Home › Forums › Controversial Topics › non-jewish music
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February 20, 2011 12:55 am at 12:55 am #595140shuliParticipant
so why is everyone so against goyish music? please fill me in…thank you
February 20, 2011 1:47 am at 1:47 am #779952chayav inish livisumayParticipantARE U KIDDING??!!!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!
becaus its innapropriate
February 20, 2011 2:05 am at 2:05 am #779953deiyezoogerMembersure it’s only a huge joke. we want to hear your comments.lol!
February 20, 2011 2:16 am at 2:16 am #779954☕ DaasYochid ☕Participantso why is everyone so against goyish music? please fill me in…thank you
The objection people have to the lyrics should be obvious. The objection to the music itself is more subtle, but, to simplify, I’ll just point out that music is very powerful. It can bring various emotions, feelings, and attitudes. These can be inspiring, or c”v damaging to the neshama. Secular music to often is the latter.
February 20, 2011 2:17 am at 2:17 am #779955cb1MemberARE U KIDDING??!!!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!
u took the words right out my mouth!
February 20, 2011 3:17 am at 3:17 am #779956ItcheSrulikMemberRatio of sechel:shreiking == 3:1.
February 20, 2011 4:22 am at 4:22 am #779957☕ DaasYochid ☕ParticipantRatio of sechel:shreiking == 3:1.
Only one shriek?
February 20, 2011 2:02 pm at 2:02 pm #779958Ad Dilo YadaParticipantThe message in a song shows the emotions of the one that wrote the song, most of the time it’s not necessarily a message that can be good/harmful for a ???.
^Ad Dilo Yada^
February 20, 2011 3:01 pm at 3:01 pm #779959ItcheSrulikMemberSorry, shreiking:sechel. I didn’t end up sleeping shabbos afternoon.
February 27, 2011 3:10 am at 3:10 am #779960neekMemberi also want to know- what is wrong with non jewish music. im a girl, why cant i listen to it? its not like im a dude who cant hear girls singing?!
and im not listening to inapropriate music! they are really nice songs, slow ones, that have nice words- for example, “dont give up when things are not going well…” idk! just simple things that nothing is wrong with it!!!!!
February 27, 2011 3:16 am at 3:16 am #779961☕ DaasYochid ☕Participantand im not listening to inapropriate music!
What are you listening to?
February 27, 2011 3:21 am at 3:21 am #779962neekMemberyou dont sound like the type, that if i DO tell you what im listening to, you would no what im talkin bout, so i dont see a point in saying.
February 27, 2011 3:22 am at 3:22 am #779963popa_bar_abbaParticipantI am highly unconvinced by the knee jerk reaction to assur all non jewish music.
I understand the objection to the lyrics of many songs, and I can see how there could be an objection to some beats.
But I don’t really see why it should all be considered all bad.
February 27, 2011 3:23 am at 3:23 am #779964mw13Participantneek: Halachicly, I do not believe there is anything wrong with a girl listening to non-jewsih to music. It’s just a question of hashkafa.
February 27, 2011 3:24 am at 3:24 am #779965neekMemberi agree with popa bear
February 27, 2011 3:31 am at 3:31 am #779966EzratHashemMemberApart from private listening, people often listen to music in groups, in public. What type of place will you go if you want to listen to non-Jewish music in a group? The answers to that question are usually not any place a frum person belongs.
February 27, 2011 3:41 am at 3:41 am #779967frimMembersame problem… once you start tooo hard to stop
February 27, 2011 3:58 am at 3:58 am #779968truth be toldMemberThe Mishne Beurah in Shaar Hatziun (560 note 25) quotes the Shelo who says mothers should not sing their baby to sleep with non-Jewish music since it creates a bad nature in the child
February 27, 2011 4:30 am at 4:30 am #779969cshapiroMemberso what about in the gym, if they blast non jewish music in the classes can you still take them?
what if the songs have no words is it okay?
February 27, 2011 4:33 am at 4:33 am #779970chayav inish livisumayParticipantat the end of the day, goyish songs have a better beat and no matter how hard the jewish singers try to immitate the quality of the goyish niggunim, it just doesnt work so just stop trying.
also i find it disgusting when they sing holy words to meisdikka niggunim.
February 27, 2011 5:22 am at 5:22 am #779971☕ DaasYochid ☕Participantneek: Halachicly, I do not believe there is anything wrong with a girl listening to non-jewsih to music.
