Hearing love songs and the composer's influence through the melody
Hello Rabbi. Is there a prohibition on listening to love songs from a man to a woman? And does every composer really invest his personality in his melodies, in a way that affects me as much as the story about the rabbi-hermit who was unable to hear a melody that Wagner composed?
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0 Answers
Peace be upon you, Israel.
I don't see any prohibition in this. Love is a subject like any other, and there's nothing wrong with singing about it. Although I personally find its dominance in our poetry and hymns a bit excessive, it's of course a matter of taste.
If it is about the love of a particular person for a particular woman, there may be an interest in leaving it to the individual, for reasons of modesty. But I don't see a prohibition here in any way. As mentioned, I don't see any problem with poems that deal with love in general.
If there is a person for whom listening to these songs arouses forbidden thoughts, then perhaps there is room for discussion. And even there, perhaps the law of not being able to do anything and not being able to do anything is relevant on Passovers, and this is not the place for that.
As for the relationship between the composer and his songs, I don't know how to answer. To me, it sounds mystical and not really convincing, but you should ask music experts and composers (and accept their words with limited liability). In any case, you should think about what the definition of this claim is that the composer invests something of himself in the song. It's trivial in the simplest sense (after all, the song is his product, and therefore it's clear that his personality has an influence on the song) and mystical if you interpret it in a broader sense. Therefore, the question doesn't sound well-defined to me.
As for the Nazir Rabbi, I would be happy if they did an experiment and played him Wagner's music without telling him that Wagner was the composer. This could also be a test of the meaning of the question about the relationship between the composer and his music (see my comments above). This reminds me of the joke of the Gur Rebbe, who, when told that the Rebbe of Lolov raises his father (who died long ago) to the Torah every third Saturday of the month when he prayed the Shabbat mincha (meel zaman), and answered after him with a habesh and amen, answered and said: "A great sage, we see him giving him a raise."
In any case, even if this experiment were done and the monk was disgusted by it, it can still be said that there is a matter of taste here (related to personality, etc.).
I don't see any prohibition in this. Love is a subject like any other, and there's nothing wrong with singing about it. Although I personally find its dominance in our poetry and hymns a bit excessive, it's of course a matter of taste.
If it is about the love of a particular person for a particular woman, there may be an interest in leaving it to the individual, for reasons of modesty. But I don't see a prohibition here in any way. As mentioned, I don't see any problem with poems that deal with love in general.
If there is a person for whom listening to these songs arouses forbidden thoughts, then perhaps there is room for discussion. And even there, perhaps the law of not being able to do anything and not being able to do anything is relevant on Passovers, and this is not the place for that.
As for the relationship between the composer and his songs, I don't know how to answer. To me, it sounds mystical and not really convincing, but you should ask music experts and composers (and accept their words with limited liability). In any case, you should think about what the definition of this claim is that the composer invests something of himself in the song. It's trivial in the simplest sense (after all, the song is his product, and therefore it's clear that his personality has an influence on the song) and mystical if you interpret it in a broader sense. Therefore, the question doesn't sound well-defined to me.
As for the Nazir Rabbi, I would be happy if they did an experiment and played him Wagner's music without telling him that Wagner was the composer. This could also be a test of the meaning of the question about the relationship between the composer and his music (see my comments above). This reminds me of the joke of the Gur Rebbe, who, when told that the Rebbe of Lolov raises his father (who died long ago) to the Torah every third Saturday of the month when he prayed the Shabbat mincha (meel zaman), and answered after him with a habesh and amen, answered and said: "A great sage, we see him giving him a raise."
In any case, even if this experiment were done and the monk was disgusted by it, it can still be said that there is a matter of taste here (related to personality, etc.).
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