Formerly Orthodox singer-songwriter Matisyahu (A.K.A. Matthew Paul Miller) has penned a heartfelt, raw, honest essay for Medium about his religious journey, musical development, and struggle with substance abuse—which started when when he was just 14.

“I found company in Bob Marley and his music,” writes Matisyahu of his high school years. “I was depressed and alone, feeling misunderstood by kids, coaches, teachers and parents, so I retreated into the confines of my room in the attic with weed and music. I began to search. Summer of junior year I went into the wilderness out west and felt the gnawing gaping hole in my chest more vast then ever, and I began to think about God in relation to the void. Am I alone?”

The answer, he decided, was no. God “was with me always like an all-powerful invisible friend.” He became a Phish groupie, experienced homelessness, went into rehab, saw numerous therapists, but still “couldn’t seem to get it right.” Eventually he fell into Orthodox Judaism, got married, committed himself to his music, and became an alt-rock reggae superstar—and darling of the Hasidic-hipsters the world over. But all was not well. Dissatisfied, he chafed against the restrictions the of movement, until he found his guru—”an anti-establishment renegade Russian therapist/original thinker/Chassidic and Kabalistic creative wiz with a heart of gold and no fingers”—and a shul where he could “scream and sing during prayers and not be judged.”

It’s a compelling piece of writing, which neatly ties in with the release of his latest single, “Hard Way,” from his 2014 album Akeda (“binding”)—an allusion to the biblical story of the binding and near-sacrifice of Isaac. Read the rest here.

(Image: Matisyahu performs in Park City, Utah, January 2014. Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty.)

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Five months after her death, Joan Rivers has been honored with a Grammy Award for the audio recording of her 2014 memoir, Diary of a Mad Diva.

Congrats Best Spoken Word Album ‘Diary Of A Mad Diva’ #JoanRivers #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/x9NAa630M9

— The GRAMMYs (@TheGRAMMYs) February 8, 2015

The beloved comedienne/actress/writer (and fierce defender of Israel) died suddenly in September, after complications while undergoing throat surgery.

“It’s a difficult moment. It’s a little bittersweet,” said daughter Melissa Rivers on the red carpet, soon after the news was announced. “But it’s wonderful how loved she was and how she’s getting so much attention now and people are really understanding what she’s about.”

You can listen to an excerpt here, replete with jokes about vagina piercings and killing Jesus. Oh, Joan.

(Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Related: These Two Clips Show Joan Rivers’ Timeless Comic Genius

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Goddess knows, we don’t need another reason to love Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but sister just keeps dropping wisdom all over the place, and—as president of the Notorious R.B.G. fangirl club—it’s my duty to report the latest. In a talk at Georgetown University on Wednesday, the 82-year-old Supreme Court Justice described her early days in the law, when it “was not a welcoming profession for women.”

“In those days, in the Southern District, most judges wouldn’t hire women. In the U.S. attorney’s office, women were strictly forbidden in the Criminal Division,” she explained. “And the excuse for not hiring women in the Criminal Division was they have to deal with all these tough types, and women aren’t up to that. And I was amazed. I said, ‘Have you seen the lawyers at legal aid who are representing these tough types? They are women.'”

Another gem: people often ask R.B.G. when it will be “enough”—i.e. when will there be enough women on the Supreme Court. Her answer? “When there are nine.”

Yes, yes, YES. This is delicious, right? But wait, there’s more! When asked what talent she would choose if she could have any talent in the world, Ginsburg responded: “I would be a great diva.”

To which we all say, in unison: You are a great diva, R.B.G. (And you sure as hell have mastered the art of the mic drop.)

(Image: Portrait by Simmie Knox, under commission of the United States Supreme Court)

Related: Halloween is OVER, Ruth Baby Ginsburg Has Killed It
Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Share Personal Trainer, Mutual Admiration

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Former NSYNC star Lance Bass and husband Michael Turchin dropped by the HuffPost Live studios earlier this week to talk about their interfaith marriage, and to promote the amazingly titled 90-minute E! TV special “Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding,” which aired last night.

The couple, who married underneath a chuppah in a lavish ceremony in L.A. in December, are from totally different worlds: Bass is from a family of conservative Southern Baptists, and Turchin is Jewish.

Bass is hopeful that the broadcast will help to diminish the stigma around gay marriage, particularly in his family’s community: “Religion is the reason why we’re still fighting about the word ‘marriage,’ and I think this is going to be so important for people to see. Take religion out of it, it’s all just about love, and when you see my Republican, conservative, Southern Baptist parents… walk their gay son down the aisle, it shows you how everyone should act. You should just focus on the love and not worry about anything else.”

