The Rasta and The Jew

Why?

In a previous post, I mentioned that Torah-observant doesn't seem so strange from where I came from; however I was referring to home and ways of my maternal Grandmother. Truth be told, there was a bit of 'preparation' from my Father's side as well - as in he himself is a Rastafarian. Although he's more of the universalist than fundamentalist Rastafarian (I'll differentiate between the two later), I grew up on familiar terms with what Rastafarianism is all about.

In the past, I gotten into conversations with both Jews and non-Jews upon the similarities between the two; to the point where I feel Rastafarianism is closer to Judaism than Christianity is. Nonetheless, the two are still different. Bob Marley (as much as some Jews would like to think) is not an "honary Jew", just because he didn't eat pork and wrote a song about the Exodus. (I'm always humored by the attempt of liberal Jews to find remote tribes somewhere and see that they keep some rudimentary aspect of kashrus, or pray with headcoverings, or believe in on G-d - and then "boom!" try to go out and prove their Jewishness. Nevermind the fact that they know nothing about the Torah - the very thing that makes a Jew a Jew. Even a non-observant Jew by birth who can prove his lineage "loses" many privledges allotted to the Jewish Nation because he is forsaking his side of the covenant. Of course, by secular/liberal Jewish standards, just about anyone can become a Jew as long as they have an "affinity" for Jews and Judaism. However, I'm getting off topic here, so I'll stop!) I don't feel as if I should get any "brownie points" just because of my background. There is only a small population of people who fall in the grey area of "Who Is A Jew", and I am definitely not one of them.

Jews in Jamaica

Like many Caribbean islands, Jamaica, in the 16th to 19th centuries, was a place to escape all of the Jewish persecution in Europe. Not that life in the Caribbean was the picturesque Sandals resort type life people would associate with the Caribbean today, no way! The Jews were regulated as merchants and middle people. Some Jews grew to be quite wealthy (more so than their American counterparts); but because the islands in the Caribbean were constantly changing rule (Jamaica has had 5 foreign flags flown over it) life was precarious and wealth could be revoked overnight - depending on the ruling country's "policy" on Jews.

In the 19th century, the Jewish population peaked at around 2,000. Most of the Jews were of Portuguese origin; although later on (in the 19th century) you had a small population of Syrian Jews (this page, this page, and this page are great resources on Jamaican Jews). After Jamaica became independent from Britain (in the 1960s), the country fell into an economic downspiral and many Jewish (and non-Jewish) professionals relocated to the UK, Canada or the US. Today the Jewish community is around 300; those are people who identify as Jews (many may or may not be halachically Jewish). The synagogue is open, but without a Rabbi and the Hillel school has a population of mainly non-Jewish students.

Today when you walk around Jamaica, you may see a lot of Magen Davids or even חי's around, but you would be hard pressed to find any Jews. But like the Indians and Spanish, the Jews have influenced the Jamaican populace in unquantifiable ways.

Rastafarians

I've read books on Rastafarianism and any sort of history really does not do the movement justice; so I'm going to ad-lib a bit (all through my personal knowledge and experience - and what is known as fact). The Rastafarian faith began in the 1920's as a response of the teachings of Marcus Garvey, O.D.; although Mr. Garvey himself never advocated to start a new religion. The icing on the cake was the crowning of Emperor Haile Selassie as ruler of Ethiopia; the last in a line of monarchs who claimed descent from King Solomon (via the Queen of Sheba). The Emperor himself was a member of the Ethiopian Coptic (Christian) Church. His name before coronation was Ras Tafari.

The concepts where there, but they needed to be plugged into something larger. Hence how Rastafarianism became "improvised Judaism". The Rasta founders could have borrowed off of the X-tian church a bit more; but being that they saw the Church as an aid to colonial oppression, that wasn't going to happen. Islam had no presence on the island so the ghost influence of Judaism, infused with the idealism from Garvey and sprinkled with African folkways gives birth to the Rastafarian mantra.

The fundamentalist Rastafarians a number of things:

1) That Haile Selassie is the moshiach/world's redeamer/Jesus X re-incarnate;
2) That marijuana first sprouted on the grave of King Solomon (although smoking it is not mandatory, they feel it aids in Bible study);
3) You are what you eat - they have an "I-tal" diet that needs to be adhered to which is far more strict than keeping kosher (i.e. no processed food - period, no salt, vegetarianism is the ideal...);
4) They take the Nazarite vow which, if you know your chumash well, includes not drinking alcohol or cutting your hair (enter in to center stage, "dreadlocks");
5) Ethiopia is Zion.
6) Women who are menstruating should not be touched.

You have sects within Rastafarianism but it's just a matter of "pick your leader/affiliation". Some minor differences but nothing of note.

Universalist Rastafarians are just about every non-Black and many non-Jamaican Rastafarians I've seen. We're talking about of the Big Mountain strain. Universalists pick and choose. To a big extent, Bob Marley was of this camp just because he became disenchanted with the dogmatic aspects of it all and did not throw out the 'Black Power' aspect of classical Rastafarianism (he said that since he himself was part White, how could he?). It is also hard to push over the masses that an Ethiopian monarch is G-d reincarnate.

Reggae

Thanks to Mr. Marley, the world ties together reggae with Rastafarianism. Although many prominent reggae artists are/have been Rastafarian, reggae developed much later and in it's early years, was suspiciously void of Rastafarian references (even if the singers were Rastas themselves). But you had plenty of non-Rasta reggae songs which drew from the Bible; like Desmond Dekker's Israelites and Rivers of Babylon by the Melodians. However, songs of a Christian aspect were curiously missing.

Reggae is a topic that has not dearth of information out their on it; however, I'll point out one thing (and I'm not just saying this because I like the music), reggae was "invented" less than 40 years ago - and in a country that has a population of 2.5 million people (London and New York have populations of 7 million and 8 million respectively). On top of that, you can count on one hand the number of truly successful reggae musicians. Keep this in mind (for later).

The Link?

Getting back to me; growing up I had to "deal with" my father who opted to switch out his elevated status ('elevated' being relative to the race/class norms of 1960s Jamaica where if you were of mixed race instead of fully Black, you were a little better off) to grow long dreadlocks, a beard, and hang the Ethiopian flag on his car. Similar to the reaction of many secular Jewish families when they see their "dear Michael" don the black hat and grow peyes. In fact, a Lubavitcher friend of mine saw a picture of my Father and asked if 'he converted'; she never saw a non-Jewish man with the beard and long strands of hair on the side (my Father's hair grows too straight by the ears to mesh with the drealocks elsewhere). In the 1980s, I knew my father dealt with the job discrimination, stares, and misconceptions the people had about Rastas; just like today I have to deal with the stares and misconceptions (B'H, I've been blessed to have understanding employers so far) that people have about Jews.

Another, not so obvious lesson I learned in being around Rastafarians growing up is that you can't judge a book by it's cover. I've seen 'Rastas' who were doctors; who were pot-smoking musicians; who were cocaine dealing gangsters; who owned health-spas and meditated everyday. As a newcomer to Judaism, I see all of these "different" Jews - Yeshivish, Chassidish, Mizrachi, blonde, Black - and my naivete acts as an aid to really get to know these people in spite of the label. This I learned from witnessing people mis-judge someone time and time and solely on a hairstyle.

What's Going On?

Looking at the big picture, I'm in awe of just how חירבונו של עולם runs things. Take the insignificant island of Jamaica and this strange faith of "Rastafarianism". Even if it is way off base - millions have found some affinity of it. Remember that Rastafarianism has no leader, and the vast majority of "Rastas" pick and choose and are not into dogma, but are into being spiritual. The hang around and sing "One Love" and get high and try to broaden their horizions. It's great; these are non-Jews who would not go near a church or any form of organized religion - yet their "Rasta hippie cult" keeps them in line with the 7 Noahide Laws. And what about the Jews who are among them? Well I know of 3 Jews who were "re-awakened" to their Judaism by reggae. Then you have folks like Matisyahu who are using reggae as a means to 'reach out' to secular Jews. Afro-Caribbean music as a tool to rope in Am Yisrael; this scenario couldn't be made up!

With working knowledge of both Judaism and Rastafarianism it is plain to see that you do not need to be a Jew to be a good person or even believe in the Creator. I also can see that while the Jews may be "chosen" they are still humans. And they are not the only humans who have experienced plight or have been aided and blessed by Hashem. It is also plain to see that Judaism's influence of 'ethical monotheism' didn't end yet, but still goes on; in my case it went a little too far, but I'm boundlessly thankful for that!