The farce of prohibiting music on the omer

The omer is a tough time for me because music is so important to me. To go 40 days without music and then not long after another 3 weeks is difficult, especially during the spring and summer when there are so many more opportunities to hear live music.

I also never understood how a capella music is acceptable. If the omer is a mourning period, how does a capella music change anything? Musical instruments don't inherently promote joy and a capella music is in fact often joyous (and terribly kitschy in the modern Ashkenazi world).

I looked up the source of this minhag and was surprised at the result. The ban against music is not found anywhere in the Mishnah, Gemara, or even the Shulchan Aruch. The earliest source is found in a 17th century commentary on the Shulchan Aruch known as the Magen Avraham who argues that celebrational dancing is forbidden. In order to prevent people from dancing in a celebratory way, such as at a wedding or a bar mitzvah, he included that any type of music that brings people to get up and dance is also impermissible. But the logic would follow that music that doesn't encourage shaking your booty, but rather is downtempo, reflective, and most importantly spiritually exalting, is permitted (and maybe even encouraged since it evokes an atmosphere of mourning). Thus, the custom of not listening to music at all is only a chumra (an extra stringency) and the custom of only listening to a capella music is simply misguided.

This leads me to argue that the later rabbis who invented this chumra of only listening to a capella music didn't understand music at all and probably didn't really listen to it themselves. While a capella music can certainly be spiritually exalting (just ask a Catholic - in fact the term itself is Italian for "in the style of the church) it isn't necessarily, and if you have ever heard some of the "omer friendly" music they are trying to sell in music stores here in Jerusalem, you might just lean over and wretch - an act that I would consider not spiritually exalting. They aren't just bad, they also are upbeat and dancy - just because there are no instruments doesn't mean a song with a good rhythm won't encourage you to get up and dance.

It means that unfortunately, I will not be listening to any funk, disco, or electro for the next 40 days, but uplifting genres like classical, post-rock, ambient, maybe some Bon Iver, these are genres I feel comfortable listening to. I'm still deciding which category jazz falls into - I would love to hear some opinions on the matter.

Thanks so much to Rabbi Chaim Brovender at the WebYeshiva for bringing these sources to my attention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKjYVdH-kAM

Music and Communism

Unlike the picture from my first post, this one I actually took

There are a lot of peculiar things that go on in the Czech Republic that don't make any sense to me. Like the type of music that is popular over here. My brain does not comprehend.

Of course there is the standard European obsession over shitty techno and self-destructive divas, but the vast majority of the radiowaves seem to be playing one huge bar mitzvah mixtape circa late 90s. No joke, multiple people have commented on it and we've been trying to figure out why it's like that.

Obviously there are no fifteen minute horas or Debbie Friedmans on the radio, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard the Macarena, the Locomotion, and yes, it's true, the Cotton Eyed Joe. How did the Cotton Eyed Joe travel all the way to the Czech Republic and how is it still popular?!

This phenomenon doesn't only concern songs with cheesy choreographed dances either. Last week I was at the fabled four story club, and I heard DMX not once, but twice in the same night. You know which song I'm talking about: "Ya'll gonna make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here." It was shocking enough the first time it came on, but the second time was too much.

As with all Czech peculiarities, I'm going to blame this on Communism. The Soviets only left in '89 so the Czechs have been quickly adapting to a proper democracy and globalization. That abrupt change has led to some awkward adjustments and the Communist undertones and still very apparent.

Considering that music was very censored during forty years of Soviet occupation, Czechs didn't have access to shitty music, unless it was given special permission from Stalin. So my theory is that they have been slowly catching up to the rest of the world in terms of pop culture, and that seems apparent to me when I hear "Barbie Girl" in the supermarket, Eiffel 65 on the subway, and Sixpence None the Richer at the club.

Vic Thrill and Curly Oxide

I just discovered this amazing story about a hipster glam-rocker from Williamsburg who meets a rebellious Satmar Hassid from down the street and they start a band together.

NPR's This American Life has a really interesting story about it from 2005 which is a hell of a listen. (It starts 6 minutes in) Apparently, Tina Fey heard this episode and it inspired her to write a script for a movie about it which will be coming out in 2009. Lorne Michaels is producing it (so we can expect to see some SNL cameos) and Sacha Baron Cohen is playing Curly Oxide, the hasid.

Here's a sample of what they sound like. It's pretty cool, and this movie is gonna be awesome:

My Rebbe and My Inspiration

Some uplifting images for Elul

Dan Le Sac - Thou Shalt Kill