The Hidden Gem in Matisyahu’s Medium Essay
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Anne Cohen February 9, 2015
Getty Images
Sex, drugs, rock and roll — and ultra-Orthodox Judaism. What else could you expect from an essay written by Matisyahu?
“Akeda, the Binding and Unbinding…the Long Walk Back,” published in Medium, tells the moving tale of the formerly Hasidic singer/songwriter’s journey to overcome substance abuse, his religious struggle, his Bob Marley obsession, and more.
But the best line in the entire text comes when he tries to describe a niggun, or Hasidic melody, in layman’s terms.
I was dedicating myself to the cause. I moved to Crown Heights and gave up on the world. Happiness would need to come from within. I prayed and studied and prayed and studied and mikva’d and drank vodka, and ate chicken and drank vodka and sang niggunim (Chassidic melodies that sound similar to the scene in Star Wars when the bad guy’s ship is arriving). I wore the uniform (black and white just like the ideology). I believed there was something wrong with me that needed to be eradicated. That wrongness inside could be purified if I just tried hard enough.
Let’s just pause and reflect. Here it is again: “sang niggunim (Chassidic melodies that sound similar to the scene in Star Wars when the bad guy’s ship is arriving).”
If there was an emoji for a standing ovation, I would insert it here.
The title of the essay refers to the singer’s 2014 album Akeda (“binding”), which is itself an allusion to the biblical story in which Abraham binds Isaac to sacrifice him. Watch the video for his newest single, “The Hard Way,” below.
Read the rest of the essay here.
[h/t Jewcy]
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
