Haredi Rules For Playing 'Kosher' Music

The haredi modesty squad leader who led the successful campaign to ban…

…most Jewish music is profiled by the BBC today. Here is what Rabbi Efraim Luft has to say:

What Rabbi Luft objects to so vehemently is not just contemporary, western music - rock, rap or pop - but the use of modern instruments and beats in the tunes of orthodox singers like Lipa Schmeltzer.

"The main part of the music should be the melody. Percussion should be secondary. They should not bend notes electronically and should not use instruments like electric guitars, bass guitars or saxophones in Jewish music," he says.…

A serious, studious man the rabbi explains how he thinks modern music is disrespectful, leading young people astray and can lead to the collapse of education and the family system.

The use of percussion accompaniment in slow, quiet music is generally ridiculous. 2/4 beats and other rock and disco beats must not be used

It is a broad charge, but the rabbi is convinced that in the last 25 years music has gradually eroded moral standing in society.

Saying that music is "powerful", he says the "purpose of modern music - its influences - is to distract young people and change good characters into bad".

The Rabbi says such music, even Jewish rock music, "where the dangerous beat plays more of a part than the melody, has no place in a society where people are trying to keep their moral standards high.…

This is the same Rabbi Luft who approvingly quotes from racist Ku Klux Klan publications to support his crackpot, ahistorical, nonsensical theories.

Here are Rabbi Luft's rules for playing 'kosher' music, courtesy of the BBC:

Please click to enlarge.

Rabbi Luft and the Ku Klux Klan.
Modesty Squads Against Music.
Lipa Schmeltzer Ban.

Comments

[A modern Jew]

The Jewish Taliban. Next they'll ban all musical instruments. How dare they tell musicians what they can and cannot play.

[a]

this guy is seriously disturbed. he needs psychiatric help.

[David F.]

As bizarre as that list is, I found myself nodding as I read it: "yes... melody must always take precedence over percussion; 2/4 beats replicate the rhythm of copulation and are pornographic. The saxophone IS an indecent bastardization of the clarinet..."

I think Rabbi Luft and I would probably like the same kinds of music. ;)

[Fredric J. Einstein]

Hey, just like the Nazis banned the "corrupter of Aryan youth"... "negro-beat" jazz music, this guy wants to do the same! Sounds like he's the reincarnated Joe Goebbles!

[Archie Bunker]

An American rosh yeshiva who is a disciple of Rabbi Pinchos Scheinberg of Kolko infamy, came out with these same music guidelines over 20 years ago. He has been ridiculed by Charedim as being a "big baal shita", for those of you familiar with that lingo.

[Wayback Machine]

(no) bass guitars or saxophones in Jewish music," he says.…

But what about the many Jewish people surnamed Bass and Sax? :)

A serious, studious man the rabbi explains how he thinks modern music is disrespectful, leading young people astray and can lead to the collapse of education and the family system.

Not letting kids go to college to freely study "secular" things like math, science, history, and literature can lead to the collapse of education, too.

It is a broad charge, but the rabbi is convinced that in the last 25 years music has gradually eroded moral standing in society.

Well, popular music *has* been kind of lousy since 1985 . . . so he's pretty close in that he picked a decent time period for things going bad (but not in the same way that I mean).

I'm glad, though, that he left off the hook all the great jazz, blues, big band/swing, rock, R&B, Motown, psychedelic, fusion, punk, new wave, etc. that was produced from the 1920s up until 25 years ago. ;)

Saying that music is "powerful", he says the "purpose of modern music - its influences - is to distract young people and change good characters into bad".

Like the decent kid who goes to yeshiva and comes out a nut.

The Rabbi says such music, even Jewish rock music, "where the dangerous beat plays more of a part than the melody, has no place in a society where people are trying to keep their moral standards high.

My goodness, Shermy! I think we set the Wayback Machine for 1956!

"The beat, the beat, the "dangerous" beat." That's so old now. Even the Christian fundies who used to rail on about the beat gave in and "allowed" Christian rock, "beat" and all - that's partially why they have now moved on to basically just pointing out "secret messages" and objectionable overt themes in secular music - but don't really attack the music itself.

Welcome to 50 years ago, Rabbi Luft! We hope you enjoy your stay.

[william e emba]

Point 8 says "Loud amplification is dangerous to hearing and health, and can even cause danger to life in certain cases. Therefore it is forbidden to over-amplify the music at all times."

Hear hear!

Seriously, I absolutely refuse to attend weddings because of the volume of the music.

[SM]

I agree. Shut the music off. Bad, bad, bad for the people ... HAHAHAHA!!!!

[Stand Down, Rabbi]

"9 - When playing at simchos, only the person who pays the musicians has the right to tell them what and how to play."

There you go charedim:

Hire the band for your simchot and tell tehm what to play (rock and roll) and how to play it (with a HEAVY beat).

Rabbi Luft can't say anything about it because YOU are the only one who "has the right to tell (the musicians) what and how to play," according to his own rules.

Interesting how "Rule 9" basically betrays that he KNOWS he's overstepping his bounds and intruding where he has no right. Right there, he acknowledges that if you pay the band, no one else has the right to interfere with what you chose to have them play.

[Yochanan Lavie]

It's Still Kosher Music to Me (apologies to Billy Joel, a Yid):

What's the matter with the clothes I'm wearing?
"Can't you tell that your hat's not black?"
Maybe I should buy some old white shirts?
"Well, the rabbi is a musical hack.
Where have you been hidin' out lately, boychick?
You can't dress yeshivish if you live in a cellblock."
Everybody's talkin' 'bout the old sound
Funny, but it's still "kosher music" to me

[Lipa:]
What's the matter with the song I'm singing?
"Can't you tell that it's too in style?"
Should I get a set of boy eunuch singers?
"Are you gonna cruise, and go on trial?
Nowadays you can't be too much a moser
If a rabbi does it, it has to be kosher."
Old dreck, corny dreck, even if it's old junk
It's still "kosher music" to me

Oh, it doesn't matter what they say in Failed Messiah
'Cause it's always been the same old scene.
There's a new band in town
But you can't get the sound 'cause the rabbi is very mean
He likes his music "clean"

How about a song by Shlomo Carlebach
And a CD by Matisyahu?
"You could really be an api-chorus baby
If you let the Beit Din catch you.
Don't waste your money on a new set of speakers,
Those boys' choirs are a just a bunch of squeakers."
Mizrachi, Teimani, Israeli, non-Ashkenazi
It's still treif music to thee

What's the matter with the shul I'm praying?
"Don't you know that they're chazan's too jazzy?"
Should I try to find a Litvish minyan?
"If you are then you daven too snazzy.
Don't you know about the halacha, honey?
You get away with murder if you give a lot of money."

It's the devekus, clam-bake-us, don't shake us, please awake us,
It's still "kosher music" to me

Everybody's talkin' 'bout the new sound
Funny, but it's still treif music to thee.

[Mediterraneo]

Mizrachi, Teimani, Israeli, non-Ashkenazi
It's still treif music to thee

Spot on, YL.

I couldn't help thinking, in reading over the "Rules" about how the so-called "rabbi" was basically writing off many JEWISH forms of music as non-kosher.

The issues with percussion, the bending of notes, the "swinging" of vocals . . . all bad . . .

As if he forgets that some Jews come from cultures where that *is* the way music is done . . . as if he forgets that JEWS are a NEAR EASTERN/MEDITERRANEAN people - including *him*.

[Mediterraneo]

Great parody, by the way. One of your top ten, I'd say.

Any musicians out there? Some of you ought to get together and form an internet band and do YL's parodies.

Here are some names you can use:

5W Sockpuppet

The Rubbishcans

(or 5W Sockpuppet and The Rubbishcans)

The Rabbi Luft Rock Percussion Orchestra

The Rabbi Luft Bass and Sax Orchestra

Rabbi Luft's Favorite Band

The 10 Rules of Kosher Music Black Hat Rock and Roll Ensemble

The Failed Messiahs

The Jewish Taliban Rockabilly Combo

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, Med. Great band names! I can't decide.

[steve]

YL,

Awesome! Call Shlock Rock now and get it recorded. Beats the heck out of their "We Didn't Start the Fire" parody.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

Absolutely amazing how the ultra-orthodox Taliban is obsessed with sex in all their thoughts, speech and actions.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

I suspect this 'Rabbi' Luft goes around with a nonstop woody in his pants.

[Yochanan Lavie]

From: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/luftmensch

Main Entry: luft·mensch
Pronunciation: \ˈlu̇ft-ˌmen(t)sh\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural luft·mensch·en \-ˌmen(t)-shən\
Etymology: Yiddish luftmentsh, from luft air + mentsh human being
Date: 1907
: an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income.

Co-inky-dink? I think not, Rabbi Luft(mensch).

[Rachel Batya]

Instead of these long lists of rules that become so very, very tedious, Rabbi Luft's cause would be much better served if he boiled it all down to the essentials:

"No laughing, no playing, no having fun. And whoever has the most miserable life, wins."

[Rachel Batya]

--an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income.

Co-inky-dink? I think not, Rabbi Luft(mensch).--

And thus, we see the hand of G-d in all things.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
H. L. Mencken
US editor (1880 - 1956)

[WoolSIlkCotton]

It looks like Chabad has fallen in love with Sarah Palin:

"sexy... in an Orthodox way"

"She reminds me of about a thousand different Chabad shluchot (the rebbe's women representatives)..."

http://www.chabadnj.org/page.asp?pageID={3414CE38-558C-4B5A-B8CE-A0818E7DD87F}

So now Lubavitchers are having a 'stiffy' for Sarah Palin? I wonder what Rabbi Luft thinks of all this.

[Yochanan Lavie]

WSC: In Israel, the Hebrew chareidi papers will have a huge problem with Palin, especially if she's elected. They censor news about women in public life, including doctoring photos (not with photoshop, but crudely, with a pen), and not referring directly to women. It's weird.

[1 in a 1000]

"She reminds me of about a thousand different Chabad shluchot (the rebbe's women representatives)..."

College-educated, works outside of the home, has a more high-profile job than her husband, mother to an unwed pregnant teenager, named her partially in homage to a rock group (the Van in Trig's name is after Van Halen*), shoots moose and is an avid hunter, has a son in the military . . .

Yes . . . SO much like a thousand Chabad shluchotim . . . .

*
http://www.vhnd.com/2008/08/29/sarah-palin-loves-van-halen/

[1 in a 100]

named her *son* partially

[1 in a 1000]

"sexy... in an Orthodox way"

Really?

She wears pants, you can see her elbows, her legs and knees were quite visible during her recent ABC interview, and she wasn't exactly shomer negiah up on stage.

Too bad these Chabadniks don't let their own women (or approve of other Jewish women to) act/dress "in an Orthodox way" like this.

Haredi Rules For Playing 'Kosher' Music

With apologies to the Texas board of tourism:

"Charedi Judaism: It's like a whole other religion"

[Joel]

OMG!! I thought I was nuts when a printed booklet describing all of this crazyness about music showed up at my door. Now I see where it came from. I wish I had kept it so I could post the scans. Anyway, having been a professional musician for years and having studied music for a long time I have also come across many of the sources that were quoted by Luft. But as my grandmother used to say "you have to consider the source". The author of the book where Luft gets many of his ideas and info from IS A CRACKPOT who believes 1) clear avodah zoroh as evidenced by his other books on natural spirits. 2)claims to have proof of sprites (no the soda) and "natural" beings (a pagan belief). The guy is a complete loon. I wish i could remember the authors name now, when I do I will repost. In the meantime this guy basically believes that the 4/4 time signature among others (especially the esoteric jazz signatures) stems from African voodoo rituals. Poppycock!! Advanced use of time signatures can be seen and heard in ancient Sefardic and Yemeni hymns and liturgy. And no one really knows what tunes were used in the Beit Hamikdash. So theses voodoo tunes were part of a mind control trance that witchdoctors would use to terrify and control the populace. He also loves to quote the awfully unscientific and to my knowledge only anecdotally cited study by a housewife (Dorothy Rettalack) who played rock and roll to plants and claimed that those died while a similar group of plants "listening" to classical music flourished. THERE IS NO DOCUMENTATION TO BACK THIS UP!!!!! No records, no statistics, nothing. It was a one woman study with no supervision and is utterly inadmissible as proof of anything save for Lufts insanity. Whew!!! I need to go imbibe in some coltrane to calm down. Shabbat Shalom.

PS last but not least a little reality check for Dorothy, "More recent work by four University of North Carolina scientists casts doubt on Mrs. Retallack's hypothesis. Their research indicates that 100 to 110 decibel noise (the equivalent of standing 100 feet from a 727 jet) will cause 100 percent more turnip seeds to germinate in 10 percent less time than with a control group. This suggests, of course, that a healthy jolt of industrial-strength heavy metal may be just the thing to invigorate your rutabagas. So there!

[formely frum]

I have come to conclusion from this story and other recent idiocy that the heridiem have completely lost their minds and do not represent Judaism and they are Jewish in the Torah sense. They are some weird cult that really only cares about themselves and only themselves.

News item

A frum yid was involved in a hit and run, police arrested him look up vin, the other person dies.

Look at the comments people left why are they going after the yid-must be antisemitism, the goy most likely drunk and wearing black (funny a don't think frum people wear very bright clothing) Lets daven for the frum yid so nothing happens to him. He is a good soul my hashem protect him.

Not one, not even one until me did anybody say it is really a shame that mr Torres died my hashem help him or we should collect some money for his funeral.

Sick sick sick, I am not saying it was not an accident most likely it was but to have no compassion at all to the other (goy) person in sickening and revolting. And to slam him, he was drunk without any evidence is... sorry I cannot think of a word strong enought

The next time i meet my frum Friends and or family and they ask when will you come back to Judaism (I am agnostic now) I will say maybe I will one day and i want to be true to the Torah so I will become reform or conservative. Because what you are is not as based on the Torah, and you really do not keep any of the Torah laws.
You are some bazaar very very selfish cult.

another example

Even, lets take bikur cholem that go around to sick jews. Would it be so hard for them when they go visit a yid and a non Jew is in the next bed to say hello how are you do you need anything?

They never ever do it?

I think to more social minded Jews need to get the word out that they the heridiem do not represent us and opposed to popular believe, they are not the holy ones and keepers of the faith we really do not know what they are.

[formely frum]

error in previous post
I have come to conclusion from this story and other recent idiocy that the heridiem have completely lost their minds and do not represent Judaism and they are NOT Jewish in the Torah sense.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

On the Fox TV news just now (NY), there was a story about the Williamsburg chassidic community complaining about new bicycle lanes on Brooklyn streets. The problem? A Satmar chassidic 'community spokesman' was protesting the fact that female bicycle riders are dressed "too sexy", and this was upsetting the neighborhood.
I don't know how the reporter managed to keep a straight face during this report.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080912/ap_on_fe_st/odd_donation_declined

NY Charity Turns Down Share of $3M Lottery Jackpot

A New York charity says it has turned down a share of a $3 million lottery jackpot because accepting the money could send the wrong message to gambling addicts.
The Lighthouse Mission, which helps feed 3,000 hungry Long Island residents a week, had been chosen to share an anonymous donor's jackpot last month. The donor gave the winning ticket to the True North Community Church, which said it would share the money with other charities.
The mission's pastor, James Ryan, says he appreciates the offer but had to turn it down because his organization counsels against addictions, including gambling. He did not say what the mission's share of the prize would have been.

The level of integrity of this Church is astounding. Imagine a Chassidic organization turning down such a donation.

[WoolSIlkCotton]

http://www.vosizneias.com/20245/2008/09/12/williamsburg-ny-chasidim-bike-lanes-not-kosher-it-brings-scantily-clad-cyclists-to-the-neighborhood/

[R]

I see the rabbis are bored again...maybe they ought to get real jobs and live in the real world a bit.
Also this idiot doesn't sound like he knows much about music at all...maybe before he opens his trap he should study music properly and maybe learn to play an instrument too as it might up his IQ from neanderthal to child.

[Bicycle, Bicycle!]

A Satmar chassidic 'community spokesman' was protesting the fact that female bicycle riders are dressed "too sexy", and this was upsetting the neighborhood.
I don't know how the reporter managed to keep a straight face during this report.

Too bad it would cost the reporter his/her job, but it would have been great if, after Mr. Satmarer said the female bicyclists were dressed "too sexy," the reporter could have said, "But you're dressed pretty sexy, yourself." And the reporter (man or woman) could have gone on about how he/she gets really turned on by men with fuzzy beards and black coats . . . kind of a Papa Bear fixation. And how the white hosiery really gets him/her going.

But, the look on Mr. Satmarer's face would have been priceless. Even more priceless if the reporter was a guy!

[formely frum]

AT LEAST HE DID NOT MENTION AC/DC
BY NAME SINCE THEY ARE COMING TO NY IN A MONTH OR TWO AND REALLY WANT TO GO

[Dave]

Formely Frum

Have you looked into Karaite Judaism?

[formely frum]

funny I was just going to post this that is related to your post
I thought one in not to make a gezara on a gezara.

Not really, are those who only follow Torah laws, as they think it was meant to be and not any rabbinic law?

From what I see some robonum are making a gezara on a gezara and then another gezara on a gezara and then another gezara on a gezara and to top it off they then make a chumra. And at the end no one knows any more the original avera and why or reason behind it

[Dave]

Formerly,

The Karaites try repeat try to only follow Torah laws, but they do have their own kind of halacha, but they try to keep it as basic as possible. They say that if anything in their halacha is proven to not concord with the Tanach, then it has to be dumped.
If you look at www.karaite-korner.com
or www.karaites.org, or just google Karaite Judaism.
I am not a Karaite, because they have slightly different dates for the holidays, but a lot of what they say makes a heck of a lot of sense.

