Staying Grounded
By the time Matisyahu loped onstage for what had been billed for days as a surprise appearance at last week’s Jewlicious festival – an annual event organized by Beach Hillel at the Long Beach JCC – it was a surprise only to festival organizers.
They had worried until the last minute that the hassidic reggae superstar, whose onstage passion contrasts sharply with an offstage diffidence, would be a no-show at their fourth annual learning and cultural weekend in Long Beach, California, aimed at college and post-college students.
The guy is notorious for doing what he wants – from switching record companies (in 2006 he dumped the indie JDub Records for the big boys at Sony) to breaking last fall with Chabad-Lubavitch, the movement that gave him the hassidic street credibility that helped jump-start his career.
But there he sat on a Sunday afternoon, perched on a high-backed stool in his trademark black sweats and Nikes, blue button-down shirt and black hoodie, peering out through small, rectangular spectacles at more than 200 people who had crammed into the cafe at the Long Beach Jewish Community Center to hear him.
After opening with a niggun, or hassidic melody, which segued into his early hit “Close My Eyes,” Matisyahu addressed the crowd in his trademark quiet voice, which has lost the adult onset Yiddish inflection that marked it even a year ago.
“OK, so I was supposed to talk about spirituality,” he began, breaking into a sardonic half-grin. “But I realized I’m not so good at that, so I’m going to sing a couple more songs.”
Matisyahu, aka Matthew Miller, is still very much a work in progress. And he’s the first to admit it.
Now 28, he grew up Reconstructionist in White Plains, N.Y., and has only been frum, or religiously observant, for eight years. His meteoric rise to fame only began when he emerged from yeshiva four years ago in full hassidic regalia, incorporating hassidic melodies and references to Hashem and Jerusalem in his reggae and dance hall music.
“I know that in my life, when I really gave myself over completely to God, He really blessed me,” Matisyahu told the Jewlicious crowd.
Since his 2004 debut, “Shake Off the Dust … Arise,” Matisyahu has released half a dozen CDs and DVDs, toured North America, Europe and Israel, and graced TV talk shows and magazine covers. He was Billboard’s 2006 reggae Artist of the Year, an unlikely title for the soft-spoken young man still feeling his way through the hassidic world.
AT JEWLICIOUS, Matisyahu took on an almost Dylanesque mystique. He was there all Shabbat with his wife, Tahlia, as they were two years ago.
But the some 600 individuals gathered for a weekend of Jewish workshops, worship and music carefully left him alone. However, when word spread that he was going to teach a workshop on Jewish spirituality Sunday, the room filled up quickly.
After the self-deprecating opener, Matisyahu spent an hour singing some of his better-known songs accompanied by Adam Weinberg on the guitar. He also delivered a d’var Torah on Jerusalem and answered questions with disarming candidness.
Matisyahu spoke about his struggle to keep his music grounded in faith.
“Sometimes I fall into the trap of relying on my music,” he said. “If you spend your life trying to fill up the hole inside of you, when the music comes, there’s no emotion behind it, there’s nothing going on.”
He paused, then added, “I’m talking about myself.”
Asked how he manages to “stay pure” in the face of his new wealth and success, Matisyahu acknowledges the struggle.
“I’m still trying to figure it out,” he said, adding half-jokingly that he is working on it with his therapist. “I feel I’m doing an OK job, better maybe than I was a little while ago.”
The singer talked about why he is no longer affiliated with Chabad, a break he announced last fall.
“When I first became religious, a lot of it had to do with my desire to be connected with God,” he explained. His first mentor was a Chabad rabbi, who started teaching him Chabad hasidus, or theology, which he still studies and which he found “very important” in helping him “get beyond myself.”
But once he was able to “push myself over the edge,” as he put it, he felt it was “time to return to myself a little bit.”
It’s not a matter of rejecting Chabad, Matisyahu added quickly, but of “not feeling bound to one way or one path, but open to many paths within Judaism.”
He still lives in Crown Heights, the Brooklyn neighborhood where his wife has strong ties to the Lubavitch community, but he prays in a Karliner shul in Borough Park, also in that New York City borough. Last fall in Jerusalem he started hanging out with the Karlin-Stoliners, a hassidic group known for praying at full volume.
“Prayer is basically boring,” he told the crowd, which laughed appreciatively. “So I just try to make it exciting as much as possible.”
Describing the Chabad approach to prayer as “trying to intellectually grasp God as much as you can,” Matisyahu said he feels “there are times for that and there are times for just screaming to God. And that’s what I want to do every morning.”
