When someone in the celebrity world embraces Judaism, the Jewish community is all over it. Thanks to Kabbalaah, the Madonnas  and Demi's and Ashton's of the world, significant awareness and perhaps even a modicum of 'cool' has been brought to the Jewish heritage. It's only natural that Jews are quick to claim Jewish celebrities as their own, especially when we have stunners like Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannsson who shake up the typical 'stigma' of the Jewish look.

Year by year, whenever a new Jewish celebrity comes on the scene, we're quick to claim him. The Jewish community rejoiced when rapper Drake blew up this year, a Canadian black/Jewish boy makes good in the rap community... who can resist that? When NBA star Amar'e Stoudemire visits Israel and fasts on Yom Kippur, it warns our hearts... and love him or hate him, even Adam Lambert and his whole controversial stage show is secretly smiled upon affectionately by Jewish mothers everywhere. Yes, Jews are 'cool' again.

Enter the latest story to hit the Jewish waves this week - rapper Shyne - the man previously known as Jamaal Burrow, the famous P Diddy protog'e who served 9 years in prison and dated Jennifer Lopez is living the life of an Orthodox Jew in Jerusalem. He has officially changed his name to Moshe Levi and spends the bulk of his time studying the Talmud.

In an interview with the New York times this week, he talks about his 'Jewish Neshama' and  the 'science of Judaism.' Photographed in the religious community of Mea Shearim, Mr. Levi explains to the reporter that there is nothing in the Torah that would prohibit him driving a Lamborghini or force him to drastically alter his lifestyle.

Excerpt from the article: Rapper Shyne Jewish Moses Levi

As a teenager he started reading the Bible, relating to the stories of King David and Moses that he had first heard from his grandmother. At 13 (bar mitzvah age, he notes) he began to identify himself as "an Israelite," a sensibility reinforced after finding out his great-grandmother was Ethiopian; he likes to wonder aloud whether she might have been Jewish.
He was already praying daily and engaged in his own study of Judaism at the time of his arrest but only became a practicing Jew, celebrating the holidays, keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath under the tutelage of prison rabbis. In Israel, he said, he had undergone a type of pro forma conversion known as "giyur lechumra."

Aside from studying with esteemed rabbis, visiting the Kotel and performing the Mitzvot in the Holy Land, Mr. Levi is also working on a musical comeback, and  looks forward to exploring the Messianic theme within Judaism as well as the importance of boundaries in our lives.  "You know what you have if you don't have rules? You end up with a bunch of pills in your stomach. When you don't know when to say when and no one tells you no, you go off the deep."