FailedMessiah.com

Matisyahu NYC Friday Night Conversation And Jam

Friday Night Jam with Rabbi Dan Ain, Relix's Mike Greenhaus, and special guest Matisyahu. Evening includes: * Conversation between Matisyahu, Rabbi Dan and Mike Greenhaus * Audience Q & A * Friday Night blessings (A drink and a snack are included in price of ticket, as well.)

Matisyahu Slated To Perform On Shabbat

Ex-hasid Matisyahu is slated to perform Friday December 25 at 8:00 pm – on Shabbat. This may be the first time Matisyahu has publicly broken Shabbat in his professional role in NYC since he left Orthodoxy.

Matisyahu Will Perform At Festival That Banned Him

Matisyahu's appearance at the Rototom SunSplash festival was cancelled early this week after the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) threatened to disrupt the festival if Matisyahu – who is not Israeli – was allowed to perform without first issuing a declaration in support of a Palestinian state.

The Matisyahu Teaching Moment For Hasidic Community Leaders

When a high-profile individual publicly departs from a community, it should be used as an opportunity for introspection on behalf of community leaders and members. The first question such leaders should ask themselves is why they need to attach such massive importance to externalities and communal rules.

Matisyahu Joins PETA Campaign To Urge Israeli Fur Ban

Jewish reggae star Matisyahu has sent an urgent letter on PETA's behalf to Israeli government leaders urging them to support a bill currently in the Knesset that would ban the fur trade in Israel. If the bill passes, Israel will be the first country to prohibit the production, sale, and importation of all fur products (with the exception of shtreimels, traditional fur hats worn by some Hasidim).

MATISYAHU: Chabad Has Too Many Alcoholics, Views Itself As The Only Pure Form Of Judaism

Details:

Matisyahu Does Kenneth Cole Commercial

Look at those Breslover-Karliner…

Matisyahu Comes Out

Matisyahu on why he left Chabad:

"I need to do Judaism in a way that makes me feel more alive, not less alive."

"[Chabad] was about becoming part of this machine and feeling like it was taking away from my service of God, not adding to it."

Matis considers himself a Karliner hasid, it seems. He also tells the Jewish Week he's been slowly moving away from Chabad for four years.

Matisyahu On Leaving Chabad And Judaism – What I Do Is "Much Bigger Than One Religion Or Another"

First what he said:

"I am no longer identified with Chabad. Today, it's more important to me to connect to a universal message. While they were playing on stage and I closed my eyes, I was thinking that what we do is not at all about Judaism and not about Chabad. It's much bigger than one religion or another. It relies on something real that can speak to anybody. It's about truth and memory."

What his friends say:

…Two of Matisyahu's friends live in an apartment in Nahlaot with two framed pictures of Bob Marley and the Baba Sali, a Moroccan Jewish sage, hanging side by side. Matisyahu's friends introduce these sources of inspiration as "The Bob and the Baba." Many members of their community of American immigrants sheared off several kilos of dreadlocks in their path to spiritual redemption. One of them saved two dreadlocks as a tribute to his former membership in Seattle's reggae community. They hang from his temples beside a traditional pair of payot.
 
"Matisyahu encountered a form of Judaism here that spoke to him. It was new to him and I think he liked the fact that you don't have to surrender your original sources of inspiration," they said. "There were Chabad rabbis who supported him at first but, recently, they've criticized him for continuing to appear in front of an audience of men and women and also in front of non-Jews. It's important to Matisyahu to appear before non-Jews. The advantage of Bratslav is that it's less centralized, there isn't one rabbi, and it speaks more to the soul."
 
Chabad and its deceased leader, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, have greatly defined Matisyahu's identity and he has mentioned them in an endless number of shows and interviews. Although he was not an official representative of the movement, he was invited to appear at their conferences. His friends say that he has remained a pious Jew and that he bears no animosity toward Chabad. They say he has no intention of switching the Chabad Lubavitch flag for the flag of the Bratslav Hasidic movement and "is actually searching for freedom from a pronounced identification with one specific group." …

And how does [Matisyahu's close friend, Saxophonist Daniel] Zamir, who was attracted to Chabad because of Matisyahu, respond? "I respect it, but I have remained absolutely attached to Chabad. I hold a truth in my soul. It is a powerful blessing. When I am on stage, it is important to me that a Jew connect to his own soul. I see that as a beautiful thing. Long live the King Messiah [a reference to the Lubavitcher Rebbe]."