That’s how his current minyan prays, he said, adding with a grin, “It’s a lot of fun.”
But it’s also serious, he continued, related to the passion with which generations of religious martyrs died with the Shema prayer on their lips.
Imitating the polite, sing-song Shema melody used in the typical American synagogue, Matisyahu contrasted that – in an exaggerated stage whisper – with the way Karliners in his new minyan scream every word “as if there’s a firing squad in the room, and they’re saying it with their last breath. That’s the way I like to kick off my morning.”
Matisyahu talked about moshiah, hinting that messianism within Lubavitch – the belief that the late rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is God’s promised Messiah – was one of the things that pushed him away from the group.
He told the crowd he discovered reggae at age 14, “when I started smoking pot,” adding quickly that’s something he no longer does.
Matisyahu even offered dating advice – “find someone that you like” – and admitted that he might have known “in my subconscious” that the hassidic dress helped his career.
But most of what he shared had to do with the connection between music and love of God, which he sees – like any good hassid or reggae musician – as inextricably linked.
“I feel being Jewish and being able to express myself through music, there’s definitely a connection,” he mused, nodding to himself. “Yeah.”
That prompted one young man to ask Matisyahu how he felt about being able to make a living from his music.
“It’s f—ing awesome,” the star responded, with a huge smile.
As the students cheered uproariously, he added somewhat ruefully, “Oh, I’m going to be hearing about that.”
Me
Ginug shoin mit em. Loz em gei’n tzy Stolin gezunter heit.
sb
“F—ing awesome”? I suppose he now thinks of himself as a real music star in the REAL world! I must say that as someone who thought that singing in bars and having such a large involvement in goyishe nightlife around the world was not a bad thing, I was really mistaken. I just hope Elliot spitzer doesnt have an effect on him like the music industry and the money that came with it did. Matisyahu go learn some Chassidus man.
Chabadnik
As mentioned in the previous–infamous–“Matisyahu” thread, he is a talented young man who is finding himself. He clearly explained his friction with the very basis of Lubavitch: Chabad mont pnimius, Matisyahu vilt shrei’en. Good onya, buddy. Should you become bored with THAT and decide to shake off the dust, you’re welcome around.
anon
let matisyahu sing where he wants we dont have to publish these storys in this website anymore after all he’s not a lubavitcher anymore and who really cares about him i CH.
we-re just leftovers
Darned right you are. Nice work, nice language, just what inspires & revs up impressionable kids. the success that you have is thanks to Lubavitch. It’s amazing that on the way up, all the inconsistencies & things that drive you nuts now were just great then.
You follow the path of so many people who soon forget their friends & communities when they strike it big. But now he’s admitting (in a small way) that acting like a Chassid” (dressing like one & having a heimishe twang))helped his career. No surprises there.
good luck to you…now leave to much better things.
FlatbushDad
Very much pleased you posted this article.
For starters Sue Fishkoff is very reliable source and a true friend of Lubavitch. The article is well written and actually I am very much surprised that Matis expressed himself so eloquently without knocking Chabad. He obviously knows he has gained alot from us. He will always have his many Chabad friends to count on too.
That said, it was his call to move on, which is fine as Chabad is not about holding on to folks or forcing change. I am very much relieved to hear Matis is happy where he is now and I only wish him the best of luck.
Asher Zelig
ok now everyone is gonna start saying, matisyahu this and that and hes a bad person and thank g-d he’s not lubavitch anymore and our kids shouldnt be around that kind of music. well the fact is hes still a good guy is music is great and he can live his life as he wishes to. the only thing i will say bad is the last line of “f—ing awesome” but cmon how many of us dont slip now and then? besides it seems to be the only word i hear aroun CH and BP and W
batya ibroci
BS”D
uh – oh c’mon mat!
Cee
thats disgusting. He is giving a spirituality workshop and he uses the F word?? Thank G-d he left Chabad. i don’t have to explain that guy to my kids.
izzy
the closer you are to something the less you have to scream. baruch hashem as a chabad chosid i feel that when we daven we are very close to hashem and thats the reason we dont scream while we daven.
If i wanted to have fun in religion there are different times, but davening is a meeting with you and hashem!
Uh Oh!!
That prompted one young man to ask Matisyahu how he felt about being able to make a living from his music.
“It’s f—ing awesome,” the star responded, with a huge smile.
***********************************
i guess this is where the lack of chabad chasidus comes into play
YG
When you are trying to reach the hearts of teens and adults on the College Campuses who are far removed from Judaism there is nothing constructive in pointing out certain glitches in the general Jewish System – messianism and Chabad especially after the vocal outcast sect has legally been estranged from the Chabad Movement.
