By now there is not all that much new in this psak, especially after the piskei halacha we have seen during the times of Sefiras HaOmer and those in the days leading up to 17 Tammuz, but each period is slightly different and it must be said explicitly again for each period, with its own nuances.

Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef has paskened that people who are stuck in quarantine during the Nine Days are allowed to listen to music, and if they feel it necessary they can even listen to upbeat music with a quick pace.

According to Srugim, Rav Chaim Kanievsky paskened similarly though it says Rav Kanievsky added that one should preferably only listen to songs of texts from davening or other slow paced emotional songs.

According to Kipa, Rav Yosef's allowance is actually in stages:
1. at the first level, only audio clips are allowed - not videos.
2. listen with earphones so other people who are not in quarantine can't hear.
3. preferably a capella, vocal, songs, then if necessary calm music, and if still necessary for the person, he can listen to even fast paced music
4. the purpose for listening is to keep calm and not for other purposes
5. children can listen to childrens music with no problem
6. yeshiva students in yeshiva i the capsule system who need music in order to help them emotionally can listen

Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef has paskened that this year, because of the situation caused by CoronaVirus, people can be meikil and listen to music even though it is the days of Omer when we normally do not listen to music.

Rav Yosef was asked that with people in isolation, people stuck in their homes, some people being sick, people kept away from shuls and batei medrash, with everything closed up and sealed shut, and kept at home with the children. We have to keep the children busy and can play recorded music for them. Also, people feel the need to somewhat get rid of the pressure and even depression and loneliness. People want to know if all this pressure and trouble is a good reason to be allowed to listen to music.

Rav Yosef explains that not listening to music during Omer is not in the Shulchan Aruch. What it does say is that during these days we do not marry women, and from that we deduce that we do not do things that bring us to joy, and music is included in that.

Rav Yosef clarifies that vocals, aka a capella, is always allowed, every year, and definitely is allowed this year. Singing with your mouth was neever prohibited, as long as it does not lead to dancing (even not mixed :-) ). Poskim have allowed music this year. People in isolation feel it necessaty o have music as it is difficult to be alone for so long, and the music will make it a bit easier for him to cope.

Live music with instruments is not included in this leniency. Rav Yosef explicitly said that is not included and he is only referring to recorded music. Parents can play music for their children, to keep them busy and engaged.

As well, if a person is home with children, they get bored quickly and might drive their parents crazy.

Rav Yosef further qualifies that a strong healthy person who is not suffering should not be lenient in this. he could be lenient with vocals, a capella music and music that will not lead to dancing, but not with regular music.
source: Kikar

An article in Mako is complaining about hadata, or religious coercion, in the form of faith-based music.

The author has a problem that he turns on the radio in his car and hears two men singing a song being played about asking God to save us. And this is on Galgalatz, the IDF music station, not religious radio. He changes the station and hears two men singing a song about God. He switches to a third station and hears Neta Barzilai (the recent Israeli Eurovision winner with the chicken clucking song), Moshe Peretz and Omer Adam singing about the great God. He goes back to Galgalatz figuring the song will soon be over and something else will be playing, but the next song playing is also similar to those.

According to Gal Ochovsky, faith-based music is the hottest genre in Israel right now. Ishay Ribo is the hottest concert ticket in town. According to Ochovsky, Ishay Ribo consistently steps up the religious coercion in his songs, with his latest release being the ultimate in faith music, with the next step being separate-gender concerts and no female singers will be broadcast on the radio.

Ochovsky claims the religious are conquering the airwaves. He claims that the religious singers and performers, such as Ishay Ribo, Shuli Rand, Amir Benayoun, Hanan Ben Ari, and others, are trying to turn everyone religious through their music.

Ochovsky says that this is what the religious radio stations are for. Tefillot should not be on the general radio stations. He claims there is a direct line between these songs and Rav Firer's evening event that was cancelled and songs like Vetain Chelkainu that had only male performers participating about gemara-learning groups that only men learn in (I guess he has not heard about the women's daf yomi).

Ochovsky says this is not a musical trend, but it is a faith campaign. The music is not really music - all you need is a nice melody, a guitar and that everyone should realize the song is about God and we believe and thank Him, and nobody cares about production and quality and musical notes. He protests that stations like Galgalatz are in on that action.