What Chabad says:

…"It is as convenient for Chabad as it is for Matisyahu," comments a senior Chabad member in response to Matisyahu's new religious orientation. "Matisyahu was never a part of the movement's conventional line. It's possible that he felt that his membership in Chabad caused him to be scrutinized. He may have received a negative comment here or there within the Hasidic movement, and, perhaps, he felt limited. I do not believe that this was caused by his appearance before a mixed audience, because [international, Chabad singing star] Avraham Fried appears before women as well. This is a case of an inflamed audience in nightclubs and discotheques where Matisyahu gets boys and girls dancing."…

Here's what I think this all means.:

1. Matisyahu is an opportunist. He traded on Chabad's name and it's PR to propel his rise to the top.
2. Now that he's up there, he doesn't really need Chabad anymore.
3. Being Orthodox requires observing certain strictures. Encouraging mixed mosh pit dancing would be one of those.
4. So Matisyahu dumps Chabad just like he dumped JDub Records, the small Jewish-owned nonprofit lable that made him a star.
5. For its part, Chabad used Matisyahu. It pimped him to get media attention and increase donations.
6. But pimping a man who, for all his good points still does things in every performance that no real posek, haredi, Chabad or Modern Orthodox, would ever allow caused problems, both  internal and external, for Chabad.
7. Eventually, Chabad hasidim repulsed by Chabad's apparent endorsement of Matisyahu's questionable behavior brought pressure on Matisyahu's Chabad rabbis. At the same time, haredim friendly to Chabad challenged Chabad's apparent endorsement.
8. Internal Chabad pressure to "frum up" helped to propel Matisyahu out of Chabad and into the arms, in part, of the hippie splinter offshoot of Breslov.
9. But Matisyahu won't rest long. He'll keep moving, "searching," trying new things and new approaches, perhaps even leaving Judaism all together.
10. Why? Because Matisyahu was a poseur all along. It's not that he doesn't feel some connection to Judaism or hasidut – it's that he set out to use that connection for his own personal gain, to help him stand out from the crowd and get noticed. His kapote and fedora-wearing stage costume was just that – a costume. And when one costume gets old, he'll find another.

A couple of months ago a ran into the wife of a senior Chabad emissary. She mentioned Matisyahu. I told her the Rebbe never would have allowed Chabad to be used that way and that Matisyahu did things every performance that the Rebbe absolutely opposed. I also mention Chabad pro-boxer Dmitry Salita in this regard, especially the crowds of bochrim (yeshiva students) attending his fights and hanging out while bikini-clad ring card girls parade in a few feet in front of them.

What was her response? She said she agreed, but times had changed. And so they have.

Matisyahu Farbrengen Online Video

Looks like this was shot in Hadar HaTorah. Features a nice Matisyahu performance and a guest shot by Charlie Buttons. (No Yechi action, either.) Nice.

FailedMessiah In The Forward

This week's David Klinghoffer's Forward column The Disputation deals with the Matisyahu issue and with Chabad in general. Here, for my money (and ego) is the money quote:

For centuries, the role of the Jewish people as a "kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6) calling humanity to the worship of the one God was suspended. In our day, thanks to the growing interest of non-Jews in Judaism, that has started to change. Matisyahu may be the best example of a Jew ministering in this priestly role on a mass scale. His efforts, however, have won him Jewish detractors, who prefer that Jews remain anonymous or irrelevant.

Take, for example, the sniping from the peanut gallery coming out of the consistently sour but readable blog FailedMessiah.com: "What Matisyahu does is unseemly. Few, if any, significant poskim (rabbinic legal scholars who rule on Halacha) would approve. But what bothers me more is blatant trading on Kaballah and Hasidut to make money. That this does not bother mainstream Chabad may be because this is what mainstream Chabad has itself done for years."

