Q&A: Is It Permissible to Go to a Concert?
Is It Permissible to Go to a Concert?
Question
What is the Rabbi’s view regarding going to concerts nowadays?
As far as I know, today you do not hear any rabbi, even in the standard Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) public, explicitly saying that it is forbidden to go to concerts by religious singers. (Even there, the struggle is against singers who perform to mixed audiences.)
How has the prohibition against listening to singing been forgotten nowadays?
I assume that the main basis people rely on today is Maimonides (Laws of Fasts 5:14), according to the explanation of the Maggid Mishneh, from which it emerges that songs and praises were not forbidden, even with musical instruments (although in Maimonides it is apparently not proven that instruments were permitted).
But I remain confused about two issues:
A. According to this, is it correct to say that going to a concert of a singer who is not religious is forbidden by law, even if the content is appropriate?
B. What is the law regarding a concert by a religious singer who incorporates spiritual messages, but this is not songs and praises, and not all of his songs deal with one’s relationship to the Creator, but also with additional dimensions, which indeed have value but could fall under what the Maggid Mishneh defined as forbidden—“melodies about one person and another, and praising beauty for its beauty”? And in the Rabbi’s opinion, what is included in songs and praises, or perhaps the Rabbi has a different definition of what is permitted and forbidden?
I would be glad to hear the Rabbi’s opinion.
Answer
In my opinion, everything is permitted.
See a comprehensive overview here: http://www.karnash.co.il/index.asp?catID=36993
Discussion on Answer
You asked about concerts, not about drinking parties and revelry. Concerts are held for an artistic purpose, and about that I wrote that in my opinion it is permitted, and that is also the accepted practice.
Also, since there are opinions both ways, and we are dealing with a rabbinic prohibition, a doubt regarding rabbinic law is ruled leniently, certainly when that is the prevailing custom.
Thank you for the answer. I had already seen this article before, but I did not find in it an answer to what I wrote. On the contrary, it seems that there is almost no basis at all to permit musical instruments outside of songs and praises. Perhaps the Rabbi could indicate on what basis he holds that everything is permitted. I looked again—maybe you mean that musical instruments were only forbidden together with wine, like Rashi and unlike Maimonides. If so, what is the law regarding religious clubs where alcoholic drinks are also served?