[Avodah] Is it ossur to have fun?

[Jonathan Baker]

From: "Richard Wolpoe" <rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com>
> On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
 
> > Music for the sake of music is more problematic. Not in and of itself;
> > you're "speaking" with a fan of Baroque and Rhennaisance music, as well
> > as some of New Age (if it isn't too muzak-y) and lately (I guess I'm
> > getting older) some forms of Klezmer and Jazz. - Micha
 
> I am really puzzled by any issur of listening to music that 'soothes the
> soul" even during aveilus.   AISI, the issur of music during aveilus is the
> kind of music that inspires one to get up and dance.   The kind of music
> [say the Goldberg variations] which were meant to help soothe an insomniac
> is to me just like taking a form of "spiritual" medication. It's not for
> enjoyment but for relaxation.
 
> I must confess legabi Sefirah the Aruch Hshulcan sees this as the opposite.
> If dancing music is assur, instrumental music all the more so!  WADR, I
 
> I have heard besheim RYBS that only music that caused one to get up and
> dance [lich'ora even if one did not actually dance!] was the kind of music
> that is assur. 

Hm.  I wonder if part of the difference is the social aspect?
That is, before recorded music, if you wanted to listen to music,
you had to go someplace where musicians were playing: in the shuk
for money, at a wedding, at a concert (if our Acharonim went to 
public concerts, as some are reputed to have been aficionadi of
the opera).  All those occasions have a social-lebedig aspect.

So maybe the issur on music is because of the general avoidance of
social gatherings during aveilus.  To what extent did the Aruch
haShulchan even have classical music as part of his experience?
So one goes to weddings, and singing is lebedik, but even more so
is the dancing, which is done to pure instrumental music - which
is at odds with the nature of sefirah.  Dancing music *is* instrumental
music.

Also, what kind of dancing?  Frenetic wedding dancing?  What would
he say about the more formal set-pieces of 18th-century and earlier
non-Jewish society - minuets, pavans, galliards, etc.?    Are the
earlier non-Jewish dance tunes OK in isolation?  A lot of instru-
mental music before the 19th century is dance music for such set-
pieces.  I sometimes play recorder for emotional stability, and a
lot of the music I have is Renaissance dance music.  Not really what
would get us up and running around.

I don't know if we have a lot of reliable records of what people
danced to at Jewish weddings before the 19th century.

--
        name: jon baker              web: http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker
     address: jjbaker at panix.com     blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com