Indeed, Chabad's efforts have earned the movement its share of enemies. The rabbi at the Reform temple where I grew up used to speak out against the local Chabad emissary; the competition made him nervous. And in the Orthodox world, a few can't forget the imbroglio in the 1990s in which some followers of Chabad's late spiritual leader, the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, let it be known that they expected he would return and reveal himself as the Messiah. Thankfully, that fever dream has subsided.…

I thank Klinghoffer for quoting me. Still, Klinghoffer is wrong on many counts:

1. I am certainly not opposed to Jews being a light onto the nations in an active fashion. What I and many other critics of Matisyahu are concerned about has been clearly stated on this blog. Being a light onto the nations or a need to remain "under the radar screen" is not one of them.
2. Klinghoffer ignores the fact that poskim do not allow what Matisyahu does, and that poskim from Chabad, while the Rebbe was alive, told musicians they could not do what Matisyahu is now doing.
3. Messianism has not gone away, as even any casual observer of Chabad knows, It is dominant in Israel, France, the FSU, and in Crown Heights. Matisyahu himself is a messianist.

Klinghoffer brushes away these facts just as he brushes away Marvin Schick's concern about the lessening religious standards in Chabad, something there is much proof for. He also makes it appear as if Schick is an enemy of Chabad, something that is absolutely false – although, to be fair, Klinghoffer may not know this.

How can Klinghoffer make claims that disregard fact? I'll give you my personal answer. Klinghoffer is a devotee of Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the maverick Orthodox rabbi shunned by many in mainstream Modern Orthodoxy and by most in the haredi world. Lapin has made a career (outside of his business involvements, which have been, in some cases, highly questionable from a legal standpoint) of supporting right wing political causes (he is one of Jack Abramoff's rabbis) and of "kashering" the religious and extremist right*. To do this, one needs to adopt an ends justify the means theology, which is just what Lapin has done. And this theology drives his disciples, as well.

Several years ago, WorldVision launched a campaign to aid those hurt by suicide bombing and terrorist attacks in Israel. The radio commercial had bombs exploding, sirens wailing. Where was the money going? To the West Bank and Gaza, and only to Arabs. I asked WorldVision why. A spokesperson responded by saying (I paraphrase) that WorldVision helps the most at need. Jews can take care of themselves. The Arabs cannot. I asked about the morality of  using terror attacks against Jews to raise money for Arabs. Terror hurts both sides, was the response.

The Salem Radio Network had a joint campaign with WorldVision to fund this very project. Ads for it ran during both the Dennis Prager and Michael Medved shows. In effect, both shows raised money for the extended families of suicide bombers. I contacted both hosts and explained the problem. Both wanted details that involved many hours of research. I did that research (without pay) and sent the information to Prager and Medved. Prager** banned all ads for that WorldVision campaign from running during his show. But what did Medved, whose rabbi-guru is Lapin, do? He increased the ads and began endorsing that very WorldVision project. Why?

I believe for the same reason Klinghoffer can so easily ignore fact. The ends justify the means.*** It wasn't worth damaging his (and Lapin's) relationship with the evangelical-owned and operated Salem radio over the WorldVision project, especially because WorldVision is a major powerhouse in the evangelical world and is, not surprisingly, a major advertiser on Salem stations.

Klinghoffer is a follower of Lapin. To the extent that his article reflects that relationship, it is Lapin – and his theology – that is to blame. The same is true for Medved and WorldVision.

If well-meaning Chabad supporters would focus on keeping Chabad within halakha, instead of kashering every instance of deviation from it, Chabad would be in much better shape, and blogs like Failedmessiah.com would not need to exist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Evangelical and other Christian Fundamentalist theology, as it impacts the public square, is not necessarily incompatible with Judaism any more than it is automatically compatible. For example, while Judaism frowns on abortion, it does not ban abortion outright and allows (and sometimes mandates!) abortion for a host of reasons related to the physical and mental health of the mother. This is why many poskim (like some of those ignored by Klinghoffer) do not support the anti-abortion movement. Lapin goes beyond this position to, in effect, kasher all but the most blatantly anti-Jewish positions of evangelicals.

**Yes, it is true that Prager is also a supporter of Chabad. But Prager is not Orthodox, and his views on halakha are not close to Orthodoxy's.

