Q&A: Restrictions and Prohibitions During the Three Weeks
Restrictions and Prohibitions During the Three Weeks
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Regarding the prohibitions and restrictions observed during the Three Weeks, is there a formal basis for this? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t found an early halakhic source for it (perhaps other than Lamentations Rabbah about the danger, but it’s hard for me to see that as a halakhic source, more as a recommendation; and nowadays one can really see that there is no difference in the number of people harmed during this time compared to the rest of the year).
Are we obligated in this by force of custom?
Thank you
Answer
One must distinguish here between two types of restrictions: there are restrictions whose purpose is to express mourning, and those of course do apply (although this is custom and not really strict law). The restrictions whose purpose is to prevent danger (such as swimming in the sea) indeed seem to me not binding (like the other danger prohibitions found in the Talmudic sages).
Discussion on Answer
Regarding music, logic would say that this does not apply in our times, because in the past you had to take an instrument and play it, and that was an act of hearing joyous music. But today it’s just listening from a phone or the radio, and it’s something people do all the time without even noticing; they don’t see it as some kind of joyful activity, rather it has become a natural part of life, that every time they get into the car they turn on the music, and it’s hard to connect that to the more festive form of the past.
If this were an enactment there would be room to be stringent, but it is only a custom whose source is in the later authorities, and they practiced it with actual playing of music, so on what basis would we extend it also to the music of our times?
There is no source for music. All the mourning practices are customs that developed over time.
Some connected this to the general prohibition against hearing music (and “filling one’s mouth with laughter”) in our time because of the destruction.
I accept the distinction Eli wrote here, although the custom is to be stringent about this as well (with joyful music). I do not think that if one is listening to a radio program, he needs to turn it off when a song comes on.
I was surprised that the Rabbi said that regarding mourning, of course it does apply.
Does the Rabbi think there is something to mourn over concerning the destruction of the Temple and to hope for its rebuilding?
If so, why?
Beyond the fact that this is a law—to mourn for the Temple—there is certainly something to mourn over in the absence of the Divine Presence. What exactly will be done in the Temple? We’ll wait and see.
You wrote, “We’ll wait and see.”
Do you really believe that some sort of change is awaiting us in the time to come?
What are you expecting?
I don’t know
Specifically— is there a source regarding music?