That's The Way The World Goes Round
John Prine died a year ago this week, and I wrote this week's episode on the anniversary of his death. This week's Torah portion, Parshat Shmini, features the deaths of Nadav and Avihu who, as Ibn Ezra comments, died before G-d doing something they thought was acceptable before G-d. They had made a mistake and deviated from the instructions G-d gave them. Ibn Ezra's commentary reminded me of John Prine's song That's The Way The World Goes Round and a story he often told about a moment of confusion on stage with a fan in the crowd who wanted him to sing The Happy Enchilada Song.
When I was a child, down in Western Kentucky, well South Central Kentucky to be exact, there was one artist that seemed to perfectly capture the land and people I grew up around, that backwards old town that’s often remembered so many times that the memories are worn.
John Prine died a year ago this week, after a lifetime of incredible perseverance in pursuit of the perfect story song. So for this week, and in his honor, I’m excited to share what I see as the Torah of John Prine—a better songwriter, hands down, any day of the week than Bob Dylan.
This week’s Torah portion, Shmini, is all about sacredness, and how hard it can be to access the sacred. Our story features Aaron, fully invested as high priest of Israel, leading the Israelites in worship and performing sacrifices in their honor.
It also features the object lessons of Nadav and Avihu, who are consumed by fire after failing to offer a sacrifice in the proper manner.
Leviticus 10:1
Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before the LORD alien fire, which He had not enjoined upon them.
And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed them; thus they died at the instance of the LORD.
Some rabbinic commentators suggest that the brothers were drunk when they approached the altar, and were punished for their drunkenness.
Ibn Ezra, the 12the century Spanish rabbi, suggests that the fire the brothers use to burn the incense offering was deemed alien because of the source they used to light it. When building the Tabernacle, the Israelites were commanded to light a fire that would never be extinguished. A holy fire they would use to light their sacrificial fires for all time.
Ibn Ezra goes on to say that Nadav and Avihu died before G-d doing something they thought was acceptable before G-d. It was a simple mistake, not made out of malice, but one that cost them their lives.
“That’s the way the world goes round,” John Prine said, “You're up one day and the next you're down. It's half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown.
That's the way that the world goes 'round.”
Nadav and Avihu died trying to access the divine, the sacred, as unwitting rebels just trying to perform their role, burning incense. It seemed as simple to them as it was sacred to the Israelites.
John Prine’s music is nothing but simple. There are multiple live recording where he admits he can’t really play the guitar solos he writes. His voice, too, has its own unique and beautiful aesthetic. Like Nadav and Avihu’s role this week, though, John Prine’s music is as sacred as it is simple. It echoes what he called “the sacred core that lives inside of me.” John Prine’s talent was his ability to calmly traverse the edge between success and disaster—the same edge that swallowed Nadav and Avihu—and bring us along for the ride.
“You are what your are and you ain't what you ain't,” John Prine wrote.
“So listen up Buster, and listen up good
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood.”
The classical lesson of Nadav and Avihu is to careful, and mindful of the rules. Don’t show up drunk to work probably too. But theirs something to be said for rule-breaking, for carving your own path to sacredness.
“Blow up your TV,” John Prine wrote, “throw away your paper.
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own.”
I suppose there’s nothing more rule breaking than mentioning Jesus on a Jewish podcast, but it’s a metaphor more than a testimony, and to me that metaphor is powerful, especially in the context of this week’s Torah portion and the deaths of Nadav and Avihu.
There’s a story John Prine told at concerts, that was captured on his John Prine Live album, about his song “That’s The Way The World Goes Round.” I was reminded of it this week, when reading Ibn Ezra’s comment that Nadav and Avihu died doing something they thought was acceptable to G-d, because sometimes it doesn’t matter what a song actually says, if we somehow get the wrong words in our head.
The story goes like this:
John Prine was playing in a small club in the San Francisco area when a woman came up to the stage and yelled “Hey John, play that song for me, the one that makes me feel so good.”
And he thought, “well I got a couple of feel good songs, I wonder which one she means.”
And she goes, “you know, sing the one about the enchilada, the Happy Enchilada.
So he stopped and thought about it, because “I’ve written a few weird ones, ya know, but turned out I knew the woman, and maybe we’d been to a party together and I made up a song about the food just to impress her. But I knew it couldn’t be, because I have a list of words I’d never use in a song, and enchilada is one of em.”
So he said to the woman, “I think you might have me confused with some other singer-songwriter. You know maybe somebody like Jimmy Buffet. He writes songs about food.”
But she yelled back, “No, John, it was you.”
“So how does it go?” He asked?
“It’s a happy enchilada and you think you’re gonna drown.”
That’s the way the world goes round. You're up one day and the next you're down. It's half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown.
That's the way that the world goes 'round.”
I’ll leave you this week with the opening to the final song on John Prine’s last full length album.
When I get to Heaven
I'm gonna shake God's hand
Thank him for more blessings
Than one man can stand
Then I'm gonna get a guitar
And start a Rock and Roll band
Check into a swell hotel
Ain't the 'Afterlife' grand!
Thanks for the lessons, John Prine. I hope your ashes are floating down the Green River, with Paradise waitin just five miles away from wherever you are.
Shabbat Shalom
Modern Torah is a self-supported podcast. Your support goes a long way in helping keep this show on the digital airwaves.
In case you’ve never heard it for yourself, here’s a great video of John Prine telling The Happy Enchilada story in full, live on stage.