[Dave]

I also forgot to mention that they are very traditional ie. they believe in Torah mi Sinai. They say that they are not against the Talmud, but they do not believe the Talmud was divinely given.
They say "we are not literalist, we are contextualist".

[Yochanan Lavie]

Even, lets take bikur cholem that go around to sick jews. Would it be so hard for them when they go visit a yid and a non Jew is in the next bed to say hello how are you do you need anything?

They never ever do it?

My friend, who is MO and the son of a hospital chaplain, always greets non-Jewish patients and personnell when he does his rounds.

[Care-ite]

The Karaites try repeat try to only follow Torah laws, but they do have their own kind of halacha, but they try to keep it as basic as possible. They say that if anything in their halacha is proven to not concord with the Tanach, then it has to be dumped.

This sounds quite reasonable to me.

If you look at www.karaite-korner.com
or www.karaites.org, or just google Karaite Judaism.
I am not a Karaite, because they have slightly different dates for the holidays, but a lot of what they say makes a heck of a lot of sense.

Actually, the different dates for holidays are a point in their favor. They reckon the dates by the manner stated in Tanach (the growing of the barley in Israel, etc.) and not by the revised system from the Talmud. In reading their sites I thought to myself, "If the Tanach itself tells us how to reckon the holidays . . . then why do we do it an entirely different way?"

A lot of what they say does indeed make a lot of sense. I'd almost go with them.

My biggest problem (aside from the smallness of the community), is their observance of Shabbat. If one ever feels that the traditional observance of Shabbat can be a little bit miserable (or full of inconveniences that detract from one's enjoyment of the day, to put it another way), the Karaite observance of Shabbat is even more miserable. I thought that perhaps this was just anti-Karaite propaganda from the rabbis, but the following site does seem to be a Karaite site, and Shabbat doesn't sound entirely pleasant.

http://www.orahsaddiqim.org/halakha/HolyDays/YamimTovim/A_Karaite_Shabbat.shtml

Interestingly, karaite-corner doesn't seem to have anything on Shabbat, though it does list other holidays, etc. Perhaps I missed it. I'd like to read their take on the issue of Shabbat.

[Care-ite]

I'm not sure if that Karaite Shabbat link will work, so I'll try it again:

http://www.orahsaddiqim.org/halakha/HolyDays/YamimTovim/A_Karaite_Shabbat.shtml

The link ends in .shtml but the comment box seems to cut it off. It does appear in full if you copy and paste it into your browser's address bar, though.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Care-it: I believe that we should adopt the best ideas of the Karaites, while keeping the best ideas of the rabbis. That's just my opinion. But since I belong to a community, I follow my community even when I disagree with it. Of course, it's a rabbinic community, but I don't believe in isolation.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Rock the Yeshiva - Apologies to The Clash

Now the Rav told the bochur men
You have to let that rasha drop
The Goyim down Africa way
Have been shakin' to the top
The Rebbe drove his yellow Cadillac
He went a-cruisin' down Postville
The chazzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille

CHORUS:
The Rebbe don't like it
Rockin' the Yeshiva
Rock the yeshiva
The Rebbe don't like it
Rockin' the Yeshiva
Rock the yeshiva

By order of the profit
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy rock and roll sound
But the Sephardim they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the rebbe
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

CHORUS

Now over at the [Reform] temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this davening thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a whiff
Of that crazy Lipa jive

CHORUS

The rebbe called up his modesty patrol
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the mitzvah tanks
Down the yeshiva way

As soon as the rebbe was
raptured outta there
The modesty patrol tuned to
The Kol-Chai radio blare

As soon as the Rebbe was
Outta their hair
The Kotel wailed...

CHORUS

He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it
You know he really hates it

[Dave]

Formerly,
Yes the Karaites "seem" restrictive when it comes to Shabbat. However, from what I've read, they are sometimes less restrictive on what they consider melachot.
Another thing is that they are more pragmatic about mikva'ot. I think they even say that a person can build their own family mikveh and doesn't have to go to a public mikveh. Also they say that it is also a mitzvah for women also (not just men) to wear tzizit.
So they have some positions (on ritual) that resemble Orthodoxy and others that resemble Reform.
Makes life interesting.

