Judaism X Hip Hop #7

Dear God, if your listening, I know you are
You're so far, I feel like I gotta yell up to the stars
All of my silent friends, don't seem like they getting answers
Frustration grows, it's like it's cancer of the soul
You told me to give all my problems to you
I can't carpool, but I got no problem following you
Just give me a sign, let me know I ain't miss my exit
I pray that you help me not to miss my exes
I pray that you help me not to fuck up the next shit
She stayed and I thank you for that shit
Cause God knows, you know that I'd be lost without her
It's bad enough the music ain't turn out to be what it was
In my eyes, just two years ago, it seemed so sacred
The deeper I get into this, the people get faker
I hate it, I thank you for my fans for real
Cause well, if not for them I prolly would've killed myself
So many nights I spent crying in my lonesome
Here with the same people years ago that killed your own son
I'm living with them but i'm living for you
Making the most out of this mission I've been given to do
Enlightening the world with my music, and I think that i'm doing it
Messages for my listeners, telling me to stay true to this
Telling me I saved their life, but in retrospect, they be saving mine
Waiting for my chance, imma stay in line
This frustration won't outweigh my patience
I got her and music, so I ain't mind waiting
For short, thank you for the sun and the rain
I learned joy, I learned pain, but you always remain
Even when I questioned your loyalty, you would bring more to me
Becoming a man, but keeping in touch with the boy in me
I know the future gon be brighter than this
It's about time I get this light bulb switched
Know the future gon be brighter than this
So get this light bulb switched
Sincerely Yours

Dear God,

Sincerely Yours

Introduction to Martin Buber's I and ThouBy Daniel Septimus & Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi

In “I and Thou,” Buber describes two kinds of relationships, the “I-It”, and the “I-Thou”. The I-It relationship is one based on detachment from others and involves a utilitarian approach, in which one uses another as an object. In contrast, in an I-Thou relationship, each person fully and equally turns toward the other with openness and ethical engagement. This kind of relationship is characterized by dialogue and by “total presentness.” In an I-Thou relationship, each participant is concerned for the other person. The honor of the other–and not just her usefulness–is of paramount importance.

The ethical response of the I-Thou relationship is central to Buber’s understanding of God. For Buber, God is the “Eternal Thou.” God is the only Thou which can never become an It. In other words, while relationships with other people will inevitably have utilitarian elements, in a genuine relationship with God, God cannot be used as a means towards an end.

In addition, according to Buber, our relationship with God serves as the foundation for our I-Thou relationships with all others, and every I-Thou relationship–be it with a person or thing–involves a meeting with God. God, in a sense, is the unifying context, the meeting place, for all meaningful human experience. According to Buber, one encounters God through one’s encounters with other human beings and the world. “Meet the world with the fullness of your being and you shall meet God.”
When one encounters the world in this way, revelation occurs. “God speaks to man in the things and beings he sends him in life,” Buber wrote. “Man answers through his dealings with these things and beings.”

Buber’s understanding of the religious experience of the biblical writers also applied to his understanding of the works of the Hasidic masters. In many of the teachings Buber collected in his book, Tales of the Hasidim, God is portrayed as immanent–an immediate and felt presence. God can be found in every encounter, in each experience, and in every aspect of the world. Because of his focus on experiential existence, Buber is considered an existentialist thinker.

The sun still shinin' bright
And the moon still glows at night, yea
But it don’t make me all right
To know another one’s holding you tight

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And it burns real deep (eeh)
Said it burns real deep
Jeremiah said it’s just like fire, yea
Said it burns real deep

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The stars still shine at night
Reminds of the look in your beautiful eyes
Sometimes I stare up to the sky yea (yes I do)
Knowing somewhere you seeing the same sky
But you ain’t with me

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Just in case you were wondering what Jeremiah I'm speaking of...not the singer, but, uh, the prophet from the Bible. Called to be a prophet at a young age, it caused fear in his heart to speak what the Lord gave him to say. But God told him, "you're not a boy, you're a prophet."...So pretty much fear not, know what I mean? So whatever he had to say for that day...the feeling that he had then, I have right now

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Since God is love
The whole world needs more love

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.
1 John 4:8 He that does not love, does not know God; for God is love.

The unconditional, critical mission, listen to
The indivisible, mystical, it was meant for you
And meant for me, infinitely
Even been to prisons to visit you
Ask, "What would Christians do?"
Well some are harassing Native Americans
If God is love, why is hate in the air again?
Search for Samaritans in the hood, misunderstood
A savior comes, will he only come for the good?
The lost tribe of Shabazz and the second class
God, I see you in the streets where the checks is cashed
Hear you in the heartbeat, hopin' that love'll last
I know you in the words, "Where the first is last"
They try to use math to quantify you
In 2005, you saved lives by the Bayou
I know you in the mouth of the spouse singing, "I do"
The most vital is how I describe you

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Even when the hard times come
I'll be standing in your love
Grateful, grateful for this life
You turned on the light (Hey, hey)
Even when the hard times come
I'll be standing in your love
Grateful, grateful for this life
You turned on the light

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We were Buffalo Soldiers, dreadlocked Rastas
Praying to Jehovah, Rafa, in the back of cop cars
Even then we knew that love was not far
It's in the passion of the teachers and the rockstars
The muslim sisters singing "allāhu akbar"
It's coming from where Maya and Pop are
It's in the grandchild's stare up at Papa
"Love is love" became the mantra
The montage for creation, we need it in relation
When two ships pass, one love is the flotation
It's what God used to put the planet in rotation
It's what the culture used to build a hip hop nation
From the basement to the attic, where cookie show for magic
It's what we told the world when we said our lives matter
Turn the student to a master, hustler to a pastor
That's why I'm a rapper, it's all that I'm after

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Even when the hard times come
Yeah I know that
I'll be standing in your love (Yeah)
Oh, that's why I am
Grateful, (So) grateful for this life
You turned on the light (Hey, hey)
God your love has taught me that
Even when the hard times come
Oh, I know that I'll
I'll be standing in your love (Hey, and I am)
Grateful, grateful for this life (Grateful)
You turned on the light
You turned on the light, yes you did

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When it's hard (Yeah)
I know you're right there
Tell me where would I be?
Placed it all
Without your love
At your feet
Where would I be?
I don't know
Without your light
What tomorrow brings
Tell me where would I be?
Without your grace
What I know is
I am so grateful, I am so grateful
Oh oh, oh I know (Oh-oh)
Ooh, ooh, yeah, yeah
'Cause you are the light
Mm-mm-hmm

Jewish love is covenantal. Covenants are not necessarily restricted to equal parties. Kings and vassals are not equal, yet they provide the sociopolitical context for the biblical covenant. God and the Jewish People do not claim to be equal. But they do insist on the ability to bridge the chasm of disparity with relationship, and in relationship one may stand as a partner even with someone who is not your equal. Love that it spans that gulf, and un-equals are able to stand in partnership and in dignity together, despite their differences; perhaps because of their distinctiveness. Our entire tradition is a recurrent outpouring of covenantal love, so that God creates the world, we are told, in order to have an object to love. As if that isn’t enough, God rises up against Pharaoh and brings us to freedom, because God so loves our ancestors. And then as if that isn’t enough, God brings us to the foot of Mt. Sinai, and there offers us a covenantal contract, which the rabbis tell us is a Ketubah, a wedding contract.

The wedding contract sealing the relationship between the Jewish people and God is the very Sefer Torah, the Torah scrolls, we read from. Ours is an ancient tradition of covenantal love. And strikingly, covenantal love is very different than popular culture’s portrayal of love, in which love is the pitter-patter of a heart, but that pitter-patter only lasts as long as it takes to cook a pop tart. Five minutes later, our attention drifts to some other infatuation. So we live in a culture with all these romances, passionate beginnings and frequent flammable finales. We read about the various stars and their love affairs, and we can read about their breakups and their new love affairs. That superficial, provisional appetite is not Covenantal love. Covenantal love, we are told, nurtures understanding and generosity; seeing the best in your lover; seeing the best in your children; in your community; in humanity; in the world; and then with similar generosity, sharing in their struggles; sharing in their efforts.
The Jewish Covenant of Love, Rabbi Bradley Artson