Q&A: Custom Overrides Jewish Law
Custom Overrides Jewish Law
Question
I just heard a lecture whose topic was listening to musical instruments nowadays, and a responsum by a rabbi was mentioned there, stating that according to Maimonides and the Shulchan Arukh it comes out that it is forbidden. But broadly speaking his statement was: leave the Jewish people alone; the Jewish people have already adopted this practice. So I wanted to ask the Rabbi what his opinion is about this argument. Can one say this about anything that seems forbidden, but doesn’t seem right to me, and that people are not careful about?
Answer
Many have already said and written this regarding listening to musical instruments nowadays. It seems to me that behind these statements lies an assumption that it really would be proper to change the Jewish law, except that we have no authority to do so. And if the public is already doing this “from below,” they leave them be. Note that the full wording of this principle is: “Leave the Jewish people alone, for if they are not prophets, they are the children of prophets,” meaning that there is some genuine insight in this conduct of the Jewish people, and only then does the rule apply, instructing us to leave them be. Therefore, we do not say this in every case, but only if we feel that the public is acting correctly (except that there is no formal authority actually to permit it).