What is Jewish about Jewish music? This is a question that has been debated by makers of Jewish music from time immemorial. Music and song have always been a major part of Jewish religious life. It was obvious that songs that were sung in the Synagogue and Temple as part of religious Jewish worship should be considered Jewish.
In fact the Zohar states that, “When the living start singing, the supernal ones gain added strength to know, to recognize and to grasp what they could not grasp before.” Although one may claim that the “living” referred to by Zohar are the lower spiritual levels and not humans, nonetheless the Kabbalah clearly attributes tremendous power to music and song.
For this reason Chasidim who are inspired by Kabbalah have always been very musical. Recently, however, there has been an explosion in Chasidic music. Chasidic reggae superstar Matisyahu has led the way for a new type of Chasidic music entitled Chasidic hip-hop or Chasidic reggae. Now there are other such groups and individuals springing up all over the place. For fans of this new genre, names such as Ta-Shma, NIZ, Judah the Maccabee, Underground Kabbalah Project, The Lost Vibes and Y-love will soon become very familiar. The concept seems to be to take traditional Chasidic songs and infuse them with rap, reggae and hip-hop.
While I am not personally a fan of this new genre, I can see its value. Clearly it is encouraging many to find inspiration in spirituality, Godliness and Judaism. However, not all music will fall into the category of which the Zohar speaks. The Zohar talks about King Solomon’s Song of Songs as an example of a song that achieves great supernal power. Solomon learnt the secret of spiritual poetry through which his songs were able to achieve incredible theurgic reactions, says the Zohar. Interestingly, the Zohar equates music with praise and it is the lyrics that achieve the supernal ripple effects rather than the melodies.
According to this definition, for music to be spiritually potent in the higher realms it must have lyrics that were created by a spiritual luminary who is versed in the secrets of divine poetry. Thus, any song that uses words of prayer, scripture or psalm would have this effect. The new genre of Jewish hip-hop, rap and reggae is made up almost entirely of original English lyrics and thus lacks this. So we may define this new style of music as Chasidic only because the lyrics of some of the songs are inspired by Chasidic concepts and the artist are themselves Chasidim.
It must also be noted that, although this Chasidic reggae and hip-hop has now become famous it is not new. There have always been newly religious people who have used their musical talents as an outlet for their spiritual expression, and for those who come from a secular background that expression will be in the form of contemporary music.
So while Chasidic hip-hop may not be creating deeper understandings on high, the new music is still incredibly valuable. Once upon a time Jewish music was played and sung, sold and appreciated only in the Jewish world; now, however, we have Chasidic-looking Jewish singers specifically targeting gentile audiences, as are the Jewish record labels that produce some of these artists. In doing so they are targeting non-affiliated Jews as well.
Music is both unthreatening and endearing and as long as these Chasidic hip-hop/reggae/rap artists who have returned to Judaism stay true to their message, they may end up being the best and most effective ambassadors traditional Judaism has ever produced.