***By ends in this case I mean ideological ends, not financial gain. In other words, in this case the ends are "ohr lagoyyim" and the means, Matisyahu and Chabad. Rabbi Lapin considers ohr lagoyyim to be a cornerstone of his public work and ideology/theology.

Chabad's Very Own Messianic Rasta #7: "Deconstructing" Jewish Law

The Algemeiner Journal, a Chabad mouthpiece published in Brooklyn, has a piece written by a Chabad shaliach, Rabbi Levi Brackman, defending Matisyahu:

… There is a fundamental difference between the Kabbalistic and the non-Kabbalistic views of Judaism. Up until the French Revolution in 1789, society was divided into three groups: the church, the aristocracy and the peasants. In the terminology of the post-modern French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), the landowners and the church were the centre and the peasants were the periphery. The two did not mix. Education, money and power were restricted to the elite; the peasants enjoyed no such privileges. After the French Revolution, the periphery was also given some of the privileges that were previously the exclusive right of the centre. With this came the emancipation of the Jews. Although the landowners and the educated were still regarded as the centre, the difference now was that peasants had the possibility of entering this exclusive domain.

 

The post-modern era, according to Derrida, was a time of “deconstruction.” All things were seen in pairs, one superior to the other: rich and poor, educated and ignorant, powerful and powerless, etc. The deconstructivist view is that rich is not necessarily superior to poor, in fact, being poor can be more advantageous. Seen from this perspective, poor is the new centre and rich is the periphery. Derrida goes one step further and says that hierarchy should not exist at all; rather, all boundaries between centre and periphery should be deconstructed [1].

 

Western society is a deconstructed civilization in many ways. Whereas in the past women were seen as inferior, today they are often regarded as superior to men. Similarly, modern human rights laws have ensured that the views of vulnerable minorities are respected and listened to.

 

Non-Kabbalistic Judaism, in general, does not deconstruct boundaries. According to this school of thought, the centre should be distinct from the periphery. Here we have the concept of ‘enclave Judaism,’ which clearly marks out the boundaries between the holy and the profane. The fact that this type of Judaism disagrees with Matisyahu’s style of music and choice of audience is no surprise, for it regards the mixing of the centre with the periphery as an obvious desecration of G-d’s name.

 

The Kabbalah as interpreted by many Chassidic schools, however, adds a deconstructive element to Judaism. To be sure, Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) and Halacah (Jewish law) are two parts of a single Torah, mirroring each other in perfect seamlessness, like a body mirroring a soul. Halacah is the pragmatic counterpart of mystical Kabbalah. The authentic masters of Kabbalah and Chassidism were great masters of Halacah as well and saw halachic boundaries not as limitating, but as structural patterns reflecting the energy zones of life and the cosmos. Yet within the halachik system itself, the Kabbalists revealed a new light, often one that deconstructs bouandries, merging the finite and the infinite in an extraprdinary fashion.

 

The Kabbalah teaches, for example, that in the messianic epoch women will be perceivably greater than men, because inherently feminine energy is superior to masculine energy. The Kabbalah also deconstructs the boundaries between the physical and the spiritual. Whereas non-Kabbalistic Judaism holds spirituality superior to physicality, the Kabbalah maintains that in the final analysis the physical is more potent, the body deeper than the soul.

 

The principle is simple: the higher the source the lower it reaches. Esau is thus seen as having a higher spiritual antecedent than Jacob. One who meditates may reach lofty spiritual heights; however, the essence of G-d will remain elusive. Ironically, Kabbalah teaches that the only way one can connect to the Divine essence is through the physical. Spiritual levels are by definition constantly cognizant of their dependency on their sources. Conversely, physical objects project auras of egocentricity – they seem to depend on nothing other than themselves for their existence. This aura is, in a sense, parallel with the nature of the Divine essence whose existence is truly independent [2]. According to the Kabbalists, the ex nihilo nature of the creation of the physical universe necessitates direct intervention of the Divine essence. It is this intervention that allowed the physical to assume its egocentric aura. Thus, there is a unique similarity – at least in terms of language – and connection between the physical and the Divine essence [3].

