Reply To: Music and “Spiritual Health”

BS”D

Jothar, with all due respect, your Rosh Yeshiva A”H sounds like a daas yochid. There may be some problematic music out there (at least for some) masquerading as Jewish music, but amalekite is a very harsh statement. However, it seems this assessment of Jewish music was meant either for himself or for his closest talmidim as this is the first I have ever heard it.

Fact is, classical music is from a very low klipa, from composers who often wrote for the kloister and from others who led lives worthy of today’s tabloids. It is also very hard to listen to seriously and requires concentration, thereby taking from time which could be used for more productive activities, including and especially learning Torah.

If you can indeed listen only to real neginah and chazzanus, and perhaps Yom Tov Ehrlich (who really was the predecessor of Lipa), good for you. I have the same problem with real chazzanus as I do with classical music (minus the klipa) – it is too time consuming and distracting to be entertaining.