Remembering Michael Jackson

As I was contemplating what I might want to write this Shabbat, my mind kept drifting back to one thing: Michael Jackson. If you know me, you probably know that I don’t talk about, read about, or care about Hollywood gossip all that much. When the OJ Simpson trial was going on years ago, I couldn’t care less. When Jon and Kate announced they were divorcing, I thought, “Why should I care?” But, when I learned that Michael Jackson had died, I had a different reaction. To be honest, I don’t know if I’d say that I was sad. I’m not even sure I was surprised. But I was definitely affected.

This morning while I was at Camp TEKO for the Yom Yafeh service, some of the staff, in particular some who are still in high school, were discussing Michael Jackson’s death and I overheard them saying, “This is going to be like Elvis for our generation.” For our generation? Our generation? “You weren’t even alive when ‘Thriller’ came out!” I thought. Okay, so I barely was either. But Michael Jackson’s music, for better or worse, played a role in the music of my generation. “Thriller” came out when I was four and became a staple of the music I still like and probably influenced many of the musical artists that I came to enjoy during my childhood and teen years.

So, when I learned of Michael Jackson’s death, I was reminded of days at summer camp impressed by the counselors who could moonwalk and singing misheard lyrics from “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” with my brother – “It’s the same as the sound of matzah; it’s the same as the sound of matzah.” But I was also reminded of all of the controversy that surrounded Michael Jackson in more recent years: the irresponsible spending, the legal battles, the erratic behavior. And I couldn’t help but ask myself how Judaism would expect me to remember someone who played such a big role in my childhood, who at the same time might not be the greatest role model.

This week’s Torah portion, Korach, recalls a member of the Levite tribe who leads a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Korach’s rebellion fails as Moses and Aaron illustrate that God is on their side, and yet, this week’s Torah portion is named for this would-be leader. There is clearly a value that even this person who sought to overthrow Judaism as it existed in his time must still be remembered. Judaism teaches us that we recite Kaddish for eleven months following the death of a loved one. Our tradition tells us that we don’t say Kaddish for a full year because we are not in a place to judge the person we remember and decide that they lived a life that requires a full year of prayer from us. But neither are we in a place to judge their life as so good that we only need to recite Kaddish for a year. We don’t place judgment on how good of a life a person has lived or hasn’t lived. That’s not up to us to decide. Nontheless, we understand the importance and the power of memory.

As a prelude to the Kaddish, Richard Levy writes:

It is hard to sing of oneness when the world is not complete, when those who once brought wholeness to our life have gone, and naught but memory can fill the emptiness their passing leaves behind.

But memory can tell us only what we were in company with those we loved; it cannot help us find what each of us, alone, must now become. Yet no one is truly alone: those who live no more, echo still within our thoughts and words, and what they did is part of what we have become.

We do best homage to our dead when we live our lives more fully, even in the shadow of our loss. For each of our lives is worth the life of the whole world; in each one is the breath of the Ultimate One. In affirming the One, we affirm the worth of each one whose life, now ended, brought us closer to the Source of life, in whose unity no one is alone and every life finds purpose.

Maimonides teaches us that we are supposed to see ourselves as a scale with an equal amount of good and evil and that each decision we make will tip the scale in one direction or the other. In his song, “Heal the World,” Michael Jackson sings:

We could fly so high
Let our spirits never die.
In my heart I feel
You are all my brothers.
Create a world with no fear;
Together we'll cry happy tears.
See the nations turn
Their swords into plowshares.
We could really get there
If you cared enough for the living.
Make a little space to make a better place.
Heal the world.
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race.
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living
Make a better place for
You and for me.

May we be inspired by those who have influenced our lives to act in ways that tip the scale towards the good. And may we be the inspiration for others, to heal the world and make it a better place.