Yossi
To all those so upset over the “F” drop. Go check out any good ol’ Yeshiva dorm for an hour. And we learn Chassidus every morning.
chossid
“Matisyahu talked about moshiah, hinting that messianism within Lubavitch – the belief that the late rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is God’s promised Messiah – was one of the things that pushed him away from the group”
wow, wow, wow
Mathew i miss you.
Matisyahu, people are just mad you left us, but we all truly love you. Cant wait to see you back or see you where you are, your a Jew and thats what counts.
think at all times
you call yourselves Lubavitch and this is how you speak about a fellow Jew!! im not justifying his actions but i definetly think you should think for a minute before you post a comment. the same ‘Lubavitch’ which forbids this kinds of music also says that you should love your fellow Jew! why do you think ones worse or better than the other???
anon
whats the differnce between somone who bad mouths someone and someone who plays unrefined music?? why do you think your any better than him to the degree of saying, “Thank G-d he left Chabad” if you think bad mouthing someone is the way a chabad chossid should act…good luck!
batya ibroci
BS”D
screaming while davening?
there much to learn lets not
jump at the guy
http://www.meaningfullife.c…
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov was once asked: Why do certain disciples of yours make such a ruckus while praying? They shout, they wave their arms, they virtually throw themselves about the room. Is this the appropriate way to commune with the Almighty?
The founder of chassidism replied: Have you ever seen a drowning man? He shouts, he thrashes his arms, he struggles with the waves that threaten to claim him as their own. Throughout the day, a person is swamped by the demands of his material existence; prayer is the attempt to break free of the engulfing waters that threaten to extinguish
one’s spiritual life.
True, a noisy service of G-d is an indication that the person is ‘‘not yet there.’’ Had he succeeded in transcending the mundane, his endeavor to draw close to the Almighty would be a tranquil one—his soul would strive upwards with a silent, frictionless flame. His noisy struggle reflects the fact that his spiritual self and priorities have not yet become the seat of his identity, that his ‘‘natural’’ self still lies with the material externalities of life. Nevertheless, this is a healthy sign: he has not succumbed. He is straining to free himself of the coarse envelope of his material being, straining to rise above his presently defined self.
anon
Today must be a really slow news day if we are reading about matisyahu again. he is so boring!
oh my
I heard a nice vort about people leaving Lubavitch-
The Rebbe Picks them up in his hand, and considers, “Is this my chossid?” then after a little while, says “No- he is not to be a chossid of mine.”
Again with this
The constant judgement and lack of acceptance of anyone who doesn’t perfectly emulate this one’s or that one’s idea of what it is to be Chabad or Jewish is not a good advertisement for Chabad or the Frum lifestyle in general. Is this what Chabad is about? Is this what the Rebbe taught?
Who is so perfect, so flawless that they can point a finger; no one here certainly, and I include myself. I should only live long enough to emulate one tenth of the way the Rebbe lived each day, I would be accomplished.
Please remember what Chabad is supposed to stand for. Please remember the Yididshekeit spread by the Rebbe and others. Live your life to the best of your ability and true to your beliefs, and let that speak for itself.
May Moshiach come and show all of us perfection in our lifetime.
Fall in love with Chassidus, again
He hasn’t been frum more than 5 years… if you call that frum… in yeshiva for almost 1 year… if you call playing music – yeshiva…
This is what you get folks!! When you embrace every NEW Thing (Neyer Zach) on the block, in the name of Kiruv, Shlichus, Fun, Expression, Transformation, Art etc…
He didn’t betray you, you betrayed yourself by following this guy’s career, listening to his “music”
Just follow Chassidus and don’t divert right or left.
G-d should help…
Peace
people, please.
he cursed. Horrible. Yet lubavitch teenagers on our streets do much worse.
We shouldn’t be making comments about him leaving or being a disgrace to chabad.
A jew is a jew.
The poor guy is struggling with religion and G-d knows what else. Being a celebrity can takes its toll in every aspect of ones life. Give the man a break. Let’s support him, and always make him feel welcomed.
Anyone saying “it’s good he left” should question his role in chabad.
oy vay oy vay
May hashem help his pour lost soul.
He went from a Lubavitcher singer, to dumping lubavitch and look where its gotten him, an f- word, and the farshtikener article in jpost,
Matis cut your loses, and regroup, live like a mentch dont talk about your religious affiliation, and go spend 5 hours with your mashpia
just what the doctor ordered.