 

This sheds light on the Jewish phenomena of Mitzvoth, which are mainly physical acts rather than mystical meditations. It is precisely through the physical act of a Mitzvah that the most profound connection with the Divine is forged. In fact, according to a Midrash [4] – adopted by the Kabbalists – the purpose of creation was for humans to unveil the Divine essence found in those parts of the universe which are most devoid of G-dliness [5]. This stresses the inherent value of the mundane and unrefined aspects of the universe – where the mission is most intense [6].

 

This completely deconstructs the boundaries. What was once the centre – without the Kabbalistic explanation – can now be seen as the periphery and vice versa [7]. Thus, by bringing a G-dly message to the intensely profane one in a sense is fulfilling the purpose of creation in the most profound manner possible. Indeed it is this ideology that has caused me to choose to live in secular Evergreen, Colorado rather than in a Chasidic enclave of Brooklyn, New York.

 

By his own admission, Matisyahu is being guided by the Chabad School of Kabbalistic thought. Thus, as long as he adheres to Jewish law and does not get carried away with stardom and the narcissistic celebrity culture of modern-day America, his music may be considered, in my opinion, a sanctification of G-d’s name.

~~~~~~~

[1] See Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, John Hopkins, (1976). [2] See Maimonides, Hilchos Daeos, 1:3. [3] For a more in-depth analysis of post-modern parallels with the Chassidic School of Kabbalistic thought, see Naftali Loewenthal’s forthcoming article, “Jewish Mysticism in a World of Change: Pre-Modern, Modern and Post- Modern Perspectives,” which in part inspired this article. [4] Bamidbar Rabba, 13:6. This Midrash was quoted most frequently by the seventh Lubavicher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn. [4] For a complete treatise on this subject see Faitel Levin, Heaven on Earth, Kehot Publication Society (2002). [5] Inherent in deconstructing boundaries is the danger of losing all sense of limits, and thus raising the possibility of further concealing the Divine essence. To forestall this possibility the Halacha (Jewish law) must be steadfastly adhered to at all times.

This is the same argument made by the followers of Shabbatai Tsvi and the Frankists to defend their heresies. While Judaism has, in more recent times, had a concept of descent for the purpose of (later) ascent, this never entailed the intentional descent into  base physicality or sin – except in the theology of the Sabbatians and Frankists. As for the rest of Rabbi Brackman's hogwash about deconstuction and halakha, the theology Rabbi Brackman represents is not Jewish – at least not Jewish in a way Jewish legal scholars for millenia would recognize or endorse. And that speaks volumes about today's Chabad and its minstrel prophet, Matisyahu.

Chabad's very Own Messianic Rasta #6

The Jewish Week has an article about the racial controversy surrounding Matisyahu. I've made the point before that much of this idea that Matis is being singled out for approbation because he is white is foolish. He's being singled out because, for the last 100 years, white artists have taken black artists' songs and released them to white audiences – often without acknowledgment. For much of this time, these black artists were denied both public acclaim and money, while the Pat Boones of the world became rich and famous at their expense.

If Matisyahu were a more substantial act, and if Matis was generous to those black artists he mimics, perhaps things would be different – but Matisyahu is not generous in this regard, and his act is far from substantial.

This history is largely ignored by those who attack Matisyahu's critics.

The Jewish Week quotes Murray Forman, a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University who has written extensively about reggae and hip-hop:

But, Forman added, no discussion of Matisyahu — or any other artist, for that matter — would be complete without mention of a social force mightier than race and religion combined: money.

“At some point we also have to recognize that Matisyahu is also a product of culture industries,” he said. “Not only he benefits from adopting reggae, but the music industry benefits as well.”

In Matisyahu, he said, the industry found an unlikely and attractive musical vehicle, one that could deliver reggae music to an audience, predominantly white, that would otherwise have most likely remained uninterested.

