Rapper Matisyahu already has ridden his unique blend of dancehall reggae and Lubavitch Hasidism to the top of the charts. Come this summer, his music will head somewhere new: a college classroom. In July, students at New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson University will be able to decode the singer’s biblically inspired rhymes and rhythms in a one-credit Judaic studies course.

Rabbi Ely Allen, FDU’s Judaic studies coordinator, conceived of the class and will teach it. A Matisyahu fan since he first saw the rapper two years ago — “he started beat-boxing and we were all blown away,” he recalled — Allen described the class as a way to spread Torah.

Matisyahu’s music, Allen said, is intimately intertwined with the key Jewish texts. When Matisyahu sings, “One day the trees will stand and clap hands,” he is referring to the end of days as prophesied by Isaiah; when he describes “water from my soul,” he is employing a talmudic phrase used to refer to the Torah.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“He’s bringing in spiritual overtones from Hasidism,” Allen told the Shmooze. “And someone who doesn’t know Hasidism may not get it at all.”

Meanwhile, Matisyahu will perform Sunday at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee. Publicists have invited concert attendees to join the rapper, who does not sing on the Sabbath, for a Saturday evening havdalah.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount