The Commentator

Years ago when I was in yeshiva high school, the school used to make Rosh Chodesh chagigot.  Usually at these chagigas there was some sort of music, some really shvach dancing, and bagels.  They were a good way to get out of Gemorah class and get free breakfast.  One Rosh Chodesh the school deviated from the normal program and had a big concert where they got some new band.  They were probably what one would describe as a Jewish boy band.  The music was Jewish, though at the time something seemed innocently humorous to me.  The tune to which the words were sung were more akin to something I might hear on MTV and the dancing reminded me of a Backstreet Boys video.  I remember one song with the words Shma Yisroel and some dance moves that were actually pretty… maybe I would call it ‘provocative.’  My friends and I laughed thinking it was all very funny.  Now, looking back being, for better or worse, what you might call a ‘Modern Orthodox flip out,’ things seem more…complicated.

What I saw back in high school was not necessarily the beginning of secularly infiltrated Jewish music.  It may be that many of the traditional niggunim from Europe originated from secular sources.  Yet, there is definitely either a resurgence or expansion of the types of secular music that are being brought into the fold.  There is now a whole genre of techno Jewish music.  In fact, many Cds now have a token techno song along with the token Sefardi song.

Whether this phenomenon is good or bad is probably just as controversial as listening to secular music.  I have heard a somewhat large range of opinions.  Some think that secularized Jewish music is just as treif as secular techno and boy band music.  In order for one to maintain a state of kedusha, a barrier needs to be put up to keep out all manifestations of the tumah that pervades Western society and the intentions of those who write its music.  Compromising and mixing by definition loses the exclusivity that defines kedusha; and there is no such thing as half kodesh.  There are those within the latter opinion who are ok with secular music on its own, within halachic guidelines, of course, yet don’t think it should be brought into weddings.  In a sense, there is room for chol but the distinction between kodesh and chol should be defined and ever present.  The mingling of the two is the problem.

On the other end, one person I asked about the topic said that it was better to have people channel their need for secular music into kosher means.  He could have meant many things, though the following two are likely.  He could have meant that we have to make a concession to people’s desires and concede the bedievedness of such music.  Alternatively, he may have been suggesting that we should be kashering music and mekadeshing peoples desires.  The former meaning, better the people eat basar shechutah than neveilah.  While the latter, being mekadesh the secular is always a good thing.  The latter position could be supported in that the very idea of being mekadesh chol implies an interaction with chol in the first place.  This viewpoint thereby assumes that it is possible to transform something chol into an entire new identity of kedusha.  Not only that, but there may be sparks of kedusha embedded in the chol that we can extract.  The counterargument, however, is how do you know whether you are being mekadesh the secular or being mechalel the kodesh?  Additionally, if you are doing both, when is the gain greater than the loss?

In what might be a relative middle road is the opinion of those who think there is room to distinguish between the types of secular music being assimilated.  As long as the music is in good taste and appropriate there is no problem.  I remember that one of the Roshei Yeshiva, at a tisch, responded to a question about secular music by saying that music should have kosher words and a kosher beat.  I imagine he would distinguish between bringing in country or soft rock on the one hand, and rap or techno on the other.  The provocative dance moves to Shma Yisroel that I saw shouldn’t necessarily reflect on all the other music that seems in good taste.  After all, some maintain that we have always been taking good music from the secular host culture.

Though all may agree that Rap is out of the realm of acceptable secular music, I have not heard many people express any problem with Matisyahu or the new track on Lipa’s CD that apparently uses a rap beat in the beginning.  Generally, the attitude seems to be:, What does it matter if Matisyahu’s style is borrowed from a culture not exactly in consonance with a Torah hashkafa, as long as the music itself fits within the halacha?  I have had trouble explaining the other side to people who ask, “if you take away the words what could possibly be wrong with a beat, and what is a kosher beat anyways?”  Some may respond that you know a non-kosher beat when you hear it.  Though they couldn’t give a rigorous definition if asked, they would say our intuitions suffice for this matter.  They would explain that the criteria we judge music by might not be properly expressible in language.

Aside from specific concerns with the beat or dance moves is the general concern of modeling Jewish music after the type of secular music which is designed only to entertain  The pop MTV culture we live in sees music as a means for casual diversion and a quick fix, with no need to have real content or message.  When Jewish music follows suite and focuses on leisure and entertainment at the expense of inspiring religious sentiment and expressing religious experience, it becomes lightheaded and superficial.  What happens is that you get what some have appropriately dubbed, “pop culture Jewish music.”  This music, though not necessarily objectionable on the grounds of a non-kosher beat, is accused of being shallow, frivolous, and not in line with the moods and experiences that Jewish music should foster.  The distinction here should not be confused for the difference between good and bad music.  Though there certainly has been a relatively recent explosion of bad Jewish music, the problem may be due to the birth of a financially motivated modern Jewish music industry and not to secular influences.  Though I would certainly love to blame the hordes of Cds that all sound the same on secular culture, the low quality most probably relates to the financial incentives of producing such music and the opportunities that recording technology creates.  Jewish Pop music, on the other hand, may be innovative and catchy and at the same time lack any real ideas or experiences to communicate.

Two opposing views on this issue seem to define the range of opinions on lightheaded or just neutral Jewish music.  One is that light headed music fosters no genuine experience and should be kept out of the Torah world.  We shouldn’t use Torah just as a means to cleanse whatever we find entertaining.  The other goes somewhere along the lines of, when I want to listen to something light while I’m driving, I’m not looking for a genuine religious experience.  And I would rather listen to something clean and related to Torah than the radio.  Within this latter view, which seems to admit that there is something lacking in this music, a distinction between these types of Jewish music would need to be made.  I imagine that the appropriate settings for each type of music would also need to be clarified.  Music that does nothing for the listener and is there to occupy him just enough to not need secular music is not something we should bring into batei midrashim and shuls. 

In any event, the growth of a pop culture within the frum world probably isn’t such a good thing.  The world of browsing OnlySimchas, Burberry headbands, and all you can eat cholent may not be the society Chazal had in mind when they said in numerous Gemaras, “Yisroel kedoshim hem.”¹  Though material is not intrinsically evil, it tends to be a sure breeding ground for materialism.  Additionally, although Chazal never advocated asceticism for all, they did say that people should separate from even those things that are allowed to them.²  Light headed music comes from a light headed place and encourages light headedness.  Surely heavy headedness twenty-four hours a day is not required either, but I would like to think there’s something in the middle.  There is a lot of Jewish music out there that’s not heavy, but couldn’t be called pop.  To be honest, a large portion of the secular music scene actually hates pop music and its teenybopper fan base as much as I do.  There are many serious secular artists that are out there that make music that is thoughtful and meant to communicate meaningful experience.  Many such experiences and thoughts may be unacceptable, but within a hashkafah that allows the borrowing of music styles, many of these forms could be incorporated.

In light of such considerations, a benchmark to judge music might be to see what it produces.  Namely, do the people listening to such music grow in yirat shamayim, become inspired to serve G-d better, or do they remain static Jews who are in the fold?  Jewish music should be a place of kedusha, not just neutrality.  Yes, identifying with Orthodoxy and feeling part of Jewish culture are pretty important, but being mired in materialism and frivolity in the fold is not okay.  Jewish music should be judged by the values it purports to come from; does it help instill those values, or does it merely not betray them?

In the end it may be a good thing that people are channeling their leisure desires into places of kedusha, even if its not the most kadosh of places. Yet, it would be a terrible thing if we mistook Torah for a culture that merely entertains, or even one that provides a common heritage.  Chazal may have had just such a problem in mind when they said, in Sanhedrin, that one who makes the words of Shir Hashirim into a song brings evil to the world.³  Whatever concessions the Jewish world makes to the desire for the secular music we hear on the street, we should be careful to keep frumkite more than just a culture of cholent and catchy music.

    Daniel Lowenstein is a senior in YC, majoring in Philosophy
 

² See Ramban to Vayikra 19:2

³ Sanhedrin 101a

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