Everyone's Destiny

Everything (or nothing) Is Illuminated

i was going to buy the book anyway, regardless of the back cover blurbs, but i when I did, i became even more eager to get home and crack the spine.  ... may or may not have saved... devasted landscape... simultaneously mauled and energized... an amorous dog... sublimely butchered... seared in the fire of something new.  opening the front cover subjected me to three pages of 'praise for everything is illuminated.'  such pages are usually vacuous, filled with uninspiring and uninspired accolades, but most of these were different.  i put myself in the author's shoes, jonathan safran foer's, and imagined what these words for my first novel published at the age of twenty-five would do for me.  if such praise were donned upon me for anything i could ever write, i would ask for nothing more, ever.

its a story about memory, events past and future, and the links (us) that connect the two.  a village of jews in the ukraine completely vanishes after the nazi invasion.  those that would like to have remembered their past do not survive and those that do survive choose to forget the horrific past.  only through great pains, a pin prick, can the chain of memory be sparked to recall the past that defines an individual.

this book baffled me in ways not yet within my grasps.  everything about the book (plot, characters, writing style) is wholely original (sorry, a completely empty book critic phrase) that i cannot draw comparisons to anything i've read or experienced.  i'm considering rereading it starting tomorrow, which would be a first to read a book twice in succession.  other authors have inspired me to to write.  reading dave eggers fills me with the notion (however delusional) that i, too, can write.  that the capability is within me.  everything is illuminated is a humbling experience for anyone who has dreamed of writing a novel.  its not just the story that is told within, but how it is told.  my own aspirations felt little and belittled in its presence.  i feverishly read not just because i was consumed with the story, but i refused to not turn the next page out of awe. 

i was also baffled because so much was left unanswered.  books that end abruptly don't necessarily bother me, and loose ends leave things to interpretation, imagination.  when i closed the book to signify its termination, i laid on the couch for a good twenty minutes trying to bring together what i had just read.  in those twenty minutes everything in my mind went quiet.  i was at a loss for words and thoughts.  i felt at loss because my heart had been torn out by drastic reactions that i could not fathom their motivation.  i became lost in the story of a memory that had been so hard forgotten.

the last bit of praise before the story begins asks "Have you ever found, after finishing a completely awesome book [sic], that you have so many competing impulses about what to do next that you become frozen by excitement?  That is how I feel right now."  that is how i feel right now.  what i'll do next is read the book again, immediately.

Matisyahu

The combination may not be as odd as you think.  In fact, it makes a lot of sense, but I'll get to that in a minute.  Matisyahu, a 25 year old Hasidic Jew, is making reggae music the carriage of his spiritual beliefs for dissemination to all that will listen.  Strict devotion to Judaism conjures up images of traditionalism and orthodoxy among the unwise.  To hear about a devout Jew then, that uses reggae music with heavy doses of free-style rap and beat boxing as a vehicle for a religious message makes one think that such an act is part of some sort of circus sideshow.  To take one listen to the soulful and energized voice of  Matisyahu, to hear his lyrics and the music of the band, one immediately knows that this is no novelty act.  In an instant, you know that Hasidic Reggae is for real.

The traditionalism and orthodoxy of Judaism make for a seemingly odd combination with modern reggae music.  However, setting aside the ganja-loving and rudeboy images of reggae, there is a spiritual side to the music grounded in Rastafari.  Rastafarianism is based on a rereading of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, and understands the people of Africa (the Black Man) as descendents of King David.  As predicted in scripture, the crowing of Haile Salassie as king of Ethiopia in the early 20th century symbolized the return of the House of David, and a call to Africans to return to their homeland (Zion).  The words to a traditional Rasta chant and Bob Marley song ('Rasta Man Chant') read:

One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home
One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home

I say fly away home to Zion, fly away home
I say fly away to Zion, fly away home
One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home

Judaism, like Rastafarianism, is grounded on a return to the Promised Land, to Zion.  It would only make sense for a teenage hippie turned devout Jew to use reggae music, a medium to promulgate Rasta beliefes, that are based on a rereading of the Old Testament, the Torah, the Jewish scripture.

So now that you know Hasidic Reggae is legit, let me tell you that Matisyahu is about to take the world by storm.  The emotion and energy he puts into a message that's true can make a follower of any religion, an atheist, an agnostic, or a nihilist be moved by the power of his music.  It's real, it's pure, it's fresh.