At Third Space at Shaarei Tfiloh, Rabbi Jessy Dressin and the rest of the team look to create a place where Jewish living is intertwined with the rest of daily life. The events are often novel. Case in point, this weekend’s “Night of the Grateful Dead,” in which two legendary Baltimoreans and dedicated Dead Heads will take the stage at Third Space and discuss the Dead, Judaism and how they intersect.

“The goal of Third Space is to create a place that feels vibrant, alive and really stands at the intersection of people’s lived everyday experiences, the things they care about, the things they spend their time and energy on,” Dressin said. “People are excited about something that is unexpected.”

On Saturday, Feb. 28, Rabbi Steve Schwartz and Cris Jacobs will come to Third Space for a night of discussion and music. Schwartz is a beloved rabbi at Beth El Congregation, while Jacobs is an accomplished musician who has collaborated with the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and opened for names like Sturgill Simpson and Steve Winwood.

Seeing Jacobs play Grateful Dead covers and Schwartz talk about Judaism aren’t exactly novel in and of themselves, but together they offer a unique experience. The idea behind this event is, in part, that the two can discuss the Dead and spirituality, and when the moment calls for it, pick up their guitars and play a song that they decide to touch on. Like the music of the band, the event will be spontaneous, improvisational and authentic.

“Originally, I thought it would be similar [to a previous event] — I thought that Cris and Rabbi Schwartz would have a conversation, and it would be followed by a Dead cover band,” Dressin said. “But when we were throwing ideas around, we came up with a different model, which we thought would be fun. Basically, Cris and Rabbi Schwartz will just sit and have a conversation that we could sort of all fishbowl into, and then when they riffed on a really great conversation that resulted in them talking about one of their favorite songs, Cris would just pick up his guitar and play the song.”

The origins of this event are in a similar one that took place last year. In March, Third Space hosted a night exploring the music of Phish as it relates to Jewish identity, which included a discussion of a book that included essays exploring the legendary jam band and contemporary Judaism. Dressin loves Phish and contributed to that book, and said the event was a big success — so much so that she knew that she wanted to have a similar one focused on the Grateful Dead.

Events like these offer a novel intersection in interests for many folks. There are other similar ones, but none offering exactly what Third Space is.

Dressin noted that Jacobs would play in a Grateful Dead cover band at a church in Mount Vernon, but there would be no conversation about the meaning behind the music, or the inspiration of a band like the Grateful Dead that represents, for a lot of people, an intermediary between the sacred and spiritual and a lived experience.”

“People will often say, ‘music is my religion,’ or ‘I found God at a Phish show,’ or whatever, but we rarely explicitly talk about it,” Dressin said. “We rarely hear from the people that are the musicians and the rabbis who people look to to sort of model the connectivity [between the music and spirituality].”

As a fan of jam bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish, Dressin has been to plenty of shows and met plenty of other fans. There is a dynamic that she, and others, have noticed — one that was even covered in that collection of writings on Phish that she contributed to: Jews love jam bands.

There are plenty of theories of why this is. Some have to do with the prevalence and fit of the genre at Jewish summer camps. Dressin even mentioned the similarities between Dead Heads who sit around for hours talking about one specific show and devout Jews who sit around talking about a certain section of the Talmud.

Whatever the reason is for this dynamic, followers of both Judaism and jamming are welcome to meet at Third Space this weekend.

“If we are all people who like to geek out about it, next Saturday night is, like, ‘welcome to the geek fest,’” Dressin laughed.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com