As for the interfaith aspect of their relationship, the couple plan to take a ‘spiritual but not religious’ approach to parenting.

“We’re going to introduce them to everything, and it’s up to them whatever they are drawn to. But I want to show them every walk of life and every culture and let them decide for themselves what they believe,” said Bass.

“I’m definitely going to teach them and show them their Jewish past, just so they have the understanding,” added Turchin. “But I’m not going to force them to believe anything or to adhere to any specific religious laws or anything like that. I think there’s more harm in that than good, I really do.”

(Image: Michael Turchin and Lance Bass, après-engagement, December 2013. Credit: Robin Marchant/Getty)

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Seems every couple of years there’s a new “it” pastry in New York City, from the humble cupcake of the early 2000s, to the cronut frenzy of 2013. (Remember when those babies were selling on the black market for $100 a pop?) Well, good news, Jews and gentiles: it looks like 2015 is shaping up to be the year of the “doughka,” which is exactly what it sounds like, A BABKA MADE FROM DONUT DOUGH. (Cue singing angles and all caps.)

I know, I know—the concept is so mind-blowingly delicious you’re wondering, “Why didn’t I think of that?” But, alas, you didn’t. Fany Gerson—the Mexican-Jewish dessert genius behind Dough and La Newyorkina—did, so she gets all the glory and gelt and long lines of disgruntled tourists!

There are three flavors available at Dough’s Flatiron outpost right now, quoth Grubstreet: “Mexican chocolate, filled with a bittersweet-chocolate spread, and dusted with Mexican cinnamon-sugar and Mexican chocolate; Lemon & Olive Oil, studded with candied lemon, rolled in lemon sugar, and brushed with olive oil and a touch of salt; and Sticky Banana, which is a sticky-bun-meets-babka situation stuffed with cinnamon, toasted pecans, and a sticky frosting.”

But if you’re not in New York City—or if you’re partial to a more traditional babka—here are seven of our favorite recipes that you can try at home right now:

1. Smitten Kitchen’s Better Chocolate Babka (these pictures are just to die)
2. The Nosher’s Nutella Babka
3. Lazy but delicious: Babka Bread Pudding (with store-bought babka)
4. The Babkallah, Bon Appetit’s Challah-Babka hybrid
5. Nothing traditional about this Pecan Pie-flavored babka, but it sounds amaaaay-zing
6. And this is literally a Babka pie. My God. Yes.
7. Last but not least, our very own recipe for chocolate and cinnamon babka cupcakes. That’s, like, 17 food trends in one bite.

Let the babka revival begin!

(Image by Alpha, via Flickr)

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Katy Perry’s yarmulke-inspired dress* (the “bramulke,” if you will) won the Super Bowl last night, obliterating all other competitors—including Perry herself, who put on a pretty good show.

But Idina Menzel (AKA Adele Dazeem) was a close second with her stunning rendition of the national anthem, which had just the right amount of theatrical trilling and drama. Love how she punches the air at the end! She knows she’s nailed it. Take that, Alicia!

http://youtu.be/_OM56DiHGUo

Comedian Billy Eichner received an honorable mention for a series of perfectly executed tweets:

At the end of the game they will announce who gets Israel

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 2, 2015

What if this whole game is just someone’s bar mitzvah party — billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 2, 2015

My wife and I LOVED that Scientology ad.

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 2, 2015

And apparently a bunch of dudes played a football game? I have no idea what the outcome was; sorry. I’m Australian.

This concludes your coverage of Super Bowl XLIX—and your sports news for 2015. See you next year!

(Main image: Timothy A. Clary/Getty)

* Editor’s note: You guys, for real, we know it’s beachball-inspired.

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At the beginning of January, Streit’s Matzo announced that they would be closing up shop on the Lower East Side of New York City and moving to New Jersey. The company has been operating out of the same tenement building on Rivington Street since 1925—it’s truly one of the last remaining bastions from the neighborhood’s Jewish, Yiddish-speaking heyday.

Filmmaker Michael Levine, who is making a documentary about Streit’s, opined the closure in Bowery Boogie:

I personally know that this was an agonizing decision for the Streit family, who despite their many challenges, were determined to keep the factory and its workers employed onsite, even as the phone rang daily with offers from developers clamoring to purchase the valuable real estate. I watched as they turned down offer after offer, until the challenges of maintaining a manufacturing business in a drastically changing Lower East Side, as well as the pressures of increased foreign competition, left the company no alternative but to accept.