Sure there is, although there are more issurim for a man.
February 27, 2011 6:40 am at 6:40 am #779972mw13ParticipantDaas Yochid, care to elaborate? What issurim are there?
February 27, 2011 7:01 am at 7:01 am #779973rebbitzenMembergoyish music comes from a non holy place. not all jewish music comes from the neshama, but atleast some does.
February 27, 2011 8:32 am at 8:32 am #779974its_meMembershuli, you asked about goyishe music. go to shofar (r amnon yitzchak’s website) if you really want to know the answer. and for everyone else, go there to see how jewish music today is basically the same. and here is a thread where we spoke about the subject http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/will-rav-amnon-yitzchak-manage-to-change-the-music-industry
February 27, 2011 9:42 am at 9:42 am #779975ZachKessinMemberYou know instead of just shouting at the original poster, try giving a polite and reasoned response, maybe he (she) doesn’t know and wants to know? One of the best way to turn people of yiddishkite is to shout at them over simple questions like this one.
February 27, 2011 11:41 am at 11:41 am #779976lesschumrasParticipantHere we go again! There i no such thing as ” Jewish” music. Our music is adopted from the culture in which we lived. A Jew from Bucharia , hearing our Eastern European based music might consider it goyish. Songs that are considered Jewish music today could very well have been taken from non-Jewish melodies that noone today remembers and current songs taken from non-Jewish music will be considered Jewish by the next generation
February 27, 2011 3:23 pm at 3:23 pm #779977mddMemberI heard that Yomim Noraim niggunim are from the time of the Beis ha’Mikdash. Otherwise, what the very Yeshivish olam considers to be Jewish music comes from Eastern Europe. It is true, however, that it is more eidel than the current American music, and more pleasant than the Arabic one (baying at the moon).
February 27, 2011 3:26 pm at 3:26 pm #779978600 Kilo BearMemberBS”D
What matters are the words. Yom Tov Ehrlich AH did not compose a single song and every street musician in Moscow used to play half the tunes he used for his songs because they are old Russian folk tunes. His niece Rebbetzin Dina Storch (Kaluzhoweveryouspellhermaidenname) used old American tunes for Someday and Daddy Dear.
On the other hand, we also have composers like Reb Chaim Banet, the Belzer baalei menagen, Reb Yankel Talmid AH (Ger) and Reb Moishe Goldman AH who sadly left us far too soon about a year ago IIRC, who may have used themes from Eastern Europe but their music has a true Yiddishe taam. Interestingly enough, the famous Habibi (not Shwekey’s but the more common one) seems to have been composed for both the words we know and secular lyrics simultaneously. Most of the other tunes from the Middle East and North Africa come from the popular music of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, before the complete end of Jewish life in that part of the world.
And some of those secular tunes were composed or made popular by Jews, like Salim Halali, the Bob Dylan of Morocco, or Samy El-Maghribi (real name Salomon Shlomo Amzalag, also left us within the past 2 or 3 years) a perfectly kosher Jew who was a hazzan in Montreal after a long career as a popular performer in Morocco and Paris. Today in Morocco there is a popular singer named Pinhas Cohen; sadly he is very far from Yiddishkeit and his wife is not Jewish.
Just as the US had Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, the Arab Jewish world was full of popular composers, the difference being that Berlin and their ilk were porkei ol malchus shamayim whereas the Jewish composers in Morocco etc stayed close to tradition until now (“Benhass” is not the only Jew I know who married out in Morocco – it is not a shanda anymore, unfortunately).
Pop music is pop music – but the words stick in the mind and neshomo, especially because composers are using less and less common psukim (Yedid, Ki HaTov, Shiru laMelech come to mind).
No reason to listen to secular words because we have enough music of our own.
February 27, 2011 3:33 pm at 3:33 pm #779979charliehallParticipantRov Soloveitchik z’tz’l was very clear that much non-Jewish music elevated the soul and was mutar — even when sung by a woman.
February 27, 2011 3:44 pm at 3:44 pm #779980always hereParticipant“Rov Soloveitchik z’tz’l was very clear that much non-Jewish music elevated the soul”
thank you… there is nothing or no one who can ever change my feelings about rock ‘n roll … it’s me
February 27, 2011 3:52 pm at 3:52 pm #779981☕ DaasYochid ☕ParticipantDaas Yochid, care to elaborate? What issurim are there?
