User:Jaredscribe/Rastafarian Zion

Ras Tafar ("Revered Chief") is the title of Haile Selassie, 1930-74 Emperor of Ethiopia, antifascist resistance leader, and organizer of African Unity. Although he remained an apparently sincere Christian exponent and reformer within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Rastafari movement in the African diaspora in the Americas claims him as a messiah, Jesus Christ reincarnate, often referring to him as "Lion of the Tribe of Judah", which is to say the second coming of Joshua ben Miriam. He was assassinated in 1974 by Marxist-Leninist junta and the Ethiopian monarchy was subsequently abolished.

takes a different view than #Jamaican Reggae music does on question of the messianic "Lion", as also on the #referential object denoted by "Zion" in the typology of redemption, and of course on the role of Torah law and commandment within the #Lifestyle of the believer, and the nature of prophecy (musical or otherwise) within the present economy of salvation. Where Jewish and Israeli reggae may agree with Rastafari is on the central significance of these figures within the redemptive discourse, the possibility of their realization in the sphere of politics (which in mainstream christianity either denied or oppressively maintained). Hence they will agree on the fact of exile in Babylon, the identification of British empire and its prototype Rome generally as "Babylon", and these both would agree with a non-biased new testament hermeneutics on this correct application of this typological figure, as against institutional Nicean christianity which has utterly perverted their clear and plain meaning for the obvious purpose of supercessionist gentile racial politics. Rasta seems to see the problem more clearly than mainstream christianity does. Jewish reggae gives some interesting responsa to questions and dillemmas presented by Rasta music, which I explore in the essays below. First, these two schools of poetic thought may find commonality on the oneness and immanence of Jah, the possibility of personal relationship of "I and I", and the role of musician as messenger.

History of Rastafari
Influenced by both Ethiopianism and the Back-to-Africa movement promoted by black nationalist figures such as Marcus Garvey, the religion developed after several Protestant Christian clergymen, most notably Leonard Howell, who proclaimed that Haile Selassie's crowning as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930 fulfilled a Biblical prophecy. Howell also proclaimed a black supremacism that had both political and religious dimensions, and Garvey's black separatism involved a prejudice against biracial colored persons and against Jews.

A reaction by socially disenfranchised Afro-Jamaican communities in 1930s against Jamaica's then-dominant British colonial culture, it spread to other communites in the African diaspora of the Americas who had been enslaved and oppressed by political structures and culture of "Babylon". Thus they looked to leaders of the decolonial movement in Africa, with Ras Tafar in particular as a savior.

Thus many Rastas call for this diaspora's resettlement in Africa, a continent they consider the Promised Land, or "Zion", but "Zion" can also refer to the metaphysical Rasta state of mind or spiritual community. This latter use is not unlike later christian interpretations of Paul's deployment of the term "spiritual Israel", which were taken to mean the anti-jewish (and also anti-zionist) christian church, by the time christianity was established as an imperial religion at Nicaea. (Probably not what the historical Paul actually meant)

Christian Dominionist Antizionism?
In this respect, the Rastafarian religion may not be existentially different than other forms of Christian restoration (from which it indeed derived), as these also rely upon supercessionist antijudaism leading to typical anti-zionism as a strategy of replacement and attain of biblical promise: the original European act of cultural appropriation. According to many, the Massachussets Bay Colony is the New Jerusalem cum "City on a Hill", and America is the promised land. The latent white supremacy and "christian" anti-semitism may be denied, suppressed, expressed, or attenuated, but is never really "gone" until the replacement theology is corrected. Switching the color from white to black, and the continent from America to Africa, seemed like a correction of the white supremacist error, to Garvey, Howell and other black nationalist advocates of ethiopianism or of the Black Hebrew Israelite line of thought, but in fact it is an auto-immune disease that merely inverses its appearance. This is why a grand wizard of the KKK called them "the black counterparts of us": they seem to be practicing the same anti-semitic Christian dominionism with a black christian identity interpretation of scripture and history. The popularity of rasta themed reggae among white hipsters allows them (us) to sub-consciously indulge traditional European jew hatred, through an ironic wink at black supremacism, without the simultaneous burden of historical remembrance or the guilt over anti-black racism. But its still a form white supremacism, and moreover a cargo-cult to the third degree. I speak from personal experience, unfortunately for me, and warn that this hermeneutic and ethical error leads to a fundamentally inauthentic and absurd existence. The absurdity is not expiated by merely progressing beyond christianity into some supposed modernist enlightenment, which is a merely secular version of the christian post-millenialist eschatology that translates its underlying anti-Jewish theological constructs into a dialectic of "critical reason". The underlying error must be refuted and remorse felt, in order for the truly tragic dimension of this history to be cognized so that catharsis can occur.

