Q&A: Music and Secular People
Music and Secular People
Question
Rabbi Michael, I’ve run into this problem more than once on my base: on Sabbaths, some friends play music loudly (they’re in the room across from mine), and as a religious person who wants to rest and read / sleep, the music bothers me. Am I allowed to ask them to lower it? If not, I’d be glad for a suggestion of what can be done about it..
Thank you very much.
Answer
Hello,
In my opinion, it is permitted and appropriate to ask them to lower it or turn it off—just like on a weekday. If someone is harming me, I’m not supposed to suffer in order not to cause him to stumble in a transgression, aside from the fact that in my view such a person usually is not really a transgressor (because he does not believe himself bound by Jewish law). See my article here about causing a secular person to stumble in a transgression. But as I said, even if they were transgressors, in my opinion it would still be permitted to ask them to turn it off. For reasoning along these lines, see my article about killing a burglar.