Pacific Jewish Center | Rabbi » Matisyahu

The Shave Heard ‘Round the World

rabbifink — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:50:34 +0000

This morning, Matisyahu shaved his beard.

Matisyahu, the self-proclaimed chasidic reggae pop-star, has always identified as an orthodox, chasidic Jew since his rise to stardom almost a decade ago. His signature look was that of a chasidic man. He had an untrimmed beard, long side locks and wore the chasidic garb. All of this while singing songs that made it on the pop charts.

Matisyahu explained his sudden departure from religiously inspired hirsute facial hair maintenance:

No more Chassidic reggae superstar.

Sorry folks, all you get is me…no alias. When I started becoming religious 10 years ago it was a very natural and organic process. It was my choice. My journey to discover my roots and explore Jewish spirituality–not through books but through real life. At a certain point I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity…to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person I needed rules–lots of them–or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.

Get ready for an amazing year filled with music of rebirth. And for those concerned with my naked face, don’t worry…you haven’t seen the last of my facial hair. – Matisyahu

Many people interpreted this as a departure from orthodox Judaism. They felt that this meant that Matisyahu was reverting to his pre-orthodox Jewish lifestyle and would no longer identify as an orthodox Jew. Heeb Magazine made this point in the most cynical way possible.

After an Internet firestorm, Matisyahu clarified his newfound religious freedom with a more careful statement:

For all of those who are being awesome, you are awesome. For all those who are confused: today I went to the Mikva and Shul just like yesterday.

So, it seems that all the bellyaching and nervous twitching over losing the one and only orthodox Jewish pop star and the first since my friend Evan from Evan and Jaron paved the way for Matisyahu, was premature and overly judgmental.

This leads me to two less than obvious thoughts. (I’ll save the obvious thoughts for the obvobloggers. You know who you are.)

First, Matisyahu must think that non-chasidic orthodox Judaism (NCOJ) has less rules than chasidic orthodox Judaism (COJ). This is not necessarily the truth. What is true is that COJ has more rules about appearance and external practices than NCOJ. Further, NCOJ is adopting more and more of the COJ appearances and rules on appearance.

By and large, I think this is a fair distinction. COJ glamorizes a certain mode of dress and appearance as holy. NCOJ also glamorizes a certain mode of dress and appearance as holy but it is less distinctive and less sharply enforced. So I hope Matisyahu is not too disappointed with NCOJ when it comes to appearances. That is, unless he will be self-identifying as Modern Orthodox or a Yekke. Those two groups are the least concerned with external appearances within the orthodox Jewish spectrum.

Second, the beard. To some, especially those in the COJ community, the beard is holy. It has religious significance. It is not to be touched by human hand, scissor, shaver, razor or garden shears. This idea is based on mystical teachings and kabbalah. This religiously inspired love for man-hair contributed to the shocking, but brief image of a religiously shattered Matisyahu. One blogger announced that he was “off the derech” because he had shaved.

When Matisyahu announced he had shaved, I was actually proud of him. To me, it meant that he was thinking critically about his Judaism and felt a beard was not necessary or integral to his love and service of God. I agree.

Beards in orthodox Judaism are a funny thing. They mean a lot to some people. But really they mean nothing at all. A beard does not make someone holy. A holy person does not need a beard to be complete. Let’s not forget that a beard is simply just that, a beard. The Torah prohibits destroying one’s facial hair. This law is similar to the law prohibiting cutting one’s self or getting a tattoo. Using a scissor or similar mechanism to trim or shave one’s beard is not a violation of law or the spirit of the law.

The emphasis placed on things of lesser importance is common in all forms of orthodox Judaism. It can be a harmful force if it causes us to lose sight of what truly is important. If Matisyahu can show non-Jews that being an orthodox Jew is a beautiful life let us hope he can also show orthodox Jews that even a beardless man can live a beautiful life as well.

Links: Matisyahu’s Blog, Heeb

My Chanukah Message To You: Light Knows No Friend or Foe

rabbifink — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:00:02 +0000

This was the main message of my sermon for the first Shabbos Chanukah. I hope to publish the sermon in its entirety in the coming days.

