Pop Culture Psalmists
Finding the sacred everywhere?
[Note: This post originally appeared on the fabulous website H2Interface.com (Hollywood to Holy Land) in December, 2011, but since that site seems to no longer exist, I thought I would post it in its entirety on PeelaPom. This post was updated in October, 2012 with the full text]
When you think of Britney Spears and Barry White, you don’t usually think of things that are deep and spiritual. Yes, I know Ms. Spears dabbled in the Kabbalah Centre™, but I think that sort of backs up my first statement. This aside, I think we often turn a blind eye or ear to the Divine guidance being sent our way, simply because we don’t like the messenger. Just like Balaam tried to ingore his sweet (female) donkey who was just trying to keep him out of trouble; we don’t let our minds play with the messages G!d/dess may be trying to send us through popular culture.
I was having a really, really, really bad day recently and to pick up my mood I was listening to “cheesy” dance music. Then these words came through my headphones:
“Oh YHVH how was I supposed to know
Oh YHVH I shouldn’t have let you go
I must confess that my loneliness is killing me now
Don’t you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign”
Okay, so….maybe it said “baby baby” where I wrote, YHVH, but still. I listened to the song again, and realized that if processed in the right light, Britney Spears had written a psalm with a good dance beat. It’s a song of loss and longing, and if you do replace “baby” with any name of G!d/dess, it’s right there.
“Oh Shekhina
The reason I breathe is you
Hashem you got me blinded
Oh Shekhina
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
It’s not the way I planned it
Show me how you want it to be”
(listen)
This is pretty much the message of half the psalms. They are cries to the Holy One. They are cries from people who have felt and been touched by the Divine presence, can’t feel it anymore, and want to know how to feel it again. I don’t think for a second that what the Britney Spears version is about, but that’s what it was trying to say to me that day. Oh, and I needed to just lighten up a bit.
Let’s go from Britney to Barry. awwwww…..yeah…..
Barry White has written the ultimate love songs. His songs can easily be the words of a mystic in a perfect union with the Holy One. That was the mission of the Kabbalists, after all. The ones who wrote books like the Zohar — not the ones who ™ everything.
How can I explain all the things I feel?
You’ve given me so much
Lord, you’re so unreal
Still I keep loving you
More and more each time
Lord, what am I gonna do
Because you blow my mind
(listen)
These could easily be the words of someone who has had an intense mystical experience. This could be a modern interpretations of Song of Songs. A really loose and colloquial interpretation, but you get where I’m going. One school of thought says we should reject popular culture, but Judaism never just has one school. While Shammai might be arguing for engagement of popular culture, Hillel might have been arguing for it!
Jews have a very long history of adapting and transforming the culture they are immersed it and turning it into something uniquely Jewish. Just like modern gentile-America has appropriated (or adapted) the bagel and turned it into some weird, non-Jewish muffin-like creature (but I digress).
Why not allow yourself to enjoy popular music and popular culture? Even better, why not allow it, like anything, to be a messenger of the Holy One? If G!d/dess is in everything, then I guess s/he’s even in the lyrics to a Britney Spears song. Not sure about Justin Bieber….pretty sure he’s just here to torture us….but Britney and Barry, maybe they can be Divine messengers.
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Note: Photos and lyrics used are copyright of their respective authors and publishers. Used here the Fair Use provision of United States copyright law. So, don’t sue me, okay?
Pop Culture Psalmists
When you think of Britney Spears and Barry White, you don’t usually think of things that are deep and spiritual. Yes, I know Ms. Spears dabbled in the Kabbalah Centre, but I think that sort of backs up my first statement. This aside, I think we often turn a blind eye or ear to the Divine guidance being sent our way, simply because we don’t like the messenger. Just like Balaam tried to ingore his sweet (female) donkey who was just trying to keep him out of trouble; we don’t let our minds play with the messages G!d/dess may be trying to send us through popular culture.
I was having a really, really, really bad day recently and to pick up my mood I was listening to “cheesy” dance music. Then these words came through my headphones:
“Oh YHVH how was I supposed to know
Oh YHVH I shouldn’t have let you go
I must confess that my loneliness is killing me now
Don’t you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign”
Okay, so….maybe it said “baby baby” where I wrote, YHVH, but still. I listened to the song again, and realized that if processed in the right light, Britney Spears had written a psalm with a good dance beat. It’s a song of loss and longing, and if you do replace “baby” with any name of G!d/dess, it’s right there.
“Oh Shekhina
The reason I breathe is you
Hashem you got me blinded
Oh Shekhina
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
It’s not the way I planned it
Show me how you want it to be”
This is pretty much the message of half the psalms. They are cries to the Holy One. They are cries from people who have felt and been touched by the Divine presence, can’t feel it anymore, and want to know how to feel it again. I don’t think for a second that what the Britney Spears version is about, but that’s what it was trying to say to me that day. Oh, and I needed to just lighten up a bit.
Let’s go from Britney to Barry. awwwww…..yeah…..
Barry White has written the ultimate love songs. His songs can easily be the words of a mystic in a perfect union with the Holy One. That was the mission of the Kabbalists, after all. The ones who wrote books like the Zohar — not the ones who ™ everything.
How can I explain all the things I feel?
You’ve given me so much
Lord, you’re so unreal
Still I keep loving you
More and more each time
Lord, what am I gonna do
Because you blow my mind
These could easily be the words of someone who has had an intense mystical experience. This could be a modern interpretations of Song of Songs. A really loose and colloquial interpretation, but you get where I’m going. One school of thought says we should reject popular culture, but Judaism never just has one school. While Shammai might be arguing for engagement of popular culture, Hillel might have been arguing for it!
Jews have a very long history of adapting and transforming the culture they are immersed it and turning it into something uniquely Jewish. Just like modern gentile-America has appropriated (or adapted) the bagel and turned it into some weird, non-Jewish muffin-like creature (but I digress).
Why not allow yourself to enjoy popular music and popular culture? Even better, why not allow it, like anything, to be a messenger of the Holy One? If G!d/dess is in everything, then I guess s/he’s even in the lyrics to a Britney Spears song. Not sure about Justin Bieber….pretty sure he’s just here to torture us….but Britney and Barry, maybe they can be Divine messengers.
Mini Manifesto:
Culture: I am fascinated by both culture on most levels. I mostly focus on American culture and what makes us who we are as a country, but I'm also intrigued by sub-cultures in the USA and the growing global cultural trends.
Technology: Technology is one of the strongest drivers of cultural and even spiritual changes in the last 100 years, and possibly the next 100.