[Avodah] Jewish Music

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, February 27, 2008 7:12 am, R Michael Makovi wrote to Areivim:
: Nu? What's the problem with using gentile music? I'd wager a guess
: that almost every single Jewish tune is gentile in inspiration if not
: origin. Why else would Ashkenazi music sound very European and
: Sefaradi music sound Arabic? ...

Worse, even our chants for trop are in our host culture's modes (mode
in the technical musical sense; something like a scale).

A central element of Dr Birnbaum's notion of tif'eres (see AishDas's
motto, which is plagiarized off his motto for haOlim) is the notion of
a Jewish aesthetic. The idea that the individual and community are so
one with their Torah that even their choice of furniture (to take an
example) can not be separated from their Torah. It's all one piece.

I think he meant it in terms of the ennoblement aspired to by TIDE,
the refined and cultured Torah Jew combined with the gadlus haadam of
Slabodka.

Dr Nathan Birnbaum was a product of the same trend as RAEK's and the
Seridei Eish's leadership of Hildesheimer. There was a start to a
fusion of these two influences. And a large area of commonality; look
at the implications on sartorial choices in Slabodka and in TIDE
communities.

(Using TIDE loosely, as RSRH was vehemently and vociferously against
Hildesheimer Seminary's use of Chokhmas Yisrael (O Wissenschaft), and
Hildesheimer's preached vehemently against Austritt.)

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
http://www.aishdas.org     - Rav Yosef Yozel Horwitz, Alter of Novarodok
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