[Avodah] In the #MeToo era, these synagogues are banning Shlomo Carlebach songs

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 04:08:26PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Areivim wrote:
: Please see
: https://goo.gl/TFxdHR
: 
: What other music should be banned, because the composer did not live a
: "sterling" life. Perhaps Strauss. From
: https://goo.gl/4GYgpY

For clarity, let's take it to an extreme:
How many of us listen to Wagner y"sh? And would you bring his frankly
Araynist music -- with the lauding of Teutonic pagan mythos -- into
shul davening?

So the question may not be if, but how much?

Do we chase down info that may pasl a source, or only deal with
accusations most people know of? This is related to the theoretical
question of motive:

Are we talking about the music we listen to, or about the music we
pray with?

Cantor Sherwood Goffin's guidelines for tunes for davening are:

1- Don't abandon "miSinai" tunes. There is value to a melody simply
because we know that if a contemporary of the Maharam miRutenburg would
walk in, they could still join in. The beauty of continuity.

2- In other contexts, select a tune that matches the three M-s:

    Mood - fit the tone of the words. In my experience, the most common
           violation is a chazan choosing to sing Keil Adon to depressing
           or plaintive music, rather than something more regal.

    Mode - this is a music term, describing the type of scale and the
	   chords and note progressions it enables. Wikipeda lists some of
	   the major modes of Ashkenazi nusach (and Klezmir, which borrows
	   them) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_prayer_modes
	   (The entry name shows Ashkocentism.)

	   The melody's mode often makes one mood or another easier to
	   express. Like the the way the minor scale makes it easier to
	   express pathos than in a major scale.

    Min haQodesh - the music should have a holy source, it should have
		   been written for tefillah, for a kumzitz or otherwise
		   inspire.

If we want our tunes to be "min haqodesh", then what the tzibbur knows is
irrelevant. But then maybe you want to avoid Strauss simply because he
wrote his music for chol. Regardless of his qualities (or lack thereof)
as a person. We would similarly question singing Qedushah to "The Sound
of Silence" and the like.


But for me, I avoid Wagner because I can't enjoy his music. Knowing he
wrote it has me free associating to his antisemitism, racism, and his
believe in an "Aryan Master Race". (Google Arthur de Gobineau for the
origin of that one and Wagner's admitation of de Gobineau's thought.)

Similarly, our motive for cutting a songwriter or composer from the
repetoir of shul music could be because we are convinced of his guilt
and we want to simply avoid distraction from off-topic thoughts.

Or, as per the Temple in question, a shul too could desice they want
to be clear to any victims in the minyan to feel we side with them over
their attackers.

But in the case of these two rationalistic / psychological motives,
excluding a songwriter's music would depend on what people are likely
to know. And there is no reason to research into Strauss's personal life.


Of course, perhaps first is the pragmatic question of whether guilt has
really been established by criteria acceptable to halakhah, where we
have chezqas kashrus, dan lekaf zekhus, etc...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Life isn't about finding yourself.
micha at aishdas.org        Life is about creating yourself.
http://www.aishdas.org            - George Bernard Shaw
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