While singers like Omer Adam and Eyal Golan and the like can get away with the occasional song like Modeh Ani and Mee Shemaamin lo Mefached and others like that because it is diversity in their repertoire, and they perform alongside women. There is a certain sense of the Middle Eastern tradition in this, and not something overtly religious.

Ishay Ribo can sing about whatever he wants, with whoever he wants. He can sit with Natan Goshen and cry out to God all day long to save them, but these are missionary type songs. Right now Ishay Ribo only performs separately once a year, but in a few years he will add more and more gender-separate concerts, and he'll start performing with singers like Yonatan and Ahron Razel who will request gender-segregation.

According to ochovsky this faith-music industry is an attempt to subvert the secular character of the State and turn it more religious.

Personally I doubt Ishay Ribo is attacking anything and trying to change the country, but I really know nothing about his inner feelings and motivations. I do see how Gal Ochovsky is worried and feels threatened by the success of singers like Ishay Ribo, because extremism is regularly spreading, as we saw by the Rav Firer event (in the sense that suddenly an event with secular performers in front of a secular audience was justified for excluding women).

I get that Ochovsky sees a trend that he does not like, but this is the free market. People like Ishay Ribo's music and the radio stations play it because it brings in the listeners and therefore the advertising revenue. Ishay Ribo is not banning women - he is a lone singer who sometimes collaborates with other singers but he performs before mixed crowds. Assuming he wont in two or three years is just an assumption. He should not be banned from the radio waves just because Gal Ochovsky is making an assumption about something that might or might not happen. I can understand the secular radio stations not playing Mordechai Ben David and Motti Steinmetz music, should they choose not to, as a way of taking a stand, because those types of performers do behave in ways that the secular community eschews, and those performers eschew the secular community, so I can understand not giving them a platform. Banning Ishay Ribo and others like him seems to me to be an overstep.

Menachem Toker, a modern Haredi (or whatever you to call his style) radio broadcaster and "presenter", has come up with a new initiative. Toker plans to open a kollel for musicians in Bnei Braq.

This musicians kollel will not be intended to have musicians learning half a day and singing or making their albums the other half of the day, though perhaps that would be welcomed as well. The idea is this would be a kollel of avreichim learning entirely supported by the music industry - each musician, singer, etc participating would help support the kollel. According to Toker's plan, each musician participating would get his own avreich that he will support financially - and he can visit him and come to the kollel and see how things are going. The arrangement will be some sort of "Yissachar Zevulun" arrangement with the goal set at a kollel of 40 avreichim supported by 40 musicians.

Toker went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to get a bracha for the initiative. According to Behadrei, Rav Chaim Kanievsky loved the idea and commented that this would be as if each musician himself was learning Torah for half the day.

According to the article a few musicians/performers have already signed up.

They were so impressed by the initiative that not only did Toker get a bracha from Rav Chaim, he even got a tour of the house with his kids!

Yissachar Zevulun arrangements have always been a part of the Torah and tzedaka landscape and such an arrangement is blessed and the people involved should all be blessed.

Radio Kol Berama has started a new radio station that is 'all Jewish music, all the time". You can find it at 96.3 on the FM dial. It is very nice and literally plays music all the time.

I have yet to hear even a single word outside of music - no intros, no talk programs, no news, no traffic, no advertising, no nothing. If you stumbled across the station and listened to it all day long you very well might never even know who is behind it - they don't even mention Kol Berama's name.

And I think it is, unfortunately, destined to fail. Probably within a few short weeks.

Radio Kol Hai tried such a station a little while back and after two weeks they shut it down and converted it to just another frequency broadcast of their regular station. The reasoning given at the time was the obvious - they could not afford to keep it open, as their was no advertising funding it.

Radio Kol Berama is probably heading towards the same conclusion.

If they would look around at all the other "all music" radio stations they would see that none of them function in this manner - they all have all music with breaks for advertising, and the regular mention of the name of the station. Some also have combinations of news headlines at the top of the hour, traffic reports, and weather flashes... but they all have the name of the station mentioned regularly along with regular advertising. Without it, the station has only expenses and no revenue, and no station can function like that. The money behind it only goes so far when no new money is coming in...

It seems strange to say this, but please - whether Kol Beraama or anybody else who tries to start such a station - put the normal amount of advertising in to the music broadcasts. If not, the station will be short-lived...

