Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Rabbi Shmuley Discusses the Important of ‘The Michael Jackson Tapes’

When one is close to someone like Michael, an international celebrity, as I have learned, you sometimes inherit his detractors. It just comes with the territory.  Michael reached out to me, and we shared a relationship that was incredibly meaningful in both our lives. Sadly, our camaraderie was not to last. When I realized I could not positively influence his life, I had to withdraw from our relationship.

I remain saddened and devastated by his early and tragic death. The Michael Jackson tapes were recorded with Michael’s complete knowledge and at his instigation in order to publish a book. It was Michael’s desperate wish that our conversations be produced and the book be published so that his heart might be known to a public he understood was greatly suspicious of him. He wanted to share a deeper side of himself that our friendship had begun to uncover. The book was delayed by Michael’s arrest and the tattered reputation he gained from the trial. After his death, the outpouring of public sympathy indicated that the world might be able to hear the raw honesty that Michael shares in these tapes.

To be sure, Michael has strong critics and my book and our conversations do not in any way whitewash his shortcomings. But he was extraordinarily eloquent when speaking about how he was scarred by a childhood that, due to his incessant touring and performances, lacked the basic staples of a nurturing upbringing. His tragic end, in which he medicated away his loneliness until it finally consumed him, serves as a morality tale to the rest of us.  

As I mention in the book, I never saw anything that would lead me to believe that Michael could ever harm a child or that the charges of molestation against him could be true. So I highly doubt the allegations. Having said that, Michael confessed on international TV to sharing a bed with a child who was not his, a highly immoral practice for which he was rightly criticized.
 I will not put Michael or anyone else above the simple laws of right and wrong. And it was wrong of Michael to share a bed with someone else’s child. Period. Indeed, Michael promised me he never would. And had he followed these simple rules of right and wrong, then no one would have been able to accuse him of anything.
The Michael Jackson Tapes speaks for itself. Michael, in his own words, comes across as insightful, breathtakingly honest, profound, deeply pained, utterly alone, and yearning for redemption. He wished for people to know and understand his pain so that he might be perceived differently by a public that so rejected him. How sad that the book has made such a positive impact on millions of people who did not much respect Michael, but has incensed many of his fans who find it difficult to hear Michael admitting to such indescribable pain. Yes, it is hard to hear someone you love confess to a broken life and existence. But Michael was prepared to be that honest if it meant his life and experience could serve as a lesson to others as to the emptiness of fortune and fame that is not balanced by closeness to family and a spiritual purpose.