that is the gift of storytelling: for a brief moment we suspend our knowledge of the already revealed plot as if we are hearing the story for the first time.
As we are told in “Hadestown”: We’re gonna sing it again and again…
Shabbat shalom.
Cantor Kent