Dan Nichols

Last night Dan Nichols visited IU. He led Reform services at Hillel and then had a concert after later on in the night. I love Dan Nichols. Dan is the man. For those of you who may not be familiar with him, he is a Jewish musician who is well-known among the Reform camping/youth movement. Check out more about him at his website www.jewishrock.com.

This was the fourth time I have seen Dan perform. I have seen him perf0rm in New Orleans, Washington DC, and Utica, Mississippi. All of the other performances have been for many more people, but there is just something about his music and the way that he sings it that brings ruach to the community no matter what the size.

During the concert, Dan told us a story about a quote that someone had showed him. The quote was, "Do as much as you can with the time that you have in the place that you are." It just happens that this quote, which was said by a young boy who was the oldest person at age 11 to still be living after having been born with AIDS, has 18 words in it. Dan's band is called "E18ghteen" so this appealed to him. The boy was not Jewish and had no ties to Judaism, but this woman showed this quote to Dan and challenged him to "find the Jewishness" within it. He said that he loved the quote and could feel a connection but had no idea how to find the Jewishness that existed. He talked to a rabbi about this and the rabbi suggeted that maybe there was a connection to something that Rabbi Tarfon once said, "Lo alecha hamlacha ligmore, v'lo atah ben chorin l'hibateil memenah" (It is not your duty to complete the task. Neither are you free to desist from it.) Through this teaching from Rabbi Tarfon, Dan was able to apply "Jewishness" to something that was not related to Judaism. I think that this really relates to what we talked about in class a few weeks ago about what makes music Jewish. Through this song, Dan shows that music is Jewish based on its interpretations. He interpreted the quote to say something about a Jewish outlook on life.

If you're interested, here are the lyrics for the song. You should really check it out on his website. The song is going to be released this year on Dan's latest CD.

"Do as much as you can
With the time that you have
In the place that you are"
Eighteen words from a kid
With less than a year to live
He knew so much more than we thought he did.

Lo Alecha Hamlacha ligmor
V'lo atah ben chorin l'hibateil mimena

What can one person do
The task is great and the day is short
Words our fathers knew
We can't do it all, but we can all do more

Lo Alecha Hamlacha ligmor
V'lo atah ben chorin l'hibateil mimena

From all that used to be to all that might have been
There's no mystery when we work with what's in-between
All we can do is all we can do, all we can do is all we can do.

Lo Alecha Hamlacha ligmor
V'lo atah ben chorin l'hibateil mimena