Rabbinical Scholars Forgive Me

So I'm sitting at the JCC pool talking to one of my husband's good friends, who doesn't mince words.  "How do you listen to that music? You're not Christian." he asks.

The majority of country music songs are love songs and don't touch on religion at all, but our friend at the pool is also correct.  One of every few songs played on country radio, will have a reference to church, preachers, Jesus, or praying on one's knees. If I'm really bored one day I'll figure out the ratio, but hopefully I will never have that kind of time on my hands.

There are very few songs that I just won't listen to but there are some. Carrie Underwood's "Jesus take the Wheel" and "Temporary Home" are two examples.  Objectively they are both beautiful songs but religiously they are completely foreign to my world view and the religious content is the song.

But sometimes the religious message translates to the Jewish experience.  "God I'm down here on my knees cuz it's the last place left to fall. Beggin' for another chance if there's any chance at all, That you might still be listening, loving and forgiving guys like me." (lyrics) is from Chris Young's recent hit "The Man I Want to Be", (video) asking God's help to change so he can win back a woman he loves. I'm not saying that it's a Jewish song, but this song reminds me of Yom Kippur. It may not be a neat analogy, but rabbinical scholars forgive me, I'm going to give it a whirl.

The man in the song has acknowledged his aveirot (sins). It's implied by this being the last place for him to fall, that he has already asked the woman for forgiveness, and having been rebuffed, is additionally asking forgiveness from God. This is standard Jewish procedure at High Holiday time. He is asking God to change him, which is strangely passive.  Only we can change ourselves.  We would say that in this moment of repentence the man has already changed. In addition are the two lines "God I wanna be your man, I wanna be her man." which brings to mind that concept that we need to repair our relationships with one another in order to repair our relationship with God.

The High Holidays is the only time that Jews get down on their knees and then even go farther to prostrate themselves (during the Aleinu). Very few people apart from the Rabbis and Cantors in progressive synagogues do this, but it is the tradition. It is the time of year that we, as it says in the song, are "beggin' for another chance, if there's any chance at all."

On a more superficial note, sometimes I just change the words of the song if it's one I really like and I want to sing along.  Much to the amusement of my seven year old, Jason Aldean's song "Don't Give Up on Me" now starts "I don't go to shul enough. I curse outloud, I drink too much. I'm more than a sinner than a tzaddik.  I've got a dusty Tanach on my shelf...."