But There Is No Joy In Askanville, For the Mighty Banners Have Struck Out!

I'm sure that most of you remember the debacle that occurred last year concerning Lipa Schmeltzer's "Big Event" concert. For the few that don't remember, or are new here, I'll quickly recap:

Lipa Schmeltzer arranged to have a concert in Madison Square Garden in New York last March. Most (all?) of the profits were going to go to a tzedaka organization in Israel that (IIRC) helps orphans in Eretz Yisroel.

Some askanim who, it seems, have it in personally for Lipa, went around to several of the gedolim and lied about his concert. They reportedly told the gedolim that there was going to be mixed dancing (lie: there was even separate seating!) and who knows what would go on. This was all done less than a month before concert. The gedolim, upon hearing this, signed a ban on the concert without trying to ascertain for themselves if the information they were being given was truthful, without reaching out to Lipa to get his side of the story or without even consulting with one another. In short, 33 signatures were obtained and the ban was published. In the end, Lipa had to cancel the concert. Since this happened right before the concert was to occur, there were a great losses to Lipa and his partners -- not to mention the fact that the tzedaka organization in Eretz Yisroel lost out. To my knowledge (and I may be wrong), Lipa and his partners have not been reimbursed for their losses.

In the end, R. Shmuel Kamenetzky, one of the signers of the ban, to his credit, admitted that proper procedures were not followed and that the ban last year was a mistake.

Well, Lipa decided to hold another concert this year. As was the case with last year's concert, the date of the concert was well-known long in advance. And, sure enough, the banners tried it again this year. However, this year, they failed. Miserably.

The askanim managed to get some signatures for a ban, but by the time they got their act together, it was far too late -- the concert was pretty much sold out, some of the original banners refused to sign and it seems like no one is going to listen to the banners. Once again the banners decided to try to have the concert cancelled at the last minute, but this time, thