In this clip, Leonard Cohen performs "Who by Fire".
I got this as part of a Rosh HaShanah greeting email with "This is great" in the subject bar. Well I suppose it's great music but is it great for the Jews?
Cultural osmosis and interpenetration between Judaism and the balance of humanity is a hot button issue. In the J-Blogosphere one extreme you have DovBear who basically opines that NOTHING is "authentically" Jewish, that everything is a foreign import at . While at the opposite pole you'll find the likes of Rabbi Raphael Bearmant and Jewish Philosopher who are convinced that Rav Miller z"l, to the exclusion of all other Tzadikim and streams in Torah Observant Judaism, represents pure Judaism untainted by ANY foreign importations.
The truth, of course lies somewhere in the middle, and the pressing questions are: Is the "Goyisha" import in the manner of a Ger Tzedek- a righteous convert? Or, to use the Lurianic parlance, is it a spark that has been raised back to it's source? Is it a lost scintilla of Qedusha that has been reincorporated into the Jewish People, the "recapturing of a captive" :
י כִּי-תֵצֵא לַמִּלְחָמָה, עַל-אֹיְבֶיךָ; וּנְתָנוֹ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּיָדֶךָ--וְשָׁבִיתָ שִׁבְיוֹ.
10 When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God delivereth them into thy hands, and thou carriest them away captive,
יא וְרָאִיתָ, בַּשִּׁבְיָה, אֵשֶׁת, יְפַת-תֹּאַר; וְחָשַׁקְתָּ בָהּ, וְלָקַחְתָּ לְךָ לְאִשָּׁה.
11 and seest among the captives a woman of goodly form, and thou hast a desire unto her, and wouldest take her to thee to wife....or is it an invader, an interloper seeking to adulterate Qedusha with khol=the mundane? Is it an intermarriage sans conversion that leads to the antonym of Jewish continuity?
IMO Qedusha is most difficult to maintain when it's boundaries are being expanded and a Havdala line is erased to allow for that expansion.
No where does this controversy rage more than in the field of Jewish Music. Is Klezmer Jewish or not? Is Shlomo Carlebach's music Jewish or not? When Schlock Rock, Variations or Lipa rip off classical or popular musical notes and wed them to Jewish/Yiddish lyrics are they "Jew-ifying" the tune or "Goy-ifying" the lyrics? Is co-opting Goyisha tunes this way something reserved for Rebbes only? After all the Khasidic traditions contains such "coopted-from-the-Goyim" numbers as Nyet Nyet Nikabow, Napoleans march, Sol-ah-kokosh mahr and Yam Yam to name a few.
However It seems a lot easier to tolerate when we move the music towards Judaism rather than when we move the Jewish lyrics towards Jazz or other musical forms not originally found in Torah Judaism.
I don't know much about Leonard Cohen but I find this clip off-putting. To me it is not so much that he is raising the holy sparks scattered in Jazz as drowning and submerging the holy of holiest sparks found in U'Nesaneh Toqef Qedushas HaYom into the ugly, coarse husks of smoke-filled rooms and easy virtue. I could be wrong but I think if Rav Amnon of Mainz could be resurrected he would sooner re-suffer his gruesome and excruciating death by dismemberment than see his lyrics, transmitted to atone for a hairsbreadth desecration of HaShem's name, and intended to be wailed by Jews with the Ark doors opened on the holiest day of the year, played in a Jazz bar.
What do you think?
Have you had YOUR Qedusha/Havdala today...Hmmm?
17 comments:
I think you make a good point (somewhere in there).
There is a difference between the pursuit of being mekadesh the chol and being mechalel the kadosh,
So in your example, Unesaneh Tokef has become an important part of our RH liturgy and making it into a cute Jazz number is in no way similar to taking a secularly originated song that sounds great with Jewish words and infusing it with our spirituality.
BUT there is still some potential for beauty and kedusha in taking Unesaneh Tokef and making it into a youtube sensation. I am sure there are those who will be inspired and moved bu its haunting melody and chilling words.
If it does the trick, how can it be unequivocally wrong?
Anonymous above is me, sorry.
A Kseiva v'chasima tovah.
Personally I agree with you. I think there is another issue which which Anon raises which I think also important.
We sell newspapers and everything else with sensationalism and bikinis.
Anon argument seems to be if we can sell Yiddishkeit with Jazz on Youtube is that bad. In fact there are those organaizations which would agree with him. I have a problem using Jewish martyrdom as a selling tool.
Midwest
E Fink,
I did not see your 2nd post before I posted mine. Having read other of your posts I would have been more "respectful" in my remarks.
Sorry
Midwest
It's ok.
I did not sense any disrespect.
I would agree that selling Judasim with bikinis is wrong. But is jazz?
Theyre not selling it to Yeshiva Bochurim! It is for a specific audience and if it is inspiring for them - is it wrong???
how can it be unequivocally wrong?
This may shock you but I'm not a big believer in "unequivocal" right and wrong. Ours is a battle almost exclusively with ta'aruvos= good and evil mixtures. You'll find some tiny admixture of ulterior motive or evil self-interest in the greatest good and the faintest of silver linings in the greatest evil. After all Mussolini made the trains run on time. (I'd use a different example but I don't want the Godwin's law police after me...)
I think our challenge is, to use the maamar HaKhokhom, בחר את הרע במיעוטו = "To choose the least of the evils". Every time we "choose good" this is what we are actually doing.
So the real question is not when is something unequivicolly, absolutely, purely bad but when does it cross the critical-mass percentage line when we ought to treat it as such.
BTW Rabbi I know that you are a big fan of posting "onymously" but seeing how my fellow anonymous coward "Midwest" backed off and had his free speech chilled once he knew who you were maybe you'd like to take up an alias??
Shkoyakh for teaching me how to post a video. You may have created a monster.
Now if you could only teach me to format images *SIGH*
Rabbi- was the audience Jewish? And even if they were how do you no that they'd find this number any more or less moving or inspirational than the numbers that preceded or followed it in the set?
how do you no that they'd find this number any more or less moving or inspirational than the numbers that preceded or followed it in the set?
I don't, but I see no reason to quash it.
and since when is civility a bad thing?
Being from the midwest I have absolutely no idea who E Fink is. I would have said the same had he signed Pogo.
My point was that some of your posters, many whom I strongly disagree with on all sort of things, are civil and are capable of some independent thought eg EJ and looking at a sefer eg Dr Bill come to mind.
Unlike Barry Goldwater I believe civility is a virtue with civil people. Of course it may be the season.
Midwest
TTBOMK Dr. Bill has never visited the red tent. Although I do see him frequently on Not Brisk.
halevai he should drop by here...and bring his friends.
I see no reason to quash it.
It is too late to quash it. That horse has left he barn. I'm sure it's enjoying smash viral popularity accelerated no doubt by well meaning Jews such as the fellow who emailed me who do not share my ambivalence.
Mu point is should it be celebrated or bemoaned and in the futuire if we find ourselves in positions to quash or discourage similar efforts should we or shouldn't we?
I say, don't discourage unless they are wrong or cause negative behavior.
maybe this is just plain wrong... Drowning holiness in a pool of impurity???
incorrect hashqofos lead inexoribly to negative behaviors no? Even if they don't aren't they wrong in their own right (forgive the pun)?
Good post - I appreciate the subtlety of how to view kodesh and chol. For me, this is a great example of how havdala consciousness should work - how would should think about and view the kodesh and chol in everyday life, which, as you point out, are almost always found in a mixture.
Made me think of a lot of things:
1) Jews in various industries. Great that people perceive Jews as doctors or lawyers or other intelligent movers and shakers, but not so good when it leads to accusation of the Elders variety.
2) I wonder if just whenever a Jew is involved in something it could perhaps be good (or bad). For example, millions of people love Bob Dylan (you and I included). For all those fans that know he is Jewish, do they perhaps have a more benevolent view of Jews? What about Steven Spielberg, as another example?
3) I'm a big fan of Matisyahu, not just for his music (which I think is great), but for the public persona he presents of a religious, haredi Jew. Furthermore, I think he's spreading Jewish values and ideas to other Jews and to people in general who seek out his style of music. Is Leonard Cohen any different? If so, why? Does it matter that Matisyahu is frum?
I am ambivalent aboout Matisyahu (not a big Reggae fan b'khlal) and as I wrote about Leonard Cohen in the post I know next to nothing about him. I think he's the guy from the "Dance me to the end of love " Music video but beyond that ...nothing.
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