Time for Mincha, Paul

September 28, 2008 - 8:12 AM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture, Religion

Paul McCartney’s played all around the world, with The Beatles, with Wings, and on his own. I’m sure he’s encountered some strange sights and situations (among them spending a few days in a Japanese jail for pot possession), but his historic performance Thursday night in Israel likely presented a first at a McCartney show – its very own Chabad mitzvah booth.

As the near 50,000 concertgoers of all ages rambled through the grassy Ganei Yehoshua on the way to the show, they passed the usual beer and hot dog vendors, and McCartney memorabilia like ‘Paul in Israel’ t-shirt and button hawkers. But, right in line with the path was a booth set up by Chabad, offering literature, the mitzvah of laying tefillin, and some good yiddishkeit.

I didn’t see many takers in the brief moments I was in view of the booth, as it seemed that most fans were eager to stake their claim on a piece of earth as close to the stage as possible. But the Chabad guys were in good cheer, singing songs (not Beatles) and joining in the revelry.

The audience at the concert was a typically mixed cross section of the usual concert-going teens and 20-somethings, a good representation of parents with young kids, and a lot of aging baby boomers like me. There were plenty kippas generously sprinkled throughout the audience, and all in all, it was a mellow crowd.

A friend who I ran into at the show commented that Israeli rock audiences are so different from American ones, where ‘getting wasted’ is almost part of the DNA for concert-goers. Here, it was a family atmosphere, with the occasional waft of marijuana smoke in the air being the exception and not the norm.

Much ado was made about the NIS 5,000 VIP seating, and the less expensive but still expensive reserved seating area. I didn’t sit in either one, but my impression is that the reserved seating folks, who forked over NIS 1,500 for their seats got the short end of the stick.Their ‘seats’ were the equivalent of the bleachers in a baseball games, pretty far back, and somewhat detached from the excitement of the show.

The VIP stands were a bit closer, but those people were probably in a stupor the whole show from the gourmet buffet and open bar they enjoyed in the huge food tent built just for them on the side. That might explain why it looked like they were sitting throughout the show, while the plebes on the grass were up and dancing and moving the whole time.

When I floated out of the show after over two hours of Beatles magic, the Chabad booth had been dismantled and the staff long gone. Maybe they thought Paul was singing about that other ‘Mary’ when he sang ‘Mother Mary’ in “Let it Be” and not his own mother. Or maybe they just couldn’t compete with the near religious experience that so many people seemed to have at the concert.

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