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Monday, July 06, 2009
The Eulogy You Won’t Hear for Michael Jackson
When he witnessed the explosion of the atomic bomb he had worked so hard to develop, Robert Oppenheimer famously quoted from the Bhagavad-Gita, “I am become death, destroyer of worlds.”
Anyone who witnessed the tragic implosion of the life of Michael Jackson and its circus aftermath over the last week might amend the saying to read, “I am fame, destroyer of lives.” From the media infatuation with every prurient detail of the aftermath of his death one would think that it was a cartoon character, a caricature of a real man, that had died rather than an actual person. Michael always had a mutually exploitive relationship with the American people. He used us to feed his constant need for attention and we used him to feed our constant need for entertainment. Still, it would have been hard to believe that Michael’s story could be more bizarre in death than in life. But from the mother of Michael’s two older children ‘deciding’ whether or not she wants her kids to Joe Jackson talking up his new record label as his son’s body lies unburied to nurses coming forward to claim that Michael asked them to inject him with quantities of painkillers that would have felled a water buffalo, clearly the impossible has been achieved. But is there any adult here to bring proper sobriety to the moment, to actually remind us that a human being has died, that a tormented soul finally lost his battle with life, and that three innocent children have been orphaned?
And just when you thought this theater of the absurd had reached its zenith, now comes the news that Michael’s memorial service will take place at a basketball arena complete with twelve thousand fans and that the Ringling Brothers Circus will be occupying the same arena the very next day.
Did noone say to themselves that what actually destroyed Michael’s life and what brought such untold misery to the Jackson family as a whole was an inability to cope with superstardom and that perhaps something might be learned from Michael’s untimely passing by sending him off in a quiet, dignified, truly religious ceremony that focused on the quiet acts of kindness he performed rather than the albums he sold?
Here, then, is the eulogy that should be given to bring redemption to Michael’s life.
‘The death of Michael Joseph Jackson is not just the personal tragedy of a man who died young. Nor does it solely represent a colossal waste of life and talent. Rather it is, above all else, an American tragedy. For whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, our obsession with Michael Jackson, our infatuation with every peculiar detail of his life, stems from the fact that he represents a microcosm of America.
‘It has long been fashionable to caricature Michael as an oddball, as a freak. But how different were his peculiarities to our own?
‘Michael’s dream was to be famous so that he would be loved. Having been forced into performing as a young boy, he never knew a time when affection was a free gift. Rather, attention, the poor substitute for love with which he made due, was something that he had to earn from the age of five. Hence, his obsession with being famous and his lifelong fear of being forgotten by the crowds. And if that meant purposefully doing strange things in order to sustain the public’s interest, he would pay that price too because he could not live without his drug of choice, fame. But how different is that from the rest of us, living as we do in an age of reality TV where washing our dirty laundry in public makes us into celebrities and competing on American Idol promises us that we can be the next Michael Jackson.
‘Of course, there was Michael’s constant plastic surgery. How much could one man so hate himself, we asked, that he is prepared to disfigure his face utterly? But the same question could easily be asked of millions of Americans, especially women, who live with extremely poor body image, who starve their bodies and undergo extreme cosmetic procedures – including sticking a needle in their forehead – to rediscover lost beauty and youth.
‘Yes, there was Michael’s troubled soul. Could a man so blessed with fame and fortune, we wondered, really be so miserable that he had to numb his pain with a syringe of Demerol? And yet, my friends, America is the richest country in the world with the highest standard of living. Still, we consume three quarters of the earth’s anti-depressants and one out of three Americans is on an anti-anxiety medication.
‘As far as Michael’s materialism and decadence, particularly when we watched him on TV spending millions of dollars on useless baubles, is it really all that different to the rest of us who have maxed our credit cards buying junk we don’t need to compensate for an insatiable inner emptiness?
‘There were also Michael’s broken relationships. Two divorces, estrangement from brothers and sisters, and extremely questionable and perhaps even criminal sexual activities. Yes, few of us, fortunately, are guilty of such crimes. But the huge success of ‘barely legal’ pornographic websites, ‘Girls Gone Wild’ videos, and the sexualization of teens like Miley Cyrus should perhaps have us question the adolescent nature of our own sexual interests. As for broken relationships, Time magazine just reported that of every one hundred marriages, fifty divorce, twenty-five stay together unhappily, and only twenty-five are happy.