There is no word if Lavy Palkovitch paid royalties to Amii Stewart for using her music in one of his new songs, Achake Lo, but his fans are upset to have discovered that he converted her song, Working Late Tonight, from 1983, and turned it into Jewish music.

For some reason they are upset about this and say it is inappropriate for a hassidic singer to use such a song as a basis for his own song.

The response from his "publicist" friend, Lipa Shmelzer, said from other hassideic rebbes and the Baal Shem Tov that it is a mitzva to take non-Jewish music and make it holy.
source: Kikar

I am not sure why they care so much this time, considering how so many Jewish songs have their sources in non-Jewish music. Maybe it is just because it was somehow discovered so quickly, rather than only a long time later. It seems to be so easy to discover these things now, with Youtube and the Internet making music so accessible and discoverable.

It is clearly much easier, and rightfully so, to convert non-Jewish songs to Judaism than it is to convert non-Jews to Judaism...

Here is Amii Stewart's original song (obviously Kol Isha alert for those who need it):



and once on the topic, I have to also play my all time favorite converted song - the original by Ghenghis Khan, reworked by Mordechai Ben David..

The customs of what can and cannot be done during the "Three Weeks" varies somewhat from community to community. Even on the issue of music alone there is a variety of customs - not to listen to live music, not to listen to any music including recorded music, acapella being ok or not, etc.

The religious radio stations, at least here in Israel, all take the position of playing almost no music at all, with some exception made for acapella that is low-key.

Someone from the USA asked Rav Meir Mazuz if haredi radio stations in the USA could play music during the Three Weeks. He explained his question as being based on an assumption that if the Jewish stations are not playing music, there will be many listeners who would turn the dial to a non-Jewish radio station and end up listening to secular music. And, he added, the Haredi music gives chizzuk to many people.

Rav Mazuz responded with a psak that they can play regular music during the Three Weeks in order to prevent the listeners from switching to secular stations playing secular music.

Rav Mazuz did qualify it as saying they could play soft music, serious music, and not loud, energetic music. Rav Mazuz compared it to the allowance to sell meat even during the week of Tisha b'Av so that people won't chas vshalom eat treif meat instead.

Rav Mazuz also stated that he himself listens to music on Friday afternoons in order to bring Shabbos in in a state of happiness and joy.
source: Srugim

I don't know if they are doing this in the USA on the haredi radio stations, but here in Israel this would not fly.

Minister of Internal Security Yitzchak Aharonovitch has proposed a new law that would allow the police under certain circumstances to walk into your house, with no court order or warrant, and pass judgement on their own.

According to Aharonovitch, most calls to the police, especially during the summer months, are regarding the neighbors making too much noise, and usually the problem is with music - a party with a DJ that is too loud or someone blasting a stereo at ridiculous decibel levels... Aharonovitch's law, if it would pass, would allow the police to come into the house, with no warrant or court order, and confiscate the offending stereo or equipment.

Aharonovitch says currently the problem with the law is that too often the offending neighbor refuses to open his door to the policeman that had been called to the scene, and there is little the policeman can do in the face of a closed door. This law will give the policeman the power to actually rectify the problem at hand and put an end to the offending noise.

The law proposal has passed the initial stage of preparation and debate in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, and will now head to the Knesset for further readings, debates, adjustments and voting.
(source: Ynet)

I don't expect the Knesset to pass such a law. It gives the police way too much power - to just walk into someone's home, someone who is not suspect of having done anything to the level of being criminal, and confiscate belongings. It will be too similar to a fascist state.

The scenario I saw in my head when I read about this proposal is that of a baby with an ear infection or one who is colicky. The kid is driving his parents crazy, screaming all night long. The neighbors are going crazy from the noise. The police get called, and at 3 AM the police bang down the door and take the baby to the police station. The parents might actually find some relief from that situation, and let the police take care of the baby until the morning!

Quote Of The Day
Amy Winehouse is now one of a number of famous musicians and singers worldwide who have passed away at 27 years old.
Lehavdil - known as the 27 club, including:

• Janis Joplin
• Jimi Hendrix
• Jim Morrison
• Brian Jones
• Kurt Cobain
• (among others)

"Oh what a band they must have in heaven"

  --- Rabbi Doug Zelden (I don't know if he heard it from someone else or if he said it himself)

Bechadrei quotes an interesting psak from Rav Yisrael Belsky about listening to acapella music during sefiras ha'omer.

