Matisyahu made big news in the Jewish world when he decided to shave off his beard a couple of weeks ago. People questioned his association with Chabad and Orthodoxy and even his Judaism.
In the video above, he talks about his dramatic entry into Orthodoxy.
"When I grew my beard I was, like, just getting into Judaism. ...I like the way it felt. I liked representing myself as Jew because I felt something inside of me, Jewish, that was coming alive
Then at a certain point I found out...the group that I was heavily into said that you can't cut it, even if you want to. It's against the law, and besides it's a representation of God's mercy...so I bought into that for a long time."
He goes on to describe how there were moments he loved the beard and moment he felt very uncomfortable. He felt like people were looking at him funny.
And he liked the restriction against cutting it. He couldn't cut it even if he wanted to. And he was afraid -- he was afraid of what everyone would say, that he sold out. And he was afraid of the religious consequences, until he learned to trust himself.
Turns out that Matisyahu was right to be worried about what people would think. He broke the news with a tweet and a picture that showed him, for the first time in his public life, beard-free.
matisyahu At the break of day I look for you at sunrise When the tide comes in I lose my disguise yfrog.com/mng3ocj yfrog.com/mgj7ezhj
And following the uproar, he sent another tweet, indicating that all was OK. Nothing had changed. Going to shul and mikveh like always -- it's just a beard.
matisyahu For those who are confused today I went to mikveh and shul just like yesterday
So in the end, it’s just a beard.
In and Out of Love
I have seen many people come in and out of Judaism in recent years. Many come into the religion quietly and without fanfare. Often these are people joining Judaism because they are joining a Jewish family.
The other group are those who have experiences like Matisyahu's. The epiphany. The extremist moments. Hearing about how a beard is God' mercy one day and throwing out your razor the next. Donning tzitzit and making sure the tails hang out so everyone can see: I'm a Jew.
Matisyahu was 19 when he officially join the Lubavitch movement. Before that he was most Jewish kids I know. Brought up in a liberal steam of Judaism and rebelling against it as an adolescent. He went a little further than most -- dropping out of school, dropping lots of drugs and following Phish around the country. It's not really a surprise, is it, that a kid who would go to such an extreme would pick an extreme form of Judaism to come back to.
These kinds of stories often have a similar turn to Matisyahu's. The enthusiasm wears off and the 'high' of finding an answer for your life is trumped by living everyday life. I can't count how many people have walked through the doors of our synagogue thinking they had finally found the answer who walk right out again a few years later, leaving our community and Judaism forever.
I'm glad Matisyahu has decided to stick around, to not leave Judaism completely because the more extreme version of it doesn't suit him any more. In some ways, I wish I had his footsteps to follow in.
When you have doubts about liberal Judaism, where the rules are so few and far between and the substance of the thing is wispy anyway, where do you go? Where do we go now?
No comments:
Post a Comment