‘In sum, my friends, we are fixated on Michael Jackson because he was always just a very extreme version of ourselves and compacted into his short life a supercharged version of all the strangeness and profligacy of a culture which puts attention before love, fans before family, body before spirit, medical sedation before true inner peace, and material indulgence before spiritual enlightenment. Perhaps the only reason the rest of us did not become as strange or as broken as Michael was that we simply lacked the talent and the resources to do so.
‘And therein lies a profound morality lesson. Where Michael goes, the rest of us go. Our obsession with Michael was always selfish. It was a focus on where we ourselves were headed, where our culture and our interests were leading us.
‘And now we have the power to take a senseless tragedy and given it meaning by learning from the heartbreaking demise of a once-great legend that life is not about fame and fortune but rather about G-d, family, community, and good deeds.
‘Rest in peace, Michael. May you find in death the serenity you never had in life and may they judge you more charitably in heaven that we did here on earth.’
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who served as Michael Jackson’s Rabbi for two years, is the founder of This World: The Values Network. His upcoming book is ‘The Blessing of Enough.’ http://www.shmuley.com
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Monday, July 06, 2009
caliah
I don’t mean to be a perpetual jerk but I am concerned Shmuley that you are suggesting to people that Jackson went to heaven. How do you know that? Ultimately only God knows who accepts and or rejects him in the end, but a persons life is a pretty good indication of who their (L)ord was.
For some reason, I would not have taken you for a person who had sloppy, poorly thought theology.
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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Suchi
Sad that certain people can’t accept truth written by Shmuley for his words pinch or prick their own conscience…it makes you look deep within and question how honest you are to yourself. So Shmuley kudos for coming out with your beliefs and conviction…may god bless you continue with your good work & brilliant articles
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Tuesday, July 07, 2009
AnthroGrl
Caliah - Jews don’t believe in Hell. Please see http://www.jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm for more details.
Shmuley - I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you for reminding us all that a human being is no longer with us, three children no longer have a father, and there is now a gap where we should use Michael’s vibrations and legacy of tzedakah to help us create Tikkun Olam. I wish more people remembered the Michael who wanted to save the world instead of the Michael created by the media.
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
sistertruth
You may delete my comments which is fine. But I have to speak my truth.
As a woman of African decent let me say that song and dance has always been an integral part of our culture. It has carried us through some horrific times. It is how we connect to the divine.
Being that you are supposed to be such a spiritual man I find it very puzzling that you don’t understand that the reason why so many people around the world loved Michael, was because they were able to connect to Spirit when he sang and danced. Being that I have had my own childhood issues I can trully understand the healing power of the arts. I find your comments to be cold, callous and totally judgemental. Not to mention the fact even though Michael was found not guilty in a court of law you seem determined to convict him. Who are you to judge? A eulogy should offer comfort to loved ones and focus on that person’s good deeds instead of tearing him down. As a man of God and a so called friend of Michael’s it’s very hard to believe that you choose not to focus on the joy and unity that Michael’s music brought to humanity. Not to mention the fact that he was a great humanitarian.
I suggest that you look at the man in the mirror. -
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Marta Guerra
Hello,
And so Michael’s offsprings became exposed for the World.
I always try to be sensible to his family’s privacy when writing online comments like this one. Only to find out that they have destroyed their privacy with an ax.
It disgusts me to the core that they have even considered to use Michael’s children as the apotheosis of his tribute.
And there is no way the children’s guardians can advocate that this is the way he wanted it.As I read Shmuley’s article I cannot help but feeling that there no matter the culture you live in there is something wrong with this family. Especially when putting children under pressure to “perform” as adults. The 7 year old was on stage yesterday?? The 11 year old was under the spotlight?? Pleasee… Even if producers know this sells, the members of the family should have opposed it. But they don’t. They just think this is natural. And of course today the newsstands flood with family photos of Michael and the kids which Michael kept private for years. How instant they become voyeur material under the wings of the grandparents.
Apparently no one in this family was sensible enough to avoid exposing children except Michael.
