Non-Jewish Music

Penalize yourself with a monetary fine that you have to give to someone or an organization that you don’t like so much every time you listen to non-Jewish music.

Hi Revooh16

I was also in your position once a long time ago. I switched from the worst rap to L’Chaim Tish. My advice to you is not to let yourself become crazy over it. Find Jewish music that you enjoy (even only a little) and start with filling your music time with that. It will be very hard in the beginning because you will get these strong urges to switch back to non-Jewish music. But those urges are normal and OK, don’t let them take you over, just accept them (not give in to them) calmly and let them pass. Tell yourself to calm down, relax “its ok, I don’t have to give in to it. This feeling will pass and I’ll be fine”. Eventually, your tastes will change over time and you will come to appreciate Jewish music and the way it elevates you much much more.

Hi. I’m also a 16 year old. I just stopped listening to english music on Sat. night. I listened to all music- ranging from nice, slow songs to disgusting pop. I never thought I’d be able to do it! I did it by stopping completely; not in portions. I find that stopping at once worked for me (so far). Maybe try it with a friend. Then you can be mechazek eachother. Just do it! Even if you think that you can’t!

Why was my post rejected? Anyway what I wrote in a nutshell is that there are many Jewish singers who sing inspiring music, that what got me unhooked. I advise you to find music that hits you right in the heart and makes you want to cry or music that makes you happy.

or you can try and write your own music which can be better cuz it can express exactly how you feel, its really easy! I’m younger than you and I write my own music, so surely you can too if you try!

Some suggestion for Jewish female teens like you and me are: Chanale (For women only!) Her music is rlly inspiring, she has a few songs on youtube just search!

And sorry, no links (mods please allow link this is Jewish music, but the album was made by after -seminary girls and they haven’t been able to put it on any site (ex. Mostlymusic or galpaz or else id just tell her to search it)

That album was made by some friends of mine who thought Jewish music these days is starting to get more goishye so they made their own cd, its cd, its inspiring and good!

Good luck!

shopping613

Founder, president, and Awarder of SUC

Jewish singers taking non-Jewish tunes is nothing new. Here are some songs that were “adapted”:

MBD – Hinei Lo Yanum (1974)

MBD – Shir Hashalom (1975)

MBD – Lichtiger Shabbos (1982)

MBD – Yidden (1986)

MBD – Father Dear (aka Daddy Dear) (1988)

D’veykus – Od Yeshama (1985?)

Piamenta – Asher Bara (1989)

Piamenta – Kol Hamesameach (2000)

I’m sure there are plenty of others, these are just off the top of my head – and not counting albums like Shlock Rock and Variations which are supposed to be “adapted” songs.

Perhaps you could ease your way out of non-jewish music with classical. Mozart, BAch, Beethoven, Boccherini, for example, wrote beautiful music which is not tamei.

Funny, i went through the same thing recently.

For me it was a machshava for a while but something i was scared to vioce since i knew once i said t outloud i would have to follow through.

For me what happened was i was sitting in the train my non jewish music blasting in my ears and i was contemplating a shiur i was on the way home from. And thats when it started to make no sense! Im thinking about this relationship i want to have with Hashem and at the same time listening to some guy sing about some superficial relationship he has with a girl?

So i pulled my headphones out of my ears and went the rest of the ride silently. Untill i got a chance to delete my iTunes library and put jewish music on i just never took headphones with me anywhere. I once heard Charlie Harary say “you have to burn the bridge” meaning you have to make sure you have no way back. For me cold turkey worked though i know a lot of people say take small steps.

Yeah its still hard. When you’re in a store and that song is playing and it used to be your favorite its hard! I cant say i hate non hewish music and have no taayva for it. But as someone said above, your taste does end up slowly changing. You know there is some really enjoyable jewish music out there too!

Good luck!!!!

WIY- agreed. That is what I meant with my previous post.

haifagirl: Once, during a piano lesson, I had a student learning an easy version of Brahms’s Lullaby. She recognized it immediately. “Oh,” she said, “it’s Hamapil!”

