<\/p>\n
What does one do when one makes a mistake? First it is important to realize the mistake and admit it and then if it affected others an apology in warranted. <\/span>I want to confess that I made a mistake and would like to apologize for it. Now there are times when mistakes result in loss or aggravation. In this case, however, I am delighted that I was mistaken. Here is the story.<\/p>\n Last October Matisyahu the Chassidic reggae singer declared in a newspaper interview that he was no longer associated with Chasidism. As a fan of his at the time this statement troubled me. I was concerned that the lyrics of his new songs no longer really reflect deep Jewish spirituality and his behavior and dress on stage seemed to becoming increasingly secular. My fear was that if he fell off the deep end—as many celebrities do—he would end up having a negative influence on many of his loyal fans. <\/em>I therefore wrote a blog that stated that I could no longer support Matisyahu. This blog entry found its way onto many other blogs and into Jewish newspapers all around the world. <\/p>\n More than a year later it has become apparent that I was wrong. Thankfully, my predictions have not come true and as someone who supported Matisyahu and wrote about him in his early days I could not be more delighted. And it is important that I publically apologize for having misjudged and I am doing so now. <\/p>\n A couple of weeks ago Matisyahu came to Denver to give a concert. A good friend bought a ticket for me and I went to the concert. Now reggae, hip-hop and pop music are not the genres of music that I usually enjoy. In fact my initial excitement about Matisyahu had nothing to do with the quality of his music; rather it was his ability to promote a good and a divinely inspired message that energized me about him. When I perceived that he was moving away from that goal my enthusiasm for him and his music waned.<\/p>\n However, while I was attending his concert the other week it quickly became apparent to me that Matisyahu is still one of Orthodox Judaism’s best ambassadors. He is clearly a proud and uncompromising Jew whose very presence on stage—with his long payot swinging to the music—infuses Jews in the audience with immense Jewish pride. This would be true even if none of his lyrics had a spiritual message to them. <\/p>\n But his new song “I Will Be Light” that I watched him sing was not only very powerful and moving it had an authentically Jewish and uplifting message as well. I saw firsthand how music, as the greatest equalizer, was able to bring even the most secular people one step closer towards spirituality and a deeper respect for religion and God <\/p>\n As we were waiting for the concert to begin I overheard a lady talking to a group to her friends. She was telling them how impressed and inspired she was by Matisyahu and his passion for religion and spirituality. The high part of the concert for me was when Matisyahu said the Shema prayer with great devotion as a packed auditorium filled with people of all backgrounds watched and responded warmly. <\/span>His ability to inspire in this way was why I was a fan in the beginning and as he goes around the country and the world and continues doing this, in my opinion, he is doing God’s work and as he does he has won me back as a wholehearted supporter and fan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does one do when one makes a mistake? First it is important to realize the mistake and admit it and then if it affected others an apology in warranted. I want to confess that I made a mistake and would like to apologize for it. Now there are times…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2234,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/2234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}