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Grateful Dead seder

What do the Grateful Dead and the Jewish ritual of a Passover seder have in common? Nothing. Except maybe that Dead shows and Passover seders seem to go on for a really long time. Also, maybe that they both feature leaders with big beards. And they both feature some kind of burning bush ... if you get my drift.

Anyway, Phil Lesh, the Dead's bass player, for a while owned a music venue in San Rafael, CA called called Terrapin Crossroads. In 2014 Ross James, a (Jewish) musician in Phil's orbit, asked Phil if they could host a Passover seder at his venue, and Phil not only concurred, he participated. The event was such a hit that they held it every year until the start of the pandemic. They even created their own Haggadah (the book is read at the seder, containing the Passover story and related explanations, along with prayers), which was surprisingly straight and unhippyish, except for the illustrations, commentary in the form of word bubbles from a little Grateful Dead terrapin dude (see the cover of the Terrapin Station album - the "terrapin" is a recurring Dead symbol), and the almost complete absence of mention of God.

The local Jewish community in DC has a disproportionate number of Jews (others have noted that this seems to be true as well throughout the Deadhead community). Many of my Jewish Deadhead friends seem much more connected to the band than to their religion (one friend having gone so far as to tell me that "The Grateful Dead is my religion"), and so I decided to create a Grateful Dead-themed Passover seder to help make this Jewish holiday more accessible to the Jewish Deadhead community. For two years I held the event at my house, which limited the number of people who I could invite. This year we went big and rented the Glen Echo community room - and got so many attendees that even with the larger capacity we wound up having to turn people away!

The gang

So, what was the seder like? I started with Lesh's Terrapin Haggadah, but trimmed it down a bit, including eliminating the whole part which would normally come after the meal (I was sure there was no way I was going to get the group to sit down for more ritual after they got to eating and schmoozing). I then sprinkled in a bunch of songs. A couple were seder text set to Grateful Dead songs, (for example, the Four Questions set to the tune of the song Ripple). Most were parody songs - clever (I hope) Passover-related lyrics for Dead and other classic rock songs. I drew on my friend Barb's Passover song parodies web site for "Hey Jews" (Hey Jude) and "Are You Ready for Passover Fare" (Scarborough Faire), grabbed Larry H's "It Must Have Been Charoses" (the Dead's It Must Have Been the Roses), plus a few of my own (like "Pharoah's Palace" for the Dead's Brokedown Palace). Valerie joined me up front, helping to keep order (she has that schoolteacher voice that people just obey) as well as adding her own brand of wackiness. Food was potluck and plentiful, and didn't even have to be kosher for Passover since the event was the night before the start of the holiday!

Leading the mayhem

I don't want to brag, but it drew comments like, "... the best seder I have ever experienced", "... so beautifully moving", and "What a special, meaningful, lively, loving, grateful, delicious seder!" So yeah, I think it was a success. We're already looking for a bigger room for next year.

And of course, I could not have made this event work without my fellow planners, Wendy (who wrangled all the attendee aspects including coordinating the pot luck), and Karen (who handled the logistics of the room, supplies, and decorating), as well as the volunteering of Woody, Jon, Carol, and so many more!

We had the ritual seder plate at every table

My Grateful Dead Haggadah

View from the "pulpit"


The organizers

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