In popular music, "zion" is popular and acceptable theme .. when it refers to the ethiopianist back-to-africa zion, which is avowedly anti-zionist and usually black-supremacist. Why is it acceptable to celebrate Ras Tafar with "zionist" (anti-zionist) themes, but apparently unacceptable in American pop culture to celebrated the 1967 re-unification of Jerusalem, the first time in 1,900 years that Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all been able to visit and worship at their holy sites? Is that not worthy of celebration? As Naomi Shemer sings, "Am I not the harp, for all your songs?"

How many of us Reggae and Marley fans have ever heard Jerusalem of Gold?

The anti-jewish pride and prejudice held by both white and black nationalists, is inherent in the christian dominionism of Euro-American and Africanist varieties, and the mere existence of Israel suggests that Jews are credible heirs of the promises written into their own Hebrew bible, which we have mis-appropriated - first into christianity, then into the unsound metaphysics of festival-goers seeking transcendence through music and cannabis. There mere existence as a political entity undermines that narrative supporting our supremacist identity, and thats why we boycott, divest, and sanction instead of celebrating it: it bums out the high of our spliffy self-righteousness. Sometimes but not always, this pride may paradoxically resolve into its opposite: philo-semitism and christian zionism, after the individual discovers that replacement is both impossible and not even necessary, and that the right kind of music can get you even higher than weed.

Circumcision and Torah observance may be required for election, but contrary to the Calvinist misinterpretation, election is not required for salvation. Claiming otherwise is incoherent: it is the doctrine of Marcion, not of Paul. Also, a person will eventually learn that without law, prophecy becomes delusional and oppressive. After coming out of denial and into the light on this issues, an individual can then decide on a strategy of humility leading to discovery and belonging instead.

At which point, I recommend trying some as a counter-measure and antidote to all the intellectual, moral, and spiritual poison that we've consumed in the meantime.

See also:

Ras Tafar Haile Selassie in his own words
Ras Tafar was also a constitutional lawgiver, and abolitionist of slavery.

Faith in him spread among the African diaspora, which has historically been enslaved and oppressed within Western society, described as "Babylon".

In a 1967 recorded interview with the CBC, Haile Selassie denied his alleged divinity. In the interview Bill McNeil says: "there are millions of Christians throughout the world, your Imperial Majesty, who regard you as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ." Haile Selassie replied in his native language:

"I have heard of that idea. I also met certain Rastafarians. I told them clearly that I am a man, that I am mortal, and that I will be replaced by the oncoming generation, and that they should never make a mistake in assuming or pretending that a human being is emanated from a deity."

For many Rastafari the CBC interview is not interpreted as a denial of his divinity. For some, neither is his death. "Where are we to look for our survival, for the answers to the questions which have never before been posed?

We must look, first, to Almighty God, Who has raised man above the animals and endowed him with intelligence and reason. We must put our faith in Him, that He will not desert us or permit us to destroy humanity which He created in His image.

And we must look into ourselves, into the depth of our souls. We must become something we have never been and for which our education and experience and environment have ill-prepared us. We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community."

Lifestyle of the believer
Rastas refer to their practices as "livity". Dreadlocks may be understood as signifying the "dread" or fear of God, and may be a sign of nazirite vow to abstain from alcohol and "livote" (devote) oneself to godliness instead. Communal meetings are known as "groundations", and are typified by music, chanting, discussions, and the smoking of cannabis, the latter regarded as a sacrament with beneficial properties. Rastas emphasise what they regard as living "naturally", adhering to ital ("vital") dietary requirements, and following patriarchal gender roles.

