Who drove 50 Shekel to Jesus?
Someone forwarded this article to me, "Change for 50 Shekel", by Arye Dworkin
In it, Dworkin writes that parody rapper 50 Shekel has gone over to the dark side, er, announced to the world his embracing of Christianity. The cause (as I understand Dworkin to be writing)? All those nasty Jews who posted hurtful comments about 50 Shekel.
If Dworkin wants to make the point that lashon ha-ra is bad, I am all in agreement. It is not a good thing that we get into the very "hip" sound of dissing folks.
But the idea that 50 Shekel left Judaism because he was dissed? Not a chance. 50 Shekel left Judaism because he is a confused person trying to figure things out, and for now, he has found in Christianity the anchor he is looking for.
It is very popular to criticize those who criticize, and entirely wrong. First off, individuals, both those who do the dissing, and in this case, the one who decided to try a different brand of faith, need to separately take responsibility for their own actions. If there was lashon ha-ra, then people need to look at what they said. (In this case, the items cited go beyond criticism to what looks like lashon ha-ra.) You want to criticize lashon ha-ra, criticize the specific lashon ha-ra. But 50 Shekel has to be held accountable for himself and for his actions. It's not my fault, not Jew*School's fault, not your fault, nobody's fault and all 50 Shekel's responsibility. "Fault," here, as in most places (other than figuring out what broke in an accident) has everything to do with pointless blame, and nothing to do with taking responsibility
I could add something about the language and the posts in which 50 Shekel was dissed as being quite consistent within the hiphop world, but that takes us off topic. Sole responsibility for how he lives his life ultimately rests with 50 Shekel. 'Nuff said.