Matisyahu controversy

There was a pretty nasty article on Matisyahu by Johann Hari  published in the London Evening Standard  last week:

Why I hate Matisyahu Grrrrr

It’s not a joke. Matisyahu – the ultra-Orthodox rapping rabbi from New York City – is not Sasha Baron Cohen with a new character. He really is a dark-robed religious fanatic who won’t stage-dive because of fears he might accidentally touch a woman, and sings in a cod Jamaican accent about the need to “return to Zion”. (What next, an Amish version of Take That?). But when I see his posters splattered over London, I feel pin-pricks of rage. His songs might sound like pleasantly bland homilies, but in fact they are rallying calls for a particularly nasty, misogynistic and homophobic far-right strain of religious fanaticism. When he says repeatedly “rebuild the Temple,” anybody who has been to the Settlements in Israel/Palestine will know what he means – demolish the Muslim Dome of the Rock and rebuild the Third Temple. Calls for World War Three are not my idea of a sweet melody.

My Dad alerted me to this after a friend of his said it was so anti-Semitic he was going to be alerting the Board of Deputies.

The fact is though is that Matisyahu is a religious fundamentalist who has extremist views about Israel. You can argue whether Lubavitch hassidism is misoginistic, but there is no doubt that it's deeply homophobic.

I don't think any of this invalidates Matisyahu nor is it reason to 'hate' him. Whilst I'm personally not a fran of his music, it is certainly interesting. I like the idea of a Jew at the heart of popular music singing about his Judaism - even if it's not a Judaism I am in agreement with. The price we pay for this is that as with any other artist, people will attack him and there may be a very thin dividing line between attacking him and attacking Jews. It's a similar fine line that bedevils other musics as well. For example, Jamaican reggae is often taken to task for homophobia and its defenders are often quick to cry racism.

Frankly, I think there are some much more unambiguous forms of anti-Semitism to worry about.

Comments

[Daniel]

It is alikewise interesting that he has chosen the genre that is often associated with a nationalist view of the world, be it Black Nationalist or if he in deed does dance hall too partially at least homo-phobic. I agree with you that it is never the less an interesting phenomenon. Besides I have no issue with people whp call for a new temple as long as that temple can integrate or be attached to a mosque and a church...

[JH]

What a fool. Matisyahu is not pushing any extreme views. He can claim ownership of Jerusalem just as much as the next arab or Jew. This doesn't make him extreme.

This Hari fella is obviously writing this article from his proconceieved slant against religious Jewry. There is nothing objective or intellectual about it. What a dumbass.

[Antwan]

"There may be a very thin dividing line between attacking him and attacking Jews".
That's the trick that fundamentalist Jews use to involve all Jews and make them accomplices to their fundamentalist acts, thinking and behaviour. I.e., decent Jews are defending fundamentalists just because they're Jews; that is as if all muslims back Bin Laden because he's muslim and no one condemns him because he's fundamentalist.

[Ignorance Compounded]

The Lubavitch philosophy does indeed herald the coming of the Third Temple. Although it can be easily misinterpreted, violence is not the way the Lubavitch have envisioned its construction. Far from embodying a confrontationist attitude, it is taught that the third Temple will materialize when, as a people, the Jews have attained a high enough level of spiritual purity. Unlike other more absolutist religions, spiritual purity is not linked to racial cleansing and, in fact, shuns the practice of proselytizing or otherwise encroaching on different beliefs. Matisyahu's music is not a call to arms; it does not imply that we should at once begin to rack-up arms and stage a coup of the Dome of the Rock. His message is to purify ones soul and surroundings by practicing the commandments of the Bible*--and to do so lovingly.
I’d also like to address the misdirected imputation that Matisyahu, and religious Jews in general, observe misogynistic beliefs. It is true that the code of modesty of observant Jews restrict bodily contact of the opposite sex (other than one’s immediate family: spouse, children, siblings). Firstly, the code applies equally to men and women. To infer that Jewish men are restricted to touch a woman as a reflection of her inferiority disregards the fact that women are held just as responsible for immodestly touching a man. Turning the code on its head, we might as well call it a feminist religion. Second, modesty in the Jewish tradition is treated as one of the many means to attain spiritual purity, for men as well as women. The restrictions on the behavior of opposite sexes is technically a filter devised to focus ones energies to the practice of the commandments and to avert the temptation to stray from those responsibilities. Anyone even moderately acquainted with Judaism knows that the marriage laws are heavily biased towards women’s rights. These laws are but the tip of the iceberg in a religion that strongly respects and reveres women. Matisyahu does not crowd-surf only for fear that he might touch a woman, but out of consideration that a woman is not forced to touch him.
The Lubavitch are, to my knowledge, the only observant Jewish group that eagerly accepts other Jews, regardless of their level of observance, and actively seeks to instruct them on established Jewish tradition, so that they may be educated enough to make and informed decision on whether they would like to continue to practice Judaism, or not. Lubavitch is the equivalent of a Jewish outreach program. Every Jew is invited, its mission is to shun no one. Matisyahu is a perfect example of a Baal tshuva. Loosely translated a baal tshuva is a Jew who “returns to religion” and adopts an observant life guided by the Bible. With the fervor of the newly initiated, Matisyahu consistently sings about righteousness, humility and the quest to bring ourselves closer to Gd.

* The Bible is referred to here as the oral and written version of the Old Testament.

[Lsk]

I agree with you 110% i bleav he is a self hating jew becuase if you go to one of his concerts there are Gangs standing next to orthodox jews and i feel the only reason he acts religous becuase it makes him big i feel it is just all a act to become a big regge star

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