Jamaican Reggae music goes pop worldwide

 * Bob Marley and the Wailers discography
 * 1972 I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash "Here is the rainbow I've been praying for .." (Later covered by Jimmy Cliff for 1993 soundtrack to Cool Runnings).  Nash then covers the 1972 Stir It Up originally by Marley, who then goes pop with 1973 Catch a Fire.
 * Jimmy Cliff's 1972 soundtrack to The Harder They Come, introduces reggae to the world.
 * Many Rivers to Cross before I find my way home.  One senses that the world is a very narrow bridge
 * Johnny Too Bad, "where you gonna run to? who you gonna turn to? .. you're gonna run to the rock for rescue, there will be no rock"
 * The melody for "By the Rivers of Babylon" performed by Melodians in 1970 is memorable and easy to sing as a refrain, acapella in a minor key as song of mourning. The recording, however, has an accompaniment in a major key to a dancy uptempo:   totally inappropriate to the title verse which invokes Psalm 137, where we are supposed to hang up our harps and weep.   It would however, be an appropriate setting for the final verse which invokes Psalm 19, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before thee...".   This full libretto should replace the "rivers of babylon", and the tune should open with "The heavens declare ...." or "the law of the LORD (Jah) is perfect", since this universalist poem can be sung in exile, by god-fearing gentiles and jews alike without any need for textual misappropriation, and is truly an occasion to rejoice.   Since the accompaniment and melody are so unforgettably catchy, someone should re-appropriate them in this more existentially valid and theological sound way.
 * Don Maclean's version of "Babylon" on 1971 American Pie, based on the canon by Philip Hayes, is a more existentially accurate interpretation, since the whole point is that "our captors required of us a song, so we hung up our harps on the willow tree". Its also easier to reproduce by singing groups.   The accompaniment by a solo banjo expresses the solitude of exile, and it gradually ceases as more voices join the round, which speaks to the community of suffering.   If music is in your heart, instruments aren't necessary.
 * Hailie Selassie dies in 1974. Musical responsa?
 * Bob Marley, who had been converted to Rastafari by his wife, Cuban-Jamaican songstress Rita Marley


 * Iron Lion Zion written in 1974, released in 1992.
 * 1976 single War (Bob Marley song), based on 1963 speech by H.I.M. to the U.N.
 * "There's a Natural Mystic flowing through the air, if you listen very closely you will hear." The first track of 1977 Exodus (Bob Marley and the Wailers album).  "This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last", and its true that this question has stumped all interpreters for two millenia. "many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die, don't ask me why".   Although we shouldn't ask Marley himself, that doesn't mean we should refrain from asking people who might know more.   Listen closely to Lior Ben-Hur's track Sh'ma Nyabingha, listed below, if you wish to hear.  Ask yourself why, and consider that Marley's prediction of suffering is contingent to his own circumstance and not universally necessary.   If it really "might as well be the last", then rewind back to 1970, correct the errors, and learn to hit the mark.
 * Although we may doubt that everythings gonna be alright, there are three little birds singing at my doorstep.
 * 1978 live album Babylon by Bus based on his tour of America.
 * Redemption Song from the 1980 Uprising album, later covered by Johnny Cash and many others.
 * Marley was baptised into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, on 4 November 1980, shortly before his death, byArchbishop Abuna Yesehaq, who baptised him with the new name Berhane Selassie.

Israeli Reggae
Israeli musicians who draw from rasta reggae musical culture use poetic tropes of redemption with varying degrees of orthodoxy, and of Zionism with various degrees of religion.

#Lior Ben-Hur does pantheistic or polytheistic reggae in English and French, with some Hebrew liturgy thrown in.