According to what is quoted, Rav Belsky said that nowadays the public looks for all sorts of leniencies, including listening to vocal music even if it is processed digitally and sounds exactly like regular music. People, he says, have gotten used to the idea that everything can be replaced. There are rolls that are kosher l'pesach, and now stores sell music that is kosher for sefiras ha'omer, and people assume because it was sold in a frum store it is really kosher.

Rav Belsky then issued his psak sayign that one can only listen to vocal music where it only has men singing with no musical accompaniment and with no digital processing, which is what much of today's acapella music goes through.

As always, never trust a psak seen on the internet and not heard or seen firsthand. research before you change your own hanhaga.

Rav Eliezer Melamed, the rav of Har Bracha and the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Bracha, has issued a psak that is making waves. It is only making waves, I think, because of our current societal culture that looks publicly for only chumros and rejects anything that might be taken as a leniency, at least in public psak.

The psak he is publishing says that during sefiras ha'omer normally there is a custom to prohibit the listening of music. Rav Melamed says that when a person is driving and needs something to help him stay awake at the wheel, he is allowed to listen to music to keep him alert.

Rav Melamed adds that this only applies in such situations, but outside of the car it is prohibited to listen to all music, be it live music or be it recorded music, while acapella music can be listened to.

The psak is not necessarily revolutionary, and is not even such a leniency. It makes sense as if one is tired while driving he should do whatever is necessary to keep himself awake and alert, and might be considered pikuach nefesh. There are far more lenient piskei halacha regarding listening to music during sefira, from digital recordings and the like, for a variety of reasons. The shulchan aruch does not even mention the prohibition of listening to music, though it does prohibit weddings and the commentaries talk about the simcha and dancing. The custom has become common to prohibit music even outside of weddings and parties, though the customs vary as to when and what types of music must be avoided.

Rav Avraham Yosef has paskened, on his radio show discussing halacha on Radio Kol Chai, that one is allowed to listen to female singers, and non-Jewish music.

The caveat is that you can only listen to such music when it is a recording and not being performed live. Going to a concert would be assur. He bases his psak on his father's (Rav Ovadia Yosef) rulings and said that going to a mixed concert, even one where they sing shirei kodesh is assur, but listening to their recorded music is fine.

Not only that, but he added that when his father wrote his teshuva on the matter allowing listening to such recorded music he was writing it for frum people and not for secular people.

In America such a psak is common and many people do listen to non-Jewish music, and female singers, with many variosu hetterim - either the fact that the singing is recorded and only live is a problem, or multiple voices singing at the same time, or other hetterim. In Israel, this psak is basically radical as the community in Israel is much mroe extreme.

I see a whole new market opening up - Madonna, Lady Gaga, Rhianna, Beyonce - no concerts, but they can all start selling their music now in Gal Paz!!!

Rav Eliyahu Abergil, an av beis din on the beis din of Yerushalayim, was asked about, and therefore issued a psak that it is prohibited to listen to songs sung by homosexuals. Rabbi Abergil explains that the messages these performers will transmit are dangerous to the youth and might influence these youth to become like them.

Rabbi Abergil also mentioned a number of popular Israeli singers by name such as Yehuda Poliker, Avri Lider and Harel Skat, who are out of the closet homosexuals, and said one cannot listen to their music. Abergil says that because they are public figures, the danger is much greater, as they have a greater level of influence.

Rabbi Abergil said that a homosexual or lesbian singer are public figures, exactly like a rav, and every word that comes out of the mouth of such a person has great significance. Therefore it is prohibited to listen to them, or to broadcast their words in public.

He continued, "What message do they have to give over to the youth and to people? Only bad messages. nothing good comes from them. Their behavior is a result of their problems with their sexuality. All they have to give over to the young kids is negative and dangerous messages."

Note that he did not say to avoid the music because it is inappropriate or prohibited to listen to secular music. He said to not listen to homosexual singers, specifically. And he is not saying dont listen to a sng where the singer encourages homosexuality. You cannot listen to any of their music. They transmit evil messages that are influential. It's amazing that such opinions still exist in 2010. 

I don't know Rabbi Abergil., but according to NRG, he is one of the most important poskim in today's rabbinate. Rabbi Abergil had been considered a serious contender for the Chief Rabbi position a few years back, and has published 6 books in halacha.

As usual (and it applies even on posts where I forget to include the caveat), don't consider any psak quoted on the internet without actually seeing the source as being definitive. Any questions should be directed to your own personal rabbi and mentor.

I found this form of protest funny.

The PA used to try to convince artists and performers coming to Israel to cancel their trips. Some would, considering it too political, not wanting to make a political statement, or whatever, and some would not listen and would go on with the show.

Last week the group Boney M came for a performance - in Palestine. In Ramallah. The PA refused to allow them to play their most famous song "By The Rivers of Babylon", because, as the AP reported, it represents the Zionists yearning to return to Zion..

I guess it makes sense to not sing such a song in the Palestinian Territories, even though it is their most famous song.

The funny thing is that the protest was against the words:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down;
yea we wept, when we remembered Zion.

When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land.

What is funny about that being the point of protest is that, while not in the lyrics of the song, the paragraph in tehillim continues on and concludes by saying "fortunate is the one who will repay you for what you did to us, fortunate is the one who will grab your infants and smash them against the rocks..."

Anyway, because they could not sing it, I offer to you their song here:

Word is out - Neil Sedaka is coming to Israel for one concert on October 16 in Tel Aviv!

I didn't even know he was still alive and singing!

This music video is just too great to not post!




(Hattip: @ahoova)

Last night was the Final round of this year's Eurovision contest. This is some European music contest in which Israel participates, because somehow we have convinced people that Israel is part of Europe.

I don't follow Eurovision, but in the past there have been a couple of times that I have. There have been some good, or at least decent, song entries by Israel in the contest over the years, including a couple of winners. The past few years, Israel has submitted some weird entries, including the famous transvestite Dana International, The strange group from Sderot called "Teapacks", and this years entry of a Yemenite singing like a feigeleh who was the winner of the Israeli version of American Idol.

This years song, sung by Boaz Maudah, was developed by the transvestite mentioned above, but performed by Maudah. Thinking it would help, I saw an article in the paper last week about an argument between designers about what costume he should wear. The final decision was the one you will see in the video. They thought that the display of his muscles would help his cause. I thought this was a singing contest, not a Mr. May contest. Whatever happened to improving one's singing abilities to win a singing contest!!??

Whatever.

Warning: For anyone who might still not be listening to music because of sefirah, these clips are not for you.
Anyway, here is Boaz Maudah, who took 9th place in the finals last night.


The winning entry can be seen here as well. The Russian contestant took the top prize. Along with him is a guy dancing on ice skates, and the singer rips open his shirt at the end. Maybe he won because the final phrase of his song is "I believe in Jew". (though I think he meant to say "you")

What a joke of a contest.

Train stations and bus depots, the world over, are blessed with an interesting variety of people passing through. Not only that, but they are blessed with an interesting variety of people who do not pass through, but choose to hang around the station. there are the homeless just looking for a warm spot or a handout (or both), there are those playing instruments hoping people will throw them a few coins, other forms of entertainment, etc.

We get blessed with all sorts of interesting people in the station I pass through in tel Aviv - 95 year old panhandlers, African musicians, other musicians, a guy who played for the Russian Symphony Orchestra, some other random misfits...

Once in a while you get to see something other than the standard interesting people. Somebody who just came back from his backpacking trip through Thailand or India or Australia. He will be sitting in the station with his robes or whatever strange dress he picked up and will be playing a musical instrument never before seen in this part of the world.

I once posted about some guy playing an unusual instrument that ended up being identified as a didgeredoo.

I just saw another interesting instrument. I have no idea what it is called. It looks like an upside-down garbage can cover - maybe even a pita maker. The guy bangs on it, but it does not sound like a drum or a bang. It has a soft sound and kind of tony...

here it is...

anybody able to identify it?

Remember the original David Lavon music video of his and his Yeshiva buddies dancing to YBC music that tied up all the Internet bandwidth in February 2006? Well, now there is a spoof of his music video... It is pretty funny. I will post the spoof and under it the original for comparison...




and the original...