The loss is, of course, especially painful for the Streit’s workers, many of whom have devoted 30 or more years of their lives to working here, and for whom, like the millions before them who came to the Lower East Side, found opportunity for themselves and their families in that work.

Today, The Guardian posted a poignant video about the factory, featuring interviews with executive vice-president Aron Yagoda (great-grandson of founder Aron Streit), and long-time employee Anthony Zapata. There’s some tension—Yagoda says the business can not continue to operate in its current location; Zapata thinks the move is a “mistake”—but mostly, the feeling is one of sadness and inevitability.

(Image: Workers at Streit’s Matzo factory on New York City’s Lower East Side on May 9, 2012. Credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/GettyImages)

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Brace yourself, Israel: Chelsea Handler is in you. The Jewish comedienne posted a photo of herself at Jaffa’s Summit Garden (“Gan HaPisga”) on Monday afternoon, Jerusalem time. “Homelanding in my homeland. With my jugs in my jacket,” she wrote, ending the post with an emphatic “RESPECT” hashtag.

Handler was indeed modestly and mysteriously attired, wearing sunglasses and a scarf in an homage to Homeland protagonist Carrie Mathison. (Regarding those “jugs”: In October 2014, she posted a photo of herself shirtless astride a horse—à la Putin—to Instagram, to protest the app’s censoring of women’s bodies. (And the Russian president’s douchiness, natch.) The caption read, “Anything a man can do, a woman has the right to do better. #kremlin.” Studies show it was the most epic and brilliant feminist troll of all time.)

According to YNet, Handler is in Israel “for a private visit” and to “participate in a fundraiser for the Tal Center for Integrative Oncology at the Sheba Medical Center,” which is located just outside Tel Aviv.

In 2013, the comedienne explored her family’s connection to Nazi Germany on the TLC program Who Do You Think You Are? Though her father is Jewish and she was raised in the Jewish faith, her mother’s parents were Germans who emigrated to the U.S. after World War II. Her grandfather had served in the German army, ultimately ending up in Montana as a POW.

“Whether or not he agreed with Hitler, he was serving in the German army, and then he was taken as a prisoner of war to America where he stayed for several years,” Handler said on the show. “My German grandma definitely spoke about her life during the war way more than my grandfather did. He never spoke about it.”

(Image: Instagram)

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Honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this one—maybe both? The AP reports that an Israeli barber named Shalom Koresh has created a ‘magic’ hair yarmulke, designed to conceal the wearer’s Jewish identity, but allow them fulfill the religious requirement to cover their head as a sign of devotion to God. (So, yes, it is technically a partial toupee. An incidental win for the follicularly-challenged!)

“This skullcap is washable, you can brush it, you can dye it,” said Koresh, who was ‘inspired’ by rising anti-Semitism and violence attacks against Jews in Europe. “It was created so people could feel comfortable going to places where they are afraid to go, or places where they can’t wear it, and feel secure.”

The yarmulkes range in price from $56 to $91, depending on the quality and authenticity of the hair. Rabbinic responses have been mixed, but most religious authorities concede that when it comes to keeping safe, a Jew’s gotta do what a Jew’s gotta do.

What do you think? Would you wear the magic yarmulke?

(Image: YouTube)

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Barack Obama embraced Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as he entered the House of Representatives to give the State of the Union address last night, and the internet (OK, the Huffington Post) subsequently went bananas, describing it as “The Best Hug in the History of Liberal America.” I don’t know about that, but it did look like a pretty tight squeeze. And I certainly wouldn’t turn down a cuddle with the Notorious RBG, who was looking fine in black crocheted gloves, vintage-y looking red earrings, and an elaborate beaded necklace. Can we just take a moment to appreciate her sartorial prowess, in addition to her brilliant intellect and intimidating professional achievements? Yes? [bows head] <moment> 

Ginsburg then appeared to fall asleep for a bit in the middle, but you know what? When you’re an 81-year-old feminist trailblazing judge who sleeps four hours a night and fights the good fight for Americans daily, you get to do whatever. you. want. in the President’s State of the Union address. And that includes taking a nap.

This has been your bi-monthly Ruth Bader Ginsburg fangirl update. We’ll see you in March.

(Image: Getty)

Related: Halloween is OVER, Ruth Baby Ginsburg Has Killed It
Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Share Personal Trainer, Mutual Admiration

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