I love that one! My mom used to sing it to me when I was little!

revooh: It’s funny, I used to never listen to non-Jewish music but now I do. I just only pick songs I like, and I have to justify to myself why I like it. I happen to like instrumentals, so it’s not a big deal. I suggest maybe, as a transition, trying Piano Guys- they take tunes you may like, use only the music (as all of the Jewish singers do anyway), and it’s gorgeous (I’m obsessed with cello).

Remember, if you know this is what you really want to do, then doing it will be its own reward. Figure out EXACTLY why you want to do it, and it’ll make it easier. Everything’s easier when you have a clearly defined goal- for example, I’ve been gaining weight recently, and when I decided, you know, I’m gonna lose weight, nothing actually happened, because I had no motivation- as opposed to when my cousin got married, and I specifically tried to lose weight so I can look and feel my best about myself when I was there. Then it worked :).

Sam2

“That’s superficial and silly advice, especially as MBD, Avraham Fried, and Shwekey also borrow from Goyish music all the time.”

False statement. I challenge you to provide when was the last time that either Fried or MBD took a song from the non Jews they maybe did it a few times in their careers. Additionally even though they took some oldies, groups like Akapella and Maccabeats take from current music which you cant compare to the music from the 70s or earlier in wholesomeness.

I listen to non-Jewish music I know its wrong but nobody really ever gives me a good reason to stop and I also heard some of the supposedly good Jewish music and personally its not nearly as good

Juboy613: “I know its wrong but nobody ever really ever gives me a good reason to stop”

You just answered your own question by saying “I know its wrong”.

Gotcha answer right there. The reason to stop is because its wrong. According to who? to Hashem. (its like saying I know eating treiffe is wrong but no one ever gave me a reason to stop) ??!!?

If that fact that Hashem said its wrong is not enough for you, then Hashem should help you.

Is it hard? Of course its hard. I went through the same struggle. Of course jewish music is not as exciting as non jewish music. Otherwhise there would be no yetzer hara. But many things Hashem asks of us is difficult, yet they are ALL possible.

Batseven: While I very much agree with your point that someone shouldn’t do something that they know is wrong, I will disagree with the premise that Hashem said it’s wrong to listen to non-Jewish music.

Sam2: Of course Hashem said its wrong.

Many of their songs are under the issue of 1)giluy aruos 2)guarding our ears and eyes from impure things 3) not going in the ways of the goyim.

Don’t even try to debate that listening to non-Jewish music is wrong. Please.

Listen, I am not a posek (or a male for that matter) so I can not give you the exact source. But it is a little sad that a yid should debate such a simple premise of yiddishkeit. I am sure, though, that if you wanted to be more exact, the Gedolim and chachomim can show you.

Hey Revooh16!

Just wanted to let you no that I really admire you for trying to stop listening to English music. I know that it can be very hard, especially since I recently stopped myself. At first, I tried to slowly stop by taking some of that music off my iPod and adding some Jewish songs. That didn’t last very long and I went right back to listening to the English music again.

A few months later, I again decided that I only wanted to listen to Jewish music. This time however, I did not want to slide right back like I had the last time. I decided to stop cold turkey. I deleted all of my English music and got lots of Jewish music. I did not let myself listen to certain songs from the Maccabeats and AKA Pella that I knew the original songs, because I knew that would only make me want to go back to those songs.

I have to say that b”H this really worked. I have not listened to English music since the beg of the school year. At first it was really hard, but as time went on it became much easier and I learnt to appreciate the pesukim and the inspiration of the Jewish music.

They say that you have to go from one extreme to the other to get to a middle healthy place. So at 1st I was listening to all English music, then I completely stopped. Now I believe that I am in that middle area. If I am at a store that has music blasting, or I am with some friends who are playing their music or in a car that has it on, I no longer feel like I need that in my life. Additionally, I now can listen to the maccabeats and groups like that without wanting the original versions.