To clarify, I am referring to inappropriate lyrics, which I assume you were talking about since you were distinguishing between men and women.
See Shulchan Aruch O”C 307 16 where no distinction is made between men and women, and for further clarification, Igros Moshe Even Haezer V0l. 1 69, where R’ Moshe says that there are two issurim involved with hirhur; “v’nishmarta”, which applies only to men, and “acharei eineichem” which applies to women as well.
February 27, 2011 3:59 pm at 3:59 pm #779982☕ DaasYochid ☕Participantand im not listening to inapropriate music!
What are you listening to?
you dont sound like the type, that if i DO tell you what im listening to, you would no what im talkin bout, so i dont see a point in saying.
My understanding is that the vast majority of today’s secular music has inappropriate lyrics. If you won’t say which artist(s) you listen to, I can’t argue the point, but if you would, I could do research, and, I think, most likely find that much of it is not appropriate.
February 27, 2011 4:01 pm at 4:01 pm #779983600 Kilo BearMemberBS”D
And there is nothing that will change my feelings about the fact that Rav Soloveichik ZTL and his version of MO belonged to an earlier time when you just could not observe on a level that we can today.
I experience this in very minor ways in Eastern Europe – for instance kosher certified mustard, chrein and canned vegetables don’t exist here and we have what to rely on to use what we use. But even in London and Paris where there are kosher lists that accept such things I would not use them, let alone in the US or E”Y.
So too, I listened to non-kosher muzika mizrahit 20 years ago when there was no kosher alternative. I had one mp3 of such stuff on an old computer that was stolen and I have no intention of replacing it because I don’t need it. I don’t even have the time or inclination to listen to anywhere near 50% of the kosher albums out there because I find that they are too good and therefore distract me when I am working.
Now, there is no excuse to listen to goyishe music. The words are prust and grub, and that includes classical music as well as pop. Mozart was on no higher a level than Michael Jackson was, and there are well known classical performers who are into M”Z and other severe violations of the 7 Mitzvos Bnei Noach. Besides, when I bought 2 Lipa albums this week, I am sure a few cents went to his shul and his other chessed work. You don’t want to know what the popular and classical music world supports.
You don’t have to listen only to niggunim and chazzanus – few people are on that level – but there is plenty out there for every taste including alternative.
February 27, 2011 4:07 pm at 4:07 pm #779984mikehall12382Memberdespite what many here say, non jewish music is not all bad. There are many mant great non-jewish songs.
February 27, 2011 4:08 pm at 4:08 pm #779985popa_bar_abbaParticipantDid I mention they are playing non jewish music in starbucks? But it is really hard to hear over the coffee grinder.
February 27, 2011 4:12 pm at 4:12 pm #779986always hereParticipant600kilobear~ I listen to the music of 30-45 yrs ago…
February 27, 2011 4:12 pm at 4:12 pm #779987600 Kilo BearMemberBS”D
Non-Jewish music is just fine – for non-Jews. Pork is just fine too for non-Jews.
February 27, 2011 4:19 pm at 4:19 pm #779988☕ DaasYochid ☕Participantdespite what many here say, non jewish music is not all bad. There are many mant great non-jewish songs
Okay, but how are you supposed to know what’s clean unless you listen to all of it, including the bad stuff, until you figure it out?
February 27, 2011 4:22 pm at 4:22 pm #779989600 Kilo BearMemberBS”D
Always Here – 30-45 years ago was worse than now – the drug culture, the rebellion etc.
Actually, except that one of the singers of that era hanged himself in prison while awaiting felony charges, and there were allegations of organized crime involvement in the production end, muzika mizrahit 20 – 25 years ago was far cleaner than anything the US or UK secular music world had to offer.
Some words even came from kodesh – the overplayed Shabchi Yerushalayim came from that era and culture and we adopted it. The love songs were full of psukim from Shir haShirim and tehillim. Jo Amar A”H started that type of singing and he was always shomer Torah umitzvos; at least half of his popular songs were pure kodesh even at the beginning. At the end of his career he sang only kodesh because B”H his audiences accepted it.
Now, because those who want kodesh can find pure kodesh, what is left of muzika mizrahit is shmutz shebashmutz.