I would like to share with you an important message that strikes me as central to Chanukah and in particular to Chanukah in 2009.

In Friday’s NY Times, David Brooks writes about the Chanukah story. The article is interesting, a bit provocative and very thoughtful. I recommend reading the article in its entirety.

In his words:

“Mattathias’s five sons, led by Judah Maccabee, then led an insurgent revolt against the regime. The Jewish civil war raised questions: Who is a Jew? Who gets to define the right level of observance? It also created a spiritual crisis. This was not a battle between tribes. It was a battle between theologies… The lesson of Hanukkah is that even the struggles that saved a people are dappled with tragic irony, complexity and unattractive choices. And he is right and the struggle continues today.”

The Maccabees fought their own Jewish brothers and sisters in an effort to regain control over a Jewish people that were spiraling into assimilation. As Brooks says, in their victory there remains a tragic irony.

Chanukah is a festival that reminds us of the fragmentation within Judaism. Whether it is the ancient epic struggle of Yosef and his brothers or the more current struggles between Jews from along the spectrum of politics, different hometowns in Europe, different Rabbis, different neighborhoods and even between more observant and less observant Jews, unity eludes us.

Perhaps that is why the element of pirsumei nisa, of publicizing the grand events of Chanukah is so central to its mitzva. In no other mitzva is there so strong an element of publicizing that the observance of the mitzva depends upon it. How are we to publicize? Is it with bullhorns or billboards? TV ads or 2 page spreads in the NY Times?

No.

It is by lighting candles. It is with fire. It is with light. The light unites us. The light does not play favorites. The light knows no sides. Fire is fire. The way we celebrate the festival of Chanukah is by publicizing a message of light. A universal light. A light that knows no friend or foe. Where there is light, there is light for all. We proclaim the Chanukah story with light. We proclaim a dedication to unity.

This Chanukah let us reunite.

We can do it and we have the resources to do it. It is time to set aside differences and unite under the themes and ideals that we agree upon and not look to our differences for fuel towards animosity. Let us look for unity in one another.

If we can do that, it will be a modern day Chanukah miracle.

Part of my recent inspiration: (Matisyahu – One Day). Play the song and listen very carefully to the words.

Yes, this is the song I mentioned as the soundtrack on the NBC promo for the Vancouver Olympics.

Matisyahu, NBC and The Olympic Winter Games Make A Great Team

rabbifink — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:25:57 +0000

I first heard of Matisyahu while working as a Campus Rabbi at USC. The Jewish students on campus were really into his music (this was ~5 years ago) and some of my students invited me to join them at a Matisyahu concert.

He was performing at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood which was right near my home. I went and it was really cool. The music was great, the message was equally wholesome and the connection that I got to build with my students was profound.

I liked it enough that I took my wife to a Matisyahu show at the American Jewish University a few weeks later. It was a bad venue for a concert. It was more like a movie theater than the right venue for a reggae concert. Still, we enjoyed the music.

I knew that Matisyahu had made it, when I was listening to my then favorite sports radio show, “The Loose Canons” on AM 570 in Los Angeles (oh how I miss those guys…) and they played Chop ‘em Down as their bumper music. That was an epiphany for me. At that point, Matisyahu has “made it” in my books.

If that wasn’t sufficient proof that Matisyahu had “made it”, I received another clue a few weeks ago. I was playing the NBA 2K10 video game and the background music was… Matisyahu!

I found a video of the NBA 2K10 playlist so you can see for yourself.

I thought that was pretty cool.

But today around the blogosphere and on Twitter the latest Matisyahu news is regarding the new NBC advertisement for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

This is, by far, the best exposure that Matisyahu has seen in the public eye. The commercial is perfect. The content, the timing of the cuts, the slow – motion, the music and the message are woven together to create a really perfect ad. The emotion that the 30 second spot exudes are exactly what NBC wants you to feel.

I like NBC as a network and I hope that they can mount a comeback and become relevant again. This ad is a great start.

I am sure Matisyahu is proud to be part of such a great ad. I am proud to share it with you.