[Dave]

A couple of more things:-

Yochanan, I agree with your view on combining the best features of Rabbinic Judaism and Karaite Judaism.

I think if I were a Karaite leader nowadays, I would try "mekarev" all those patrilineal Jews out there.

[R Cohen]

What an IDIOT? How can anyone stop music or change it? Come on get real. So kosher is now supervision of music? Who cares about the beats, what is the message? If the message is religious and the beats and grooves are catchy, then what better way to grab attention to a holy message?

Seems like some people have too much time on their hands in order to make these asinine rules. You know how it goes, subvert it and you will have clandestine and underground music parties. Yeah that's it, keep pulling the community apart.

And then they wonder why so many people are leaving the frum world. Idiot

[Sharen Keim]

Wait a minute... "2/4 beats and other rock and disco beats must not be used," would mean that a lot of traditional Chassidic music would also have to go down the tubes! Despite all the racist associations between a 2/4 beat and African music, those who are familiar with wild hick music (wild traditional music from everywhere), realize that traditional African beats are actually very complicated, and that the traditional music with the strongest 2/4 beat is Slavic music. Just think of the kazatski, and you'll get the picture. Chassidic wild hick music has got to be one of the wildest Slavic styles, since Chassidism is in the same genre as Pentecostalism so wild Hassidic music is in the same genre as Black Gospel music. I'd think that anyone who really is hoity-toity about music, would pass out about a lot of traditional Chassidic music!!!!!

[Chicago Music Fan]

Is this the sort of thing that Rabbi Luft is concerned about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQP4Unmr2aA

Just wondering.

[Heshy @ Reality Shock]

The Vilna Gaon, ztz"l, banned Chasidus in his day. No doubt he had his very valid reasons for doing so, coming as it did less than a century after Shabbetai Tsvi. But Chasidus had spread like wildfire among Torah-true Jews who couldn't deal with the elitism of the Torah world we now call "yeshivish," and it couldn't be stopped.

My point? Even if the greatest gadol in the world can enact a ban but if enough Jews take up a cause against it with a solid Torah backing, such a ban has no teeth. Kal v'chomer someone like R' Luft, who has a long way to go till he has in his whole head what the Vilna Gaon had in his pinky.

Jews - ignore all this shtus and keep on playing, buying, and enjoying the music. Maalin bakodesh ve'ain moridin! (And tear the roof off the sucka!)

[Heshy @ Reality Shock]

And fyi, the reason why the quarter-note pulse is so fundamental to all types of music in all cultures, is because it emanates from the Four-Letter Name of G-d. 4/4 time = the signature of the Divine. Think about that for a little while.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Heshy: Rock on!

[Sharen Keim]

A bit more on Chassidic rhythm-music: A few months after I first discovered it at age 21, I was looking through a catalog of Chassidic-music company Tara Publications, whose slogan at least then was, "The pulse of a people is its music." One of the records in there was described as "the beloved words of our ancient prophets, set to music." One of the stranger Bible verses in the prophets' books, Malachi 2:3, says "Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces." Therefore, I could just imagine "the beloved words of our ancient prophets, set to music" Chassidic-style, as, (sung in Chassidic-style), "Be-hold I-will cor-rupt your-seed and-spread dung-in your-face, HEY!" And except for the sacrilegious lyrics, that should suit anyone who objects to modern music, since it didn't include any electronic accompaniment.

And speaking of YouTube videos, the one at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1zJxyPPK8c&NR=1 is a commercial for HDTV with a whole lot of guys in Chassidic outfits dancing traditional dances to disco. The traditional dances obviously would have been more energetic with the traditional music. This commercial takes place in New York City, and in includes a Negro passer-by giving the dancers a look of, "What's gotten into those guys?"

Also on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUrx-lCy-hg&NR=1 is one with energetic dancing rabbis, and yes, the music is fairly disco-ized, but dancing rabbis have been there long before disco. (The Chabad telethon, also, has plenty of dancing rabbis, which I'm particularly interested in, since about 2 years ago I really interested some anchors at CNN in Chassidic rhythm-music, and they seem to have been influencing some in Chabad.) Also, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfRMMe5qumQ&NR=1 is "Hip-Hop Hassidim," which may be hip-hop but they couldn't resist including a bit of kazatski.

[sildenafil]

A large grouping in my opinion, very different styles between Sammy and David Lee but for both there was a great moment all this and supporting Halen made magic among the musicians of the moment, hopefully and we again gathered to see this band.