Best Regards,
Marta -
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Zara
Well, this is a thoughtful eulogy for the “King of Pop”, a man I cannot say I was a deep fan of, but neither did I dislike him…until he started to become, pretty much, a freak in the eyes of the public, with his bizarre plastic surgery, which made him into a frightening caricature of a man (when he used to be so handsome), not to mention the disturbing allegations, the anorexia and so forth.
I did feel compassion, but also distaste. When he died, I felt a certain relief that his tortured time on this earth was finally over. Maybe, I hope, his spirit has now come home. I believe this and I doubt anyone has the right to deny it with any degree of legitimacy; God does not have a petty mind like we all can.
Regarding his funeral circus, which I did not see, I think some good came of it.
When his daughter of 11 years talked of how a great dad he was, and she cried, it was so heart-breaking and so real that I thought: wow, he really Was loved by his child as someone who was real. She Really loved him.
Now, I don’t see him quite so much as just a tortured, freakish soul; now I see him as a man beloved by his daughter.
It moved me deeply. -
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
caliah
AnthroGrl” Jews don’t believe in Hell. “
Thank you - appreciate the info.
My husband has this friend (his architect actually) who was raised Catholic, practices Buddhism but considers himself a Christan. ??? Tells my husband that he does not take all of the Bible as completely accurate and so on and so forth. My husband asks him, ‘if some parts of the Bible are not trustworthy, what part is it (reliable or unreliable part) that you base your relationship with God on’? I.E. the legitimacy of being called, chosen or set apart by God cannot be decided on by us. In a similar sense, if one happens to be Jewish and the authority for this claim comes from the Bible, one cannot ignore the fact that the Old Testament speaks as well of a Judgment:
Daniel 12:2 “Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence.”Both claims (about Jewishness and the Judgment)(have authority and are to be headed or neither of them do…
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Sunday, July 12, 2009
leiba
Thank you Rabbi for your 2 insightful articles about MJ.You could see what he was doing to himself but you couldnt save him from himself.You tried.As Debbie is the Jewish mother of Prince and Paris do you feel any responsibility to help her have custody of her Jewish children.I worry about them and Blanket who does not know who his mother is.Is Micheal their biological dad? I dont think he was.I think every person deserves to know who their parents are and Michael was very selfish in wanting these children exclusively to play without regard for their identity needs.I think the Jackson family look very powerful and will not let Debbie have any rights to her children.I know she was given money by Michael to buy her out of their lives but I dont think she had the strength to fight him.I read what you said about Michael and you knew him and Im sure he had a lot of love to give but it always disturbed me how his children were not given the opportunity for a normal life.Love from their mother and real father.
What would be the best outcome for them?
Michael left them to his mum who is 79 years of age. -
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Justin White
How is it that you were his Rabbi? MJ wasn’t a Jew! Perhaps for his ex-wife? Kids (apparently they are Jews)?
Taming Korach
http://www.asdl.biz -
Monday, July 20, 2009
Mark K
Additional Thoughts and Reasoning Why into Michael Jackson’s Tragic Death as Told by a Friend,
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wanted to distance himself from Michael Jackson because he knew Michael was facing a tragic death. Sometimes we underestimate our ability to change situations as I think Rabbi Boteach must have done.
Michael Jackson was a Jehovah’s Witness, but he did not increase his knowledge and increase his community prayer time with the right community to insure that he stay on the continued right path of growth leading to salvation. I know that Michael is an angel (host) who will have eternal life.
If Rabbi Boteach had got past the daily type talk and addressed the importance of keeping Halachah and especially keeping the Sabbath, maybe Michael would not have sought to escape the jaded minds of the public and journalists who constantly ridiculed him instead of submitting his life to the company of innocent children. But Michael, even as an adult was more innocent and childlike than a few of the children in his environment which had ulterior motives for befriending him.
As I read on in Rabbi Shmuley’s piece, I realize that he put up a good calling for Michael to follow, but maybe because of Michael’s sensitivity he could not overlook the self-righteous hatred of him directed at him by hypocritical authority figures, even within the Jehovah’s Witness congregation.
Michael Jackson’s desire for pure love of him by others should have been tempered by realizing that most of the world, including even children are jaded and would like to think of him as an idol rather than as a fellow human being who loved them and wanted their love to be the same as his instead of idol worship.
Certain people twist fame of others into idol worship for their own personal gain, which not only destroys the gifted person of fame, but millions of people who have been influenced into idol worship.
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