“Matisyahu is being promoted and marketed to a particular audience,” Forman said. “There’s an industry alongside this that says this is where we’ll meet the largest audience and generate the greatest revenue. And I think it’s folly for anybody to overlook the industrial role here.”

As proof of sorts, Forman mentioned that the industry itself refrained from labeling Matisyahu’s music as reggae. His albums are listed under the “Alternative” category on iTunes, and “King Without a Crown,” his biggest hit, reached No. 7 on Billboard’s rock chart, and not the R&B and hip-hop chart, which monitors reggae musicians as well.

To be sure, other artists who have begun as marketing schemes have since risen to prominence. Eminem, to cite the best example, got his first break for being the first white rapper, became successful for appealing to a large white audience otherwise indifferent to hip-hop and went on to become one of the genre’s most esteemed musicians, regardless of skin color.

Given the recent ride he’s on, Matisyahu may be moving in that direction. But Forman is skeptical.

“Eminem is a superior rhyme artist, he’s a skilled producer, he can freestyle, and his style is quite literally unparalleled,” Forman said. “He’s much better than Matisyahu is in his respective category. Matisyahu will never be at the top of the reggae skill chart. He’ll never trump even half of the artists we haven’t even heard of. He is not a superior artist.”

And that is exactly the point I've been making all along.

Chabad's Very Own MESSIANIC Rasta #5

The New York Times trashes Matisyahu. The Forward's Steven I. Weiss breaks the Matisyahu messianism story. Previous coverage 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Chabad's Very Own Messianic Rasta #4

New York Newsday savages Matisyahu:

But though the mood strove for the euphoric, and though the north-of-college-age crowd were rapt participants, the evening was hampered by a nagging musical flatness.

Because he employed only a sparse trio of guitar, bass and drums, the greater part of the burden fell on Matisyahu's voice. And sadly, he wasn't always up for the challenge. He struggled to hit the high notes in "Fire of Heaven/Altar of Earth" and failed to convincingly sell the clunky love song "Unique Is My Dove." Trickier still were the up-tempo numbers. Matisyahu has a nimble tongue and a fondness for speedy, tongue-twisting runs, but he has a tendency to hit the syllables like an understudy nailing his marks: with precision, but without any real sense of ownership. More troublesome is his insistence on employing a fake Jamaican patois, a device that only emphasizes that he is not from Kingston. Lacking the gruffness of dance-hall giant Elephant Man or the sweetness of reggae vocalist Sugar Minott, Matisyahu mostly comes off as a well-meaning mimic.

The same goes for his band who, while certainly proficient, were prone to bouts of unnecessary showiness. Their attempt to append a dub break to the end of "Exaltation" was listless and forced, and their occasional detours into meandering jams (the most unbearable of which ended in a drum solo) were ill-advised. In the end, the songs felt strangely starched, aping reggae's cadence and loping bass lines but lacking all of its glorious dankness and mystery.

The moments when things did lock into place were genuinely exciting. In "Jerusalem," while the group worked a slow, surging groove, Matisyahu's voice fit snugly between the whirring of bass and drums. "Close My Eyes" built to a gloriously frenzied conclusion, with the band consumed by a manic, frenzied jam and Matisyahu spinning giddily on one foot, grinning and raising his hands to the sky. If he can only figure a way to funnel that ecstatic personality into his songs, he might be onto something.

Sure. He could sing Yechi.

Tzemach Atlas reports the Boston Globe also trashes Matisyahu:

"Youth" might be refreshing, even inspiring, if Matisyahu's delivery made up for his material. But his voice is reedy and strained, and his accent shifts from Caribbean to Hebrew to generic American with no discernible connection to the songs.

The band wanders out of reggae syncopation into rock with a similar lack of purpose. It feels like a preppy band that got through college on drugs and audience indulgence before finding religion. Matisyahu's faith is his business, but comparisons to the spirituality of a Bob Marley -- one magazine, hopefully in jest, quizzes readers to distinguish between the lyrics of the two -- are a wee bit premature.

Rolling Stone also trashed Matisyahu. Their conclusion?

[T]he most exceptional thing about Matisyahu remains the most circumstantial.

Just like today's Chabad.

Chabad's Very Own Messianic Rasta #3

