a page from Darshan’s Tour Journal
Eprhyme and Shir Yaakov here, reporting from England where Darshan has just participated in the biggest Limmud conference ever! About 2,500 people from all over the world, and across the denominational spectrum converged on the University of Warwick for an unbelievable week of learning, laughing and living as if our connections were more important than our differences. Quite refreshing, considering that most of the time we humans seem to remain fixated on what separates us, at the expense of the underlying theological basis of our Jewish faith — namely that all is truly One.
We were quite busy at the conference, doing everything from a Friday Night Fabrengen to a Melavah Malkah to a large, plugged-in on-stage performance to mystical text and Torah study to teaching five year-olds how to beat box.
We also had the blessing to meet and mingle with some amazing lights of the Jewish world — filmmaker Pearl Gluck, Israeli pop icon Kobi Oz, mystical mench Rabbi Simon Jacobson, radical non-dual polymath Jay Michaelson, arts & culture maven Joel Stanley, Jewish rockers Naomi Less and Glenn Grossman… not to forget David “The Hoff” Hoffman.
Thank G!D, Darshan was extremely well received — from the youths and teenagers to the elders and scholars of the conference. It seemed like everyone had a different angle that they viewed Darshan through that enabled them to appreciate what we were doing. Some people liked to be heavily involved in our sessions through chanting and singing along; others enjoyed the acoustic and contemplative performances where they were really able to listen to the lyrics and take it all in; still others (mostly the youngsters) were ecstatic over the big loud large scale performance/dance party set… which by the way was capped off with about 10-15 new Darshan fans who had already memorized some of our lyrics coming up on stage and singing with us… truly a heavenly choir!
We finished off the week with a slot in the Closing Gala Event (thank you Cool Jew Lisa Klug) where we played an acoustic version of our new and unrecorded Darshan song “Raysheet” with the ancient Hebrew and contemporary English lyrics projected above us in a beautiful auditorium, in front of over 1,000 captivated Yids.
All in all, Limmud UK was an amazing experience, truly mind-expanding and heart-opening; one of those rare slices of the human drama that leaves us feeling hopeful and amazed by human promise and potential. Thank you England and thank you Limmud! G!D Bless….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Pick up your copy of Darshan’s "Lishmah" album!
"Harmonizing Hebrew chant with hip hop, folk rock with electro-pop, love poetry with kabbalistic psychology, Darshan is a unique and organic weave of world wisdom traditions and modern musical styles. Recommended if you like; Postal Service, Bjork, The Beasties Boys & The Beatles." CLICK TO BUY NOW
