We direct your attention to an an entirely delightful profile of the rapper-cum–Orthodox Jew Shyne in today’s New York Times. The Belize-born, Puffy protégé, who spent nine years in jail for opening fire in a nightclub while hanging with Diddy and Jennifer Lopez, now lives in Jerusalem, goes by the name Moses Levi, studies Torah, and is certain, “My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama [soul].” (Someone, please, make the T-shirt. Hanukkah is just around the corner!) According to Shyne, at the time of his arrest he was “already praying daily and engaged in his own study of Judaism but only became a practicing Jew, celebrating the holidays, keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath under the tutelage of prison rabbis.” His conversion has not diminished his rapping: His albums Messiah and Gangland are set to be released shortly with Def Jam. Shyne is also adamant that rap and Judaism are not mutually exclusive, and provides super-excellent quote in support of this theory: “There’s nothing in the Chumash [Torah] that says I can’t drive a Lamborghini,” and “nothing in the Halacha [Jewish law] about driving the cars I like, about the lifestyle I live.” This line of thinking raises a whole other set of questions, first and foremost among them: Is Dom kosher?