The #Moshav Band do baal teshuva music, a mix of American grunge rock, reggae, and Hebrew liturgical chant, with a healthy dose of hip-hop and klezmer, all underwritten with the melismatic drone of yemenite, mizrachi, and judeo-arabic music, in which language they also occasionally sing. They have featured on some recordings. Percussionist and singer Yehuda ben Solomon also serves as shaliach tzibur at an LA synagogue. self-discovery and questioning, alienation within materialist culture, spiritual seeking, transcendent and psychedelic experiences, grief and loss, the prophetic within history and future hope, fear and trembling, personal and communal salvation through return to God, meditations on holy law, radical transformation and social witness, are all major themes of their confessional lyrics: they sing the mighty works of God not merely because its hip, exotic, or politically convenient, but out of existential necessity. One senses upon listening that the songs wrote themselves in times of great crisis: these men sing because they need to sing, they cannot avoid belief.

Matisyahu
A exponent of hasidic reggae well-known and popular in the mainstream American culture. I've not listened to his music (yet), but he is featured on several performances by Moshav and seems to have passed on the torch to them. Together they have performed:


 * Higher and Higher originally by Shlomo Carlebach
 * World on Fire
 * Too Late? (with Moshav and Soulfarm)

Dancing in a Dangerous World

 * "Dancing in a Dangerous World" is the title track of the eponymous album, which is single unit, a "concept album", a through-composed concerto in 13 movements. This track is not reggae, but uses rhythmic scales to create sense of dislocation. The 13th and final track, "Ha'azinu" is a reggae, and the first Hebrew song: the terminal point of long and dangerous dance across a very narrow bridge: a wormhole into an alternate reality so psychedelic that neither ganja nor any other drug could every take you there.  Listen the whole album, so you can fully arrive.
 * Elvis In Jerusalem is a satirical reggae about the Jerusalem complex. Refracting light like a prism, Moshav subtly insinuate that American pop entertainment is not the end of the history, and neither is secular Zionism.  Like the commercial exploitation of Rastafarian reggae, they are forms of false messianism.   Thank you for this important reminder.  Unlike most entertainers, they do not get stuck in self-parody, but use the mode of absurdist theater as an aesthetic proof by reductio ad absurdum, in order to demonstrate the counter-premise that was denied at the outset of the proof, in the very next track:
 * Why is this night different than all the others? Whether in marriage, or in passover night, the desire for holiness is a fundamental human drive.  Go down Moses.   The bossa-lite arena rock is a little annoying, but this is a very important song.
 * (Is it) Too Late? To make a dream come true?  A passionate reggae that is musically more satisfying than the previous track, because of how it lends itself to dance.   This may have been intentional, although it seems backward to me.
 * Soul for Sale  Rare self-awareness and acknowledgement of the danger inherent in music industry fame, and the grunge distortion / death metal sound is the perfect genre in which to express this sentiment:  "I need a pyre, now that my soul is for sale.  Lord take me higher, I'm walking closer to hell"   Every singer and musician should take this warning to heart and descend into this prayer the first album after they go pop.  And every death metal band ought to rewind their careers and make this a point of ascension, in order to escape the seductions of evil and the occult that have entrapped so many into a path that is ultimately empty and impotent.
 * "Ha'azinu Ha Shamayim" ("Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the sound of my voice.").  This reggae slow jam is first track in Hebrew, and it will haunt you:  they skipped liturgical music and popular hymns, skipped all political questions of zionism and anti-zionism, and went straight into primordial depths of ancient prophesy.   If you weren't ready for it, this song would shake you to the core when it suddenly dawns upon your liminal consciousness that what you're hearing is the Song of Moses.   Standing in transjordan, considering the promised land that he has been forbidden to enter, Moses prophesies the Israelites future exile from that very land.   This is beyond all comparison, the greatest reggae song that has ever been written or sung, or ever will be.  And it should inspire future cover renditions, and indeed further melodic elaboration.  They covered a mere half-dozen of the forty or more verses.   If you don't understand the Hebrew words, take the album to someone who does and listen to it together.  Rather than giving you a shortcut to the translation, I urge you to start at the beginning, which is to say, Breishit.   Or at least from the repetition of the Devarim.  This song is more than a merely aesthetic experience of melody and rhythym.  Unlike most music that we are conditioned to overconsume, the words are not meaningless or a secondary afterthought.   After listening to this, I found it very hard to not believe in the God of Israel, or to believe that Moses is anyone other than his true prophet.   If you come to this realization, you will also find yourself suddenly dancing in a dangerous world, perplexed and in need of a guide.  And if you don't want to listen to or consider this, then you probably shouldn't be listening to or considering Bob Marley either:  despite his many good qualities, Haile Selassie was assasinated by a Marxist-Leninist junta in 1974.  Nevertheless the decolonial movement remains a relevant concern for Africans, for Jews, and for those in diaspora communites, and it is not helped by the appropriation of Rasta music for the delusional escapist fantasy of mere hipster hedonism.  Wake up, people!  Prophecy is not a mere festival.  Its not a game, and its not mere performance art.  The wicked will not stand in judgement, nor will sinners endure among the congregation of the righteous.  For Jah knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.  Do you not know this?  Moshav band's future albums make good on this hope by bringing that guidance on the path of return.  To invoke blessing, you must be also become willing to endure the curse on disobedience.