Basically, just thought that this might give you some tips on how to stop like not trying to slowly stop, but by stopping all at once. Good Luck!

writersoul, since you liked that story, I’ll tell you another one. I used to teach in a school that had a rule that students were not allowed to listen to non-Jewish music, even at home. One day I heard the principal’s phone ringing. Her ring tone was “Turkish Rondo” by Mozart.

haifagirl: LOL!

My cousin’s teacher isn’t Jewish, and when Candlelight was really, really popular, she apparently started singing along, with the real words (Dynamite), and the kids were all, “How do YOU know this song?” 🙂

I happen to like the Maccabeats, even though it can get a bit autotuned. I like acapella (I basically like any music that shows off the music and not the lyrics, and I think acapella does a good job of showing off the lyrics and the voices at the same time), and honestly, I discovered that hamalach hagoel/hamapil was the Lullaby when I looked at the YouTube comments under the Maccabeats cover :).

batseven: i KNOW that i answered my question in my post that was my point, wat i wanted was 2 have somebody give me a reason that makes sense 2 me i grew up hearing “don’t do it the torah doesn’t let” i obviously understand but that doesn’t inspire me to stop ….i wish it did

“listening to jewish music may be just as much of an issue”

Are you serious?! Find all the problems you want with jewish music, and I may even agree but I think we all agree that you can not compare it to non-Jewish music.

“Needless to say it is not one of the yud gimmel ikrim and definitely is not on the level of eating chazir”

Of course its not one of the yud gimmel ikrim- we all know that. And I never equated it with eating chazir, I just used it as example. (sorry if it was misunderstood as being equated).

But does that mean that it is not wrong??! All because something is not one of the ikrim, it is not wrong? Of course it is.

Ask your LOR before you decide that any non-Jewish music is muttar.

Music is an expression of the soul. As non-Jews are different than Jews in this regard, no matter how moral and upstanding the non-Jew may be, a soul-to-soul musical monologue by a non-Jew is inappropriate. This means that any non-Jewish music is potentially problematic.

Whether or not it can become kosher by a Jew copying the music and putting Jewish words to that, is a separate matter; even if it is okay to “make it Jewish”, this does not mean the original is also okay to listen to.

Not to mention, on a practical level, that you are biased in favor of wanting to listen to this music so you are, therefore, not the best judge of what is or is not halachicly appropriate to listen to, regardless of the above.

Juboy613

If you want to succeed in limud Hatorah and understand it in depth and want to be close to Hashem you can’t do aveiros including listening to things that ignite your yetzer hora and dirty your soul. Btw I have noticed that every kid that goes off the derech usually starts with music. Music is very powerful and the wrong music can have a very strong impact on you. There have been studies done that fast uptempo music played in a car subconsciously causes a driver to drive fast. There have also been studies that certain types of music lead to violence and that certain types of music can make teens depressed. No jokes you can google and read the studies if you have the interest. I’m just letting you know that music is very powerful and effects your moods and can pull you into depression and away from serving Hashem. Be very careful what you listen to because it goes in and its not so easy to get it out. I used to listen to non Jewish music I quit maybe 6 years ago I stopped counting. Anyways whenever I hear a song I know in a supermarket or other place playing radio songs I still have to catch myself from humming along or trying to listen and get into the music. Do yourself a favor and stop now before you get really into it and will have a very hard time quitting it.

WIY: There is a very, very big difference between concepts brought out of Halachah and other Divrei Chazal and something that is made up. If you show me a Makor in Chazal, I’ll acquiesce. If you can’t, then whatever made-up idea this is is not part of the Mesorah. (I agree with your overall point about music and what is can lead to and those studies are very compelling. One should avoid music that causes them to be inclined in even the slightest wrong way. I completely agree. I’m just disagreeing with this (as far as I can tell) made-up notion of the composer putting his soul into the music and the listener absorbing it nonsense.)

Batseven: I would never disagree with that. Look at what HaKatan wrote. That’s what I’m saying is bad.