In my past I followed the Grateful Dead (for about 10 years 1984-1994) and I felt the power of unity in the face of a common love of music. I sometimes imagine the feeling of the Jewish people when they stood at the foot of mount Sinai. The sages say that they camped as one beneath the mountain (as one man with one heart)...
This year is the 50th year of the Grateful Dead. They are going to call it quits once and for all. This Shabbat we read about Shmitah and Jubilee. The Jubilee was celebrated after seven cycles of seven years, in the fiftieth year the Jubilee was observed. The number 50 occurs to me a lot as I turned 50 years old this year. Fifty years since the 1st Mustang, 50 years of the Grateful Dead...