Steven I. Weiss has a link to Matisyahu singing Chabad's messianic chant "Yechi adonaynu moreynu v'rabbaynu melekh hamoshiakh l'olam voed," Long live our master, our teacher, our rebbe, king messiah forever" as a bridge between two songs.

For more on Matisyahu, see Chabad's Very Own Rasta #1 & #2.

Chabad's Very Own Rasta #2

The New York Post has an interview (via CrownHeights.info) with Matisyahu. The Post, not known for a stong arts section, appears to love him. Not so with Rolling Stone, which just trashed Matisyahu's second album this way:

The whirlwind of attention surrounding twenty-six-year-old Matthew Miller -- better known as the reggae newcomer Matisyahu -- can partly be attributed to the fact that the world has never seen a Hasidic Jew rocking payos side-locks and the mike with equal devotion. Youth, his major-label debut, arrives amid numerous high-profile slots at reggae festivals and a cameo on P.O.D.'s recent track "Roots in Stereo."

Much of the time, Matisyahu sounds like the former Phish-following high school dropout from White Plains, New York, that he is. His voice is nimble but reedy, his choruses generally given over to starchy platitudes like "You can't sew a stitch with one hand while you're taking it apart." … [T]he most exceptional thing about Matisyahu remains the most circumstantial.

Funny. Rolling Stone's take is basically what I wrote last week. Matisyahu pimps the image, and Chabad pimps Matisyahu.

[Partial hat tip: Dovid Lerner.]

Chabad's Very Own Messianic Rasta #1

I've basically avoided the whole Matisyahu issue. But Rolling Stone has an interesting piece on Chabad's very own Rasta. It opens this way:

Walking home recently from morning prayers, Matisyahu -- the Hasidic reggae MC -- got a call from his manager: Madonna wanted to invite him over for Passover Seder. A follower of the Jewish mystical tradition Kabbalah, Madonna promised to follow all the strictures of Matisyahu's faith, but he remained suspicious. "I don't know if I can go," he says. "I'll have to check it out with, like, multiple people, to make sure it's kosher."

And who exactly is Matisyahu?

It's a world away from Bend, Oregon, where Miller got his start. After he struggled with drugs and dropped out of high school to follow Phish, his parents sent him to a hippie-ish drug-treatment center where teens go on "vision quests" in the woods. He started beatboxing and singing at coffeehouses as MC Truth, alongside a dreadlocked friend, MC Mystic, playing Rick James covers and reggae classics. "He was a cool guy, a total stoner," says Rob Ainsworth, who lived with Miller in Oregon. "He was a little burnt out, but music was incredibly important to him. You could tell he was talented."

Sitting down to sip soup at a kosher restaurant, Matisyahu recalls his shows as MC Truth. "It was wild," he says. "We would drink a big pitcher of mushroom tea, and I'd come out with a turban on my head and a huge Israeli flag, and we'd walk around throwing sage on people."

So here's my two cents worth: Matisyahu trades on the current Kabbala craze and Chabad mysticism. A large part of his fame is based on that, not on talent. This does not mean he is not talented. It simply means in a business flooded with talent, you need extraordinary good luck and a great hook to end up on top. Mattisyahu's hook – and a significant portion of his early promotion, media, and PR – is Chabad.

On the other hand, Chabad gains greatly by promoting Matisyahu. It helps them raise money. It buys them a hip image. And it brings in new recruits. But is it kosher?

As someone who once (stupidly) turned down the opportunity to work on my own songs with a producer at Prince's studios, I have some understanding of the business. And I also have some knowledge of the interface between it and halakha.

What Matisyahu does is unseemly. Few, if any, significant poskim (rabbinic legal scholars who rule on halakha, Jewish law) would approve. But what bothers me more is blatant trading on Kabbala and Hasidut to make money. that this does not bother mainstream Chabad may be because this is what mainstream Chabad has itself done for years.

I also know of other, far more talented, musicians who were given rabbinic advice that effectively destroyed their careers. Some of that advice came directly from the Rebbe. People work in camera stores today or paint signs, in large part because they were not allowed to do the things that Matisyahu now does (with much less talent) to great acclaim. It is this that bothers me far more than Matisyahu's newbie ignorance of parts of halakha, his naive understanding of Judaism, and his pandering.

While Matisyahu may inaccurately represent Judaism, he accurately represents today's Chabad – all shiny surface, little inner truth.

[Hat Tip: Dovid Lerner.]