When
asked to support their position, opponents of secular music invariably cite the
Sha’ar Hatziyun, who writes as follows:
כבר הזהיר השל"ה ושארי
ספרי מוסר שלא לזמר שירי עגבים לתינוק שזה מוליד לו טבע רע. ובלא"ה נמי איכא
איסורא בשירי עגבים ודברי נבלות דקא מגרי יצה"ר בנפשיה ושׁוֹמֵר נַפְשׁוֹ
יִרְחַק מזה ויזהיר לבני ביתו על זה [מאמר מרדכי].
The Shlah and other mussar books have already
warned not to sing songs of passion to a child for this develops a
bad nature within him. And without this there is also a prohibition with songs of passion
and foul language for they cultivate the evil inclination in one’s soul, and he
who guards his soul will distance himself from this and warn the members of his
household about it (Ma’amar Mordechai).[1]
Let’s analyze this. The key term here is שירי עגבים, which I have translated “songs of
passion.” In truth I think this is too ambiguous. From the juxtaposition of
these שירי עגבים to דברי נבלות,
foul language, it seems clear that these songs he is referring to are
unequivocally “songs of lust.” What is certain though, is that he isn’t saying
anything against secular music per se, but against שירי עגבים.
Often, these opponents come at it from a different angle.
Music is a reflection of a person’s soul, they say, and music that comes from
the soul of someone who is not an observant Jew is not kosher, just as food
cooked in a non-kosher pot becomes loses its kosher status. These people
generally have an aversion to any and all “non-Jewish music.” If we look
through the early traditional halachic literature however, as far as I know we
find no mention of such a concept. On the contrary, the Mishna Berura – the
author of that same Sha’ar Hatziyun these people like to cite – indicates that
there is no such issue. In discussing who is eligible to lead services for the
congregation, Rema writes as follows:
וש"צ המנבל פיו או
שמנגן בשירי הנכרים ממחין בידו שלא לעשות כן, ואם אינו שומע מעבירין אותו.
A leader of the congregation who fouls
his mouth or who sings songs of the gentiles; we protest in order that he
discontinue doing so, and if he does not listen we remove him from his post.[2]
The Mishna Berura qualifies:
ר"ל בניגון שמנגנים בו
הנכרים לעבודת גילולים שלהם. וב"ח בתשובה סי' קכ"ז כתב דוקא בניגון
שמיוחד לזה.
He means the songs which the gentiles
sing to their idols. And Bach[3]
writes that this is only with a song that is specifically designated for this.[4]
Similarly, the Chida writes:
בספר מעשה רקח פ"ח
מהל' תפילה נשאל על המשוררים קדיש או קדושה לחן שירי נכרים והאריך לאסור, ובכלל
הביא דברי מהרם די לונזאנו בס' שתי ידות דף ק' שכתב בשם ס' חסידים, ויזהר מי שקולו
נעים שלא יזמר ניגונים ניגונים נכרים, ודקדק שלא כתב שירים נכרים דזה פשיטא דאסור
אלא ניגונים נכרים כלומר אף דהשיר הוא קדוש הניגון נכרי יפסידהו וכו' ע"ש.
ונעלם ממנו דברי מהר"ם די לונזאנו עצמו שם בספר שתי ידות דף קמ"ב שכתב
וז"ל וזאת היתה לי סיבה גורמת לחבר רוב שירי על ניגוני הישמעאלים וכו',
וראיתי קצת חכמים כמתאוננים רע על המחברים שירות ותשבחות לשי"ת על ניגונים
אשר לא מבני ישראל המה ואין הדין עמהם כי אין בכך כלום עכ"ל. וע"ש
מ"ש הרב מהר"ם ד"ל בענין זה ומה שהשיב על מהר"י נאגרה
בשירותיו.
In the book Ma’aseh Rokeach he is asked
regarding those who sing Kaddish or Kedusha to tunes of the gentiles, and he
goes at length to forbid it. He included the words of the Maharam de Lonzano in
the book Shetei Yados on page 100 who writes in the name of the Sefer Chasidim
“and one whose voice is pleasant should be careful not to sing tunes of the
gentiles.” He notes that the Sefer Chasidim did not write “songs of the
gentiles” because that is obviously forbidden; he rather wrote “tunes of the
gentiles” – meaning that even though the song (i.e. the lyrical content) is
holy, the tune which is from the gentiles ruins it. But he missed the words of
the Maharam de Lonzano himself there on page 152 where he writes in these
words; “…and this was the motivation that caused me to write most of my songs
to tunes of the Ishmaelites… and I saw some wise ones seemingly complaining
badly about writers of songs and praises to God to tunes of those who are not
of the Children of Israel, but the law is not with them, for there is nothing
to this.”[5]
It seems quite clear that there is nothing inherently
unkosher about tunes composed by non-Jews, inasmuch as there is nothing
inherently unkosher about a kosher piece of meat that was grilled by a non-Jew
(bishul akum notwithstanding).
Is there any style of music which is more kosher than
another? I don’t believe so. We’ve all heard about the studies with the
tomatoes that grew better listening to classical music than to rock n’ roll,
but please. That doesn’t make something kosher or not. No beat, scale, or chord
progression is causing someone’s evil inclination to develop more readily. If
it is it’s because of the lyrical content or something else that the listener
is subjectively associating the tune with, not something intrinsic. Different
cultures interpret different sounds differently. I pass by a Syrian
congregation and hear them singing their selichos to a tune which I absolutely
do not find inspirational. Yet to them it is. This guy I know used to blast
heavy metal in the car when he had a head ache, and it made him feel better.
People are different, and it seems to me that it is mostly a matter of personal
taste.
In conclusion, there does not appear to be any strong
halachic basis to the claim that one should refrain particularly from
non-Jewish tunes. Furthermore, I believe that a song should be judged only by
its lyrical content. There is one exception, as the Mishna Berura mentioned;
songs dedicated to idol-worship. Though as he said, this only applies to songs
dedicated exclusively to idol-worship. One should definitely avoid songs
with lyrics which cause one to dwell on things that cause one’s evil
inclination to cultivate within one’s soul, and we all know those songs when we
hear them. But otherwise there is nothing intrinsically wrong with secular
music. On the contrary, there is a whole lot of immensely beautiful and
inspirational music out there that isn’t Jewish. But that, of course, is my
personal taste.
On that note, here's a great cover recently done by some friends of mine:
On that note, here's a great cover recently done by some friends of mine:
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