A C.H.
Amazing Chinuch even for his own kids -What’s with the dirty language? What happened to clean language BICHLAL?
Yosef
You will hear plenty of f-bombs in 770 or any other place in Crown Heights. I am guilty of the same thing. Mattis is carving his own path, and it is pretty natural for people to be jealous and have their two-cents to say. Remember that there are so many Jews out there not being reached. We need many different types of religious Jews to reach them. If they don’t identify with Chabad, so what! The most important thing is that they should be reached. The students obviously left there with a good feeling about Yiddishkeit, and Mattis must have brought that to them. That should be appreciated.
fre
Good riddance. Let the Stoliners farntfer for him now.
Fed up with Better-Than-Thou CHers
He used the F word. He dropped Lubavitch. He does so many things that may or may not be exactly according to halacha.
Let me ask you all- how many of you have children, nephews, nieces, cousins, or friends, who GREW UP FRUM and, rachmana litzlan, decided to take a different path?
Before criticizing someone else’s journey, think about what you are doing in your daily life to make that same journey easier for those around you. Even with every little issue you may find with Matis, he’s still frum, still believes in G-d, and recognizes that he isn’t perfect. Who cares if he doesn’t daven in Lubavitch? We made someone frum, and now he davens, now he believes in G-d, now he lives a kosher life (definitely more kosher than before he met us).
Learn to see the good in things and maybe you won’t be so miserable about life….
WASOME!!
HAY GUYS!! LITSEN! MATISYAHU CAN DO WHAT HE WANTS!! WHERE EVER HE WANTS TO GO,BE WHATEVER!
BUT HE’S JEWISH!!!! AND HE’S THE MOST WASOME PERSON!!!!!! CAN LEARN ALOT FROM HIM!!
MATIS, YOUR AWSOME!!
sam kustanovich
Prophesy and miracles of this caliber are given by G-d to the prophet.
As in times of Moshe Rabbeinu, G-d sent Moshe to tell the Jews that he was ready to take them out of Egypt and for that He made many great miracles so that they would believe him. The purpose of the prophet was to influence the Jews and cause them to want to go out of the golus (exile) – of Egypt and do what G-d wanted.
The message of this prophet, the Lubavitcher Rebbe is:
a) We should know that awaiting the coming of Moshiach now is much different from what it was for thousands of year, for which we had to wait until the Jews prepared the world to be ready for Moshiach.
b) Now the Rebbe has shown through the above miracles that the world is ready for Moshiach to come. What is left now is to show him that we really want him to come. This is different from the exodus from Egypt, when those Jews who did not want to leave, died in Egypt. Now the Rebbe wants all the Jews to go out of golus, exile and for that reason, he sent shluchim, messengers, all over the world to awaken the Jews that the time for Moshiach to come has arrived.
c) By increasing our love and unity with every Jew through tzedaka, materially and physically and increasing in the observance of the mitzvos and the study of Torah, particularly the study of Chassidus. Performing these mitzvos would prevent any negative events from occurring before Moshiach comes. The coming of Moshiach will come with goodness and kindness.
d) As the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe said, what you can accomplish now cannot be accomplished later and Maimonides says one good deed of a Jew can tilt the scale and suddenly Moshiach will come. Then we will be very sorry we lost the opportunity.
jfk
will u guys stop criticising him and leave him alone?
crown heights sucks
lubavitch is known for accepting every type of person from not religious to becoming jewish! in the days the rebbe was here when ppl came to chabad from whatever background, they felt like they came to a chabad warm loving community but nowdays, theres no reason to fake it. crown heights looks just like any not religious area we dress walk and talk like goyim!
for the few ppl who live in crown heights that still have the essence of a real lubavitcher im sorry and it truly might hurt you to live in this drastic change since the rebbe died. but the rest of the people, theres no reason to bad mouth anything! your all just hypocrits. if i had to come to lubavitch looking like this i would leave too.
GoldRose
The difference between him and all the other people, those who grew up frum and left and – even, if you want to say, bochurim in dorms etc – is that Matisyahu is a public figure.
Being in the position of role model or superstar comes with an achrayis. You have to be on your best behavior. What you do in your house is private, but in public, it’s not acceptable.
Ahavas Yisroel
OK so he left Lubavitch but he’s not hostile to it, so why be hostile toward him??
You guys make it sound like he became a Misnagid or a Atheist. He’s still a frum yid struggling like anyone else, leave him the heck alone!
