Q&A: Playing a Flute on the Sabbath
Playing a Flute on the Sabbath
Question
Hello Rabbi,
If the Sages’ decree not to play music on the Sabbath, lest one "repair a musical instrument," is—as Maimonides explains it (Laws of Sabbath 23:4)—a concern that a person may tune the instrument (because of the prohibition of the final hammer blow), what is the law regarding instruments that require no tuning at all, such as a flute? Let us assume that the parts of the flute were assembled before the Sabbath (as is usually the case in practice), so there is also no concern of building.
Would it then be permitted, as the Rema writes (Orach Chayim 339:3), "And some say that nowadays everything is permitted, since we are not expert in making musical instruments, and there is no reason to decree lest one repair a musical instrument," or as Tosafot say in Beitzah 30: "But for us, since we are not expert in making musical instruments, there is no relevant basis for such a decree."
I know that almost all later authorities today prohibit it; I would appreciate your opinion.
Answer
It is commonly explained as a non-differentiated decree, meaning that playing music in general was prohibited. The reason for the prohibition is lest one come to repair an instrument. As you mentioned, this has been discussed in our time as well, when almost nobody repairs musical instruments or grinds medicinal ingredients. This raises the question whether, when the reason has fallen away, the enactment nevertheless remains in force. In a place where the concern is no longer relevant at all, there is definitely room to be lenient. Where it is rare but still relevant, it is harder to be lenient. In my view, that is the situation with musical instruments, and therefore it is not proper to be lenient.
Discussion on Answer
In order to criticize, you have to study and know. From your criticism it seems that you are looking for "courage" in the sense that I criticized in column 510 (look there carefully). It won’t help to gather masses of rabbis, because the number being discussed is a number of sages in the Sanhedrin. Something established by the Sanhedrin can only be overturned by another Sanhedrin.
"When the reason has fallen away, the enactment does not automatically fall away" is not present-day Judaism but a rule that has existed for many generations (already from the Talmud). It is indeed irritating, because for thousands of years there has been no Sanhedrin, so it leaves us stuck, and in my estimation whoever established this rule did not think about a pathological situation like this one. But Jewish law still has rules, and courage is not enough to act against them. That also requires a halakhic basis. Exactly as with a law you don’t like—it won’t change unless the Knesset changes it.
I too have criticism of the stagnation that prevails among us, but that criticism is based on familiarity with Jewish law and on pointing to possible mechanisms, not on "courage." In my opinion there certainly is a possibility of changing Jewish law, but that requires discussion of each law separately, not general claims about "courage."
Nobody repairs musical instruments? Quite a lot of people know how to attach a guitar string and things like that. On the contrary, nowadays, when musical instruments are so common, it’s probably the case that more people repair instruments than in the past.
In a nutshell, "when the reason has fallen away, the enactment does not automatically fall away" is everything that’s frustrating about present-day Judaism. Especially today, in the internet generation, there ought to arise a major rabbinic body numbering thousands of rabbis, which would certainly be greater in wisdom and number than what existed in the past, and they should fix things that have no connection to our present reality.
The problem is that nobody has any rabbinic courage, and instead of decrees being canceled, they keep adding more all the time.
It reminds me of the army: every time some battalion commander shows up with a new decree, when he leaves the decree stays, and the next one adds another on top of it.