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  1. Sea of Reeds

From the recording Jewish Blues V.1

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Sea of Reeds

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This song is a conversation between two adult Jewish men who were slaves during the
time that Jews were enslaved in Egypt. One man is committed to following Moses
through the Sea Of Reeds (Red Sea) into the unknown freedom beyond their waters. The
other is very content with his life in Egypt, his lands, animals, crops and family life.

You can imagine the difficulty in deciding to follow a renegade out into the unknown
desert. Essentially someone comes to your door and asks to to leave your home, your
lands, and all the possessions you’ve worked for to follow a stranger into the unknown.
There was also massive resistance from within the Jewish world to Moses’ rising up in
Egypt after hearing God’s call, there had never been a slave uprising in Egypt for 400
years! In fact, as the biblical narrative goes, the Jews willingly walked into Slavery and
became comfortable with the state of slavery there.
The first is the fact that 75% of the Jews in slaved in Egypt didn’t choose to leave even
after the 10 plagues! Getting an accurate portrayal of the numbers of Jews who were
actually there is virtually impossible given the difficulty of census taking and not to
mention the fact that all first generation of Jews who left were killed in the desert. One
number that is mostly agreed upon is the number of 600,000 which represents the adult
men and a total of 2 million people in the desert.

Lyrics

Pack up, it's time to leave here
We’ve been here far too long
The desert’s waitin’
For us
To sing our freedom song
It’s only gonna get worse if we stay
For these luxuries there’s a high price to pay
And if you find your stubborn heart’s in need
I’ll see you way downtown by the sea of reeds
Where is Moses?
Have you seen him?
I heard he was talking to the king
But god has hardened the Pharoh’s cold heart
Now there’s darkness in the streets
And what if evil Pharoh changes his mind
To our great lord I’ll tell you he is blind
And if your achin heart starts to bleed
I’ll see you way downtown by the sea of reeds
(the other man’s response)
I don’t think that I can go
This is the only life I know
So if you give to good reasons
To leave this season of my life
My wife, my sons and my daughters
They depend on my labor
For the bread of their intent
In the desert my seeds won’t take
So I refuse to watch my family bake
And I won’t see you way down by the sea of reeds
Ok, you can stay here
But those clouds don’t look like rain
Look more like locusts
On your wheat staff
There goes your families’ pay
And are you gonna wait until the darkness breaks
How many more signs do you you need
I don’t know what’s waiting across the desert
But I’ll
I’ll see you way downtown
By the sea of reeds
Yes I’ll see you way downtown by the sea of reeds