(The funny thing is he used to annoy me because he wore a Yechi Yarmulke, now he left because of Yechiism.)
me
i totaly agree with wasome… just because hes in the spot light doesnt mean we have to disect him in every directing.. let him do what he want… jsut because hes not chabad or whatever doesnt mean we cant love him…. if yall realy want to bring moshiach well then ull first have to work on your judging pple cuz its just wrong… how would u feel if ppl. put a microscope to your life and judged you????? ud hate it….
Live and let live
Live and let live
Matisyahu is a real person who is honest with himself and Hashem, he is truly trying to find himself. He doesn’t owe you anything so stop hounding him!
A fellow JEW
He is still a Jew w/ a neshama And maybe if everybody stops harassing him he might even come back…………
u know what they say “if they’re would only be peace with in Chabad chassidim moshiach will have been here already”
elig
since when does this website allow words like f—ing to be written on it. i think its a disgrace.what happens when the children reading this article ask their parents what f—ing means and why isnt it written like a normal word. the only reason it was allowed is because lubuvitch has a chip on their shoulder regarding matisyahu, get over it! im a proud lubuvitcher but i got news for all of you, were not holier then other sects of Judaism, yes we have chassidus and the rebbe but a jew is a jew. so get off your high horse and open your eyes.
D. Chossid
BS”D
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.
All the shluchim who thought it would be cool to use Matisyahu, uch und vey!!!
If it sounds goyish, it looks goyish and it tastes goyish, it’s goyish, even wearing a black hat and tzitzis.
The emes always comes out in the end.
On another note, let him try the F word in the Stoliner shul and see where it gets him!!!
what a joke
please , the guy’s not chabad and he never was chabad , before you know it well see him in india soul searching with the hari hari wackos.
“time to return to myself a little bit.”(MATISYAHU) coming soon ,a new jewish cult near you .
and were glad to have a genius like you , who could master the FUN in our basically boring Prayer .
go back to smoking pot , you did the world a big favor , by hallucinating in your own bubble, (and $100 bucks he still smokes )
Moishe
Look…I have seen Matisyahu perform many times. No matter what his affiliation, appearance or demeanor I have never seen more Jewish kids from a Reform/Conservative/Reconstruct/etc..background really genuinely excited to be Jewish. When he is on stage or in the news Jewish kids who have hidden their identity in any way, and even some of us who don’t, are excited. It’s like we belong. I have had many kids at his shows come over and ask questions about his lyrics and we get into some great discussions. By shunning his we are missing a fantastic opportunity to do outreach. After a Matisyahu show kids are enthusiastic about continuing that experience and feeling whether it be through a Shabbos dinner, candle lighting or davening. We should appreciate all that his fame has done, take it as a blessing and spin it in a good way for the betterment of Jews everywhere rather than focusing on the negative aspect that may offend us as individuals.
what a joke
please , the guy’s not chabad and he never was chabad , before you know it well see him in india soul searching with the hari hari wackos.
“time to return to myself a little bit.”(MATISYAHU) coming soon ,a new jewish cult near you .
and were glad to have a genius like you , who could master the FUN in our basically boring Prayer .
A chossid 4ever
To oh my:
“I heard a nice vort about people leaving Lubavitch-
…”
**************
I heard a nicer *story*:
A chossid once came to the Rebbe and said that since the Rebbe was against college, and he’d decided to go, he came to tell the Rebbe that he was severing his connection for 4 years, and after that he’d become a chossid again.
The Rebbe replied that this was impossible, saying that hiskashrus is a rope Rebbe and Chossid hold onto. “Although a Chossid may pull at the rope, wanting to let go,” the Rebbe said, “once the Rebbe has taken hold of it, he never lets go.”
Re: Sam Kustenovitch
hey sam kustenovitch
what you wrote has nothing to do with matisyahu, but thats a great article/dvar torah, you should write for Chabad.org
SG
Like it or not, he still maintains a positive connection with these young people and as always his music is about connecting to Hashem. There are worse things they can be listening to.
Yossi
Ok he is a jew.That’s true bue us as lubavitcher we want good for our kids.This was really a danger. BH.It’s not anymore.You know what?At least its not a Chilul Chabad anymore.Go and sing for fray people if you want!but don’t make our kids fray.To give an Hashgocha to yourself that Its a good thing to sing such a thing in a crazy way
Cathy in Buffalo
Honestly? I bought his first 3 albums. His music has has gone straight down since. It’s too bad. What made his music was the spirit that he presented with. I don’t hear, or see, that anymore. Too bad. He could have been great. He just doesn’t quite “have” it anymore as a musician.
nochum
he only left lubavitch beacause of our idiodcy