New Song Rising

 * "New Song Rising" is the title track of the eponymous album that follows. The previous album was written and sung at night, this is the album of morning: "There's a new song rising, open up your eyes, open up your eyes, wake up your tired little bones".

Shabbat volumes I and II

 * Modeh Ani "I give thanks" Having once heard it, I now sing it every morning on my bed when I wake up: its a great way to start the day.

Lior Ben-Hur

 * "Strong Like a Lion, Fragile as a man (in this journey, I remain)" he reinterprets the "Lion of Judah" mythos, re-appropriating it for the jewish everyman, away from both the messiah and the Rastafarian, without denying it to anyone else. Simultaneously, he sucessfully undermines the cult of mere power associated with kingship and with overuse of the lion metaphor for the king, by the juxtaposition with fragile humanity.  This is not theologically innaccurate to an orthodox reading of Tanak, in my opinion, wherein the lion can typify evil as well as good.  Rather than "the lion", he says "like a lion".  It strikes me as a culturally significant lyrical innovation that should inspire cover renditions.
 * "In This Reality" A original composition of thanksgiving to the one God as sustainer and liberator.
 * Modeh Ani "I gratefully thank you", he takes the refrain from the traditional Jewish morning prayer and then gives thanks to mother earth, before progressing to thank Almighty father, God most high.  This is the error of shituf, a clear breach from monotheism whether Jewish or Rastafarian:  God is not a man, therefore he is not also a woman.  Moreover, he needs no wife or consort, since the earth is his  (or should I say "whous") no less than the heavens.  (The Yanglicism would be more accurate, and might help us avoid these unnecessary debates)  Neither Maimonides nor early sages would approve, and neither does common sense.  Lior probably knows this and even agrees, but sings otherwise in order to soften the sudden appearance of his Jewish particularism, and in order to preempt a backlash against it by appealing to a pop-ecumenicalism.  But the particularism need not be denied:  it is fundamental to the whole project.  The inevitable backlash cannot be prevented, it simply must be refuted (da ma l'hashiv).  The earth is not your point of origin, but it might be your destination if you insist on this error.  Lior's melody and remaining verses can easily be covered by another artist with this lyrical disaster omitted.  He should atone by undertaking this project himself as an act of confession, after which he could record a musical rendition of Yigdal.   Until then, we should all listen instead to Moshav band's rendition of Modeh Ani, which is the first track on their Shabbat II album.
 * Shma Nyabingha ("Hear _____") is a memorable setting into reggae music of the Shema prayer, the center of orthodox liturgy, Deuteronomy 6:4 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, and all thy strength".  If he really believed this and had the courage of his conviction, he would have sanctified the name by resisting the temptation to give thanks to mother earth, as if earth were some kind of intermediary to heaven, as if God were not the omnipresent.  What does Nyabingha mean?  The word is not Hebrew, and does not appear in the lyric, it appears to be a proper name of probable African origin, referring to the melody.

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