Passion of the beard

The Jewish world, as well as that of pop-music, has been rocked by news of Matthew Paul Miller, aka ‘Matisyahu’, shaving his beard. I don’t consider the guy worthy the fame and attention he’s gotten in recent years, an utter example of vanity all the more unbecoming of a religious person, and wouldn’t normally even write about him or things surrounding him, but since this touched upon some more profound and important subjects, and upon reading a couple rather preposterous articles in Jewish media, decided to speak my mind, not so much reacting to Miller’s behavior as to those pieces.

Rabbi Yaakov Rosenblatt writes on the Aish haTorah website http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Matisyahus_Beard.html «The beard – the male expression of maturity – defined my commitment, devotion and determination to connect with God anew. It was a new look and a new beginning»

With all due respect to rabbi Rosenblatt, and i respect him even though i don’t know who he is, which though probably speaks more about me than him, i don’t see beard as an expression of male maturity. Many hippies wear beards, while professing system of views that may to many outside folks seem rather immature: what with ‘struggle for peace’, ‘free love’ and all. Furthermore, most of Orthodox Jews, at least of today, but as far as i know for many centuries, haven’t really been the most ‘masculine’ types. After all, we’ve been for ages a nation of persecuted refugees, noted, as some Russian tsarist functionary put it, for manhood not so much of warriors as that of prophets and martyrs. But these days, according at least to my observation, Orthodox Jews in US, for instance, aren’t exactly your typical ‘real man’ types for a somewhat different, even opposite reason: being mostly well-to-do citizens, they simply don’t have a need to be so! You hardly find construction workers or truckers among synagogue attendees, so to tie beard with male maturity in Jewish case seems rather a stretch.

Rabbi Rosenblatt further relates that ‘I kept the beard for two years, throughout my stay in Israel. By then I felt much better inside and outside. I met people who were both friendly and Godly, my studies were progressing, and I found friends who understood me and rabbis whom I understood’. Well, to be honest, some decade and a half ago i too grew a beard, and generally started venturing more seriously into my religious heritage—only i can’t, sadly, claim that i met people who fully understood me, or started immediately feeling better, or found a life partner(that i, admittedly, haven’t found til this day, beard or no beard). And i know many other folks, who have also grown beards, and generally dived full-speed into the wonderful ocean of Jewish way of live, only to eventually ‘jump’ out disappointed. Some keep beards and other observances to this day, some shaved’em all—but again, to be honest, tying beard to luck, religious enlightenment or other decidedly nice and positive things, is again, a stretch.

Rabbi Rosenblatt also makes a curious assumption, that Jews have always been associated with beard, whether righteous or evil ones. To be honest, i don’t think this necessarily true: first of, it was generally a tradition of most people historically, to ware beards, and vikings, Assyrians, Ancient Greeks etc have too been identified with them (even Egyptians, albeit with fake ones, in their case); and conversely, Kings David and Solomon are often depicted beardless, nor was bearded Albert Einstein, quite possibly the most outstanding and iconic Jew of recent centuries. Not to mention that an ‘evil Jew’ has actually often been described as maybe crooked-nosed, maybe overall ugly, but not with a beard, at least to my memory (not that i’m an expert on this subject, nor would even want to be). And in any case, the beards associated, for instance, with classical Bible characters, normally seem to be of a different type than most those worn by today’s pious Jews. In beard world, i presume, there are many wildly varied species, just like in any other branch of flora and fauna.

Rabbi Rosenblatt rightfully notes that being a holder of beard, conversely, doesn’t make one holder of faith. I’d go evem farther and say, that sadly, there are many cases-many more than should be, indeed so many that it may seem like an epidemic—of supposedly ‘kosher’ Orthodox Jews, some moderately and some super-extreme-bearded, that behave in reality like rascals, in one way or field, or another (just take those extremists in Beit-Shemesh, or Aron Levy, or Mr, Rubashkin, to name but a few). I honestly have not noticed a major difference in honesty, truthfulness, fairness or even elementary manners, between my bearded and clean-faced Jewish friends and acquaintances. So the article quoted above, appears to me to be essentially a vaguely-based beard boasting fest. With all due respect to those people who i do know to have become better while also putting beard on, or who were already wonderful AND bearded by the time i met them.

And so does the article ‘To beard or not to beard’ by a man of much greater, to my knowledge, renown, and whose opinions i personally value a lot— rabbi Shmueli Boteach http://www.shmuley.com/articles/details/to_beard_or_not_to_beard_that_is_the_question/ For once, i take issue with praise he heaps on the ‘old’ Matisyahu, by claiming that what got him so famous and successful in show-business, was his Jewish pride and uncompromising character. I’ll venture to say that rabbi Boteach, for all his wisdom, has missed a very key point here: the very ‘uncompromising’ nature of Matisyahu, or better put of the character he pretended to be, was the reason he sold so well: the American and general entertainment and its consumer community were simply hungry for something that would pass as ‘thoughtful’ and ‘spiritual’, and if it came in package with being Jewish, all the better. To me, Matisyahu has never been anything more—or less— than a Jewish Ricky Martin. What i mean is, just like Ricky Martin is a Puerto Rican guy that looks white and thanks to that sells a Puerto-Rican ‘shtick’ to mostly white audience, in the same way Matisyahu used to sell to general audience the Jewish ‘shtick’. The very ‘chutzpah’ of what Mr. Miller did, or supposedly was about, was the reason he became a hit, there was no conflict and no strain there, in my humble opinion. Now that commercial potential of that theme has been exhausted, he decides to shave his beard and be ‘just me’. His right to do so, although in my opinion, had he been fully honest as an artist and a person, he’d discard all the fame he’s amassed as a ‘Jewish rocker’, and go back to starting at ‘point zero’, playing at Manhattan clubs at 11pm. After all, i believe Vanilla Ice did essentially something like that.

But let’s analyze a couple points bearing no direct relation to Matisyahu, that rabbi Boteach makes—even though those points look more provocative and humorous, that serious, which would be absolutely fine and not unexpected from rabbi Boteach. Yet, lets pretend they ARE meant seriously.

As i already mentioned, historically many men in most societies, at least in Europe and Middle East, wore beards; hence a claim that beard is an expression of uprightness toward surrounding world, is somewhat questionable. If you live in an Orthodox Jewish, Muslim, Russian Old Believer or Amish community, even today a sign of being ‘your own man’ would be exactly opposite, namely going around clean-shaven. Yes, America’s most iconic president is usually considered Lincoln—but also, not far behind are Washington, Reagan or Kennedy, all beardless. And very few people would dare deny those men leadership abilities or masculinity.

‘A full beard is a sign of the robust mountain man. Who can argue with that? Take Russell Crowe in Gladiator’. Well, as far as robust mountain man, i already mentioned other, much less ‘robust’ but equally beard-ridden groups; and as for Russell Crowe, his beard in Gladiator or anywhere else is marginal at best, if i remember correctly.

Then, rabbi Boteach says that ‘a man who is hairless whom is telling the truth is doing so not because he would choose to be honest, but rather because he is forced to’. Well, let’s ask ourselves why would one choose stripping himself of such a convenient way to disguise his thoughts, in the first place? Seems, if anything, that beardless man is MORE brave, if he deliberately decides to cut off all possible ways of retreat.

The claim that seeking out a leader for US with more of a bohemian-hippie looks, with long hair rather than beard, means giving another shot to the generation of 60-70s, seems feeble. Many previous generations sported bearded leaders like Emperor Barbarossa, Vladimir Lenin, Dzhenghis-Khan and so on, not to mention Fidel Castro, whom i hope me and rabbi Boteach, as well as rabbi Rosenblatt, share nothing but aversion and contempt for—so why give beards more chances than to ‘hips’?

And finally, to top it all off, i’d like to remind a great episode of possibly the best comedic TV show ever, «The Kids in Then Hall’, about a man who photographed himself with a giant fish, while vacationing on some exotic island; then grew a beard, as an expression of ‘manhood’; then went totally haywire with his life, until being choked by the beard that really turned out to be some sort of murderous alien life form, feeding on its victim’s organism www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeX2ZI5KL3E. Not to say that all beards are like that, but just everything is good to a measure, and going to far always bears extreme dangers.