Matisyahu lessons. (Guest Post)

By Guravitzer

The descent of Matisyahu is a direct lesson for people in power, especially Shluchim who need programs to promote to their communities. The lesson: Never sacrifice an individual for community inspiration. Maybe that's a slight paraphrase of, "When working for Klal Yisroel, don't forget Reb Yisroel" - or in this case, Reb Matisyahu. Shluchim gave Matisyahu his platform. Not just his first platform, but year after year of platforms, which translated into press, and then Sony noticed him. Shluchim on campus noticed his attraction to their college-age crowds and started the trend, then communities picked up on it. Shluchim may believe that they have no responsibility to think through who they bring to entertain or lecture for their community beyond checking that the person is kosher. Shluchim may believe that they have no reason to consider the impact on the performer or lecturer themselves. They are wrong, wrong, wrong.

The first question every Shliach should have asked is the same question they would have asked about their own Baalei Teshuvah and community members - is this right for the Baal Teshuvah, for the person, not is this right for my community. Did no Shliach notice that he was back to doing drugs almost immediately? Did no Shliach realize they were propping him up as an example for their communities, and Lubavitch in general, when he had barely acquired anything of his own to give? The message became, don't follow Torah, Mitzvos and Chassidus, follow the celebrity and Sony contract. Shluchim vet visitors to their Chabad houses from other towns carefully. As they should, there are crazies out there. Witness the firebombing of the California Chabad house. Phone calls, references, some chatting to feel the visitor out, whatever it is, Shluchim check. The same vetting should apply to entertainment, not only for its value to the community, but for the value to the person performing. Matisyahu isn't the first person to inappropriately join the Chabad house circuit, only the most prominent. The problem takes other shapes as well, such as the direction given staff - bochurim or bochurettes - when they come to a community to run camps or programs. I don't know how far down the responsibility goes - rumor had it back then when Matisyahu started his career that his mashpia encouraged him in his path of celebrity, which is outrageous - but we are each responsible for every yid, not only the ones we want to take charge of.

The "Pop Chassid" Speaks

When Judaism Becomes a Drug 

Please, let's have some intelligent conversation about this topic, I know we can do it, I trust in you people. Don't let me down here. Let's see what the Lubavitchers here are capable of. (I don't necessarily agree with every word he writes there.)

It's the man, not the beard (Guest Post)

Photo: Mary Margaret Chambliss

Matisyahu in his own words

Here’s to you, Matisyahu – L’chaim!

I don’t know much of the music – but I think “One Day” is as good a song as I’ve ever heard, and to a lesser degree, I liked a couple others that I happened to listen to – and I don’t even know the man at all. Like all “stars” who ascend and find success in the pop world, he quickly became a caricature in the minds of the masses as well as his fans or detractors. That world is a tough place, a roller-coaster of emotional peaks and valleys – it’s what they call “life in the fast lane,” and it’s not for the faint of heart. For all its attractive veneer of fame, fortune and achievement, it’s a life that few of us can relate to at all.

Among the realities that come with the territory, everything becomes amplified and placed under a microscope. It’s constantly and consistently open-season on the human being in question, as the non-stop judgmentalism of the folks keeping score at home and on the streets heave praise, scorn or indifference upon their subject without mercy. Ain’t life grand? Bastards and bloodsuckers is what we are, my friends. Not for nothing do many a famous star or starlet suffer either silently or publicly – oh, but you say, “they’re big boys and girls,” or “if you can’t take the heat stay of out the kitchen.” Ain’t you a sweetheart.

“Hey,” you respond, “they wanted the money, right? They wanted that fame, right? Well, they can’t have their cake and eat it to, you know.” Uh huh, you must be one of the compassionate types, eh? I don’t have a clue what the beard thing is about, and I don’t know much about the man other than the fact that he’s another human being trying to find his way. And that second point is, I believe, more than can be said for many of us. Most of the gutless pontificators and self-proclaimed know-it-alls (myself included), simply live life in the break-down lane, exchanging liberty and all of life's possibilities for the safety and security of following the rules of convention, “minding our rhyme and meter and going quietly about the business of achieving other ambitions.” So it is that most of us live those lives of “quiet desperation” that Thoreau spoke of, and throw stones at those who take the road less-traveled. So, I don’t know Matisyahu’s thoughts at all, but I do know what it means to feel alienated. I know what it means to feel imprisoned by my community or to be put in a box by others. I know that there are countless times that I would have loved to give ‘em all a big pie-in-the-face. How many of us wouldn’t have liked to kick convention to the curb and scream out, “I don’t want to be a part of you all?! I don’t want you to keep on defining me!” When will we give people room to live?

Matisyahu goes OTD...

"No More Chassidic reggae superstar"

I guess there is no life after Chabad... I suppose that living in that culture does have an effect, no matter what you have on your face or on the side of your head. This is not to attack the man, just observing and maybe using him as a case in point. In any case, we feel for Matis and hope that he finds his way back. Maybe if he was less cryptic in his messages we'd know where he's up to and not have to resort to guessing games.