February 27, 2011 4:37 pm at 4:37 pm #779990always hereParticipantthose were happy days, good times…. for us.
my husband appreciates the same music, too .. and we’re not bothering anyone, nor undergoing bad changes to ourselves, by enjoying our music.
I also enjoy watching & listening online to Rebbishe mitzvah tantzes, so go figure.
my problem with Jewish music, is that I don’t understand the lyrics, but enjoy many of the tunes… just not my preference.
and we don’t eat pork :/
February 27, 2011 4:40 pm at 4:40 pm #779991600 Kilo BearMemberBS”D
Buy the newer albums – they often include the words in the cover booklet or on PDF for downloads :). When Lipa first hit the scene, I needed the lyrics because his Ingarish Yiddish pronunciation is so different from mine (and even from the Poylisher dialect such as Belz which was the closest thing I had heard to his dialect) that I thought he made some of his words up at first.
February 27, 2011 4:47 pm at 4:47 pm #779993always hereParticipantI don’t buy albums, or cds (or ‘rent’, as per the CR controversy).
whenever I win a Jewish music cd at a Chinese auction, I hand it right over to my daughter; she only listens to Jewish music with her family.
February 27, 2011 4:47 pm at 4:47 pm #779994charliehallParticipant“there is nothing or no one who can ever change my feelings about rock ‘n roll “
The Rov z’tz’l was primarily referring to classical music. He and Rav Hutner z’tz’l used to attend the opera together in Berlin.
February 27, 2011 4:50 pm at 4:50 pm #779995charliehallParticipant“The words are prust and grub, and that includes classical music as well as pop.”
Really?
Even this?
Fly, thought, on wings of gold;
go settle upon the slopes and the hills,
where, soft and mild, the sweet airs
of our native land smell fragrant!
Greet the banks of the Jordan
and Zion’s toppled towers…
Oh, my country so lovely and lost!
Oh, remembrance so dear and so fraught with despair!
Golden harp of the prophetic seers,
why dost thou hang mute upon the willow?
Rekindle our bosom’s memories,
and speak of times gone by!
Mindful of the fate of Jerusalem,
either give forth an air of sad lamentation,
or else let the Lord imbue us
with fortitude to bear our sufferings!
– English translation of “Va, Pensiero”, from Verdi’s “Nabucco” (1844)
February 27, 2011 4:53 pm at 4:53 pm #779996mddMemberRock’n’roll is wild and inappropriate.
February 27, 2011 4:54 pm at 4:54 pm #779997canineMember“used to attend the opera together in Berlin.
After they became Gedolim they never again did so.
February 27, 2011 5:00 pm at 5:00 pm #779998600 Kilo BearMemberBS”D
Those words meant little to their composer – some say that it was a metaphor for some political event in what became Italy but chances are that Giuseppe Verdi, despite the fact that his name in Heimish would be Yossi Green, just knew of those words from studying what to him was the “Old Testament”.
Let My People Go is not kodesh either, and the same goes for Turn Turn Turn which is a translation of Koheles. This is simply dragging kodesh into places where we don’e belong – OK and then some for a ben Noiach but NOT FOR US!
Boruch Hamavdil ben koidesh lechol!!!
February 27, 2011 5:01 pm at 5:01 pm #779999charliehallParticipant“they never again did so”
I’m not sure this is true, but whether it is or not, The Rov was very adamant in paskening to my rav that opera is totally mutar, and YU has for a very long time held an annual opera fundraiser.
February 27, 2011 5:35 pm at 5:35 pm #780001HaKatanParticipantThere is plenty of Torah regarding how music is an expression of the soul and that it touches the soul directly.
Put simply, music is extremely powerful and its deepest “language” is understood by your soul, not your brain.
Why would anyone want to contaminate their neshama with some (low-life’s) “music” no matter what the lyrics, or even if it is instrumental?
Having said that, I have heard that this does not (fully?) apply to classical music. But it’s hard to imagine how any non-Jewish music could be safe, even if instrumental.
February 27, 2011 5:44 pm at 5:44 pm #780002mw13ParticipantI’m with HaKatan on this one. Music is an expression of the deepest feelings and attitudes of the composer. Now, often goyish music will have a neutral, or even positive attitude; however, all too often it conveys prust, animalistic feelings and attitudes. This is not an attitude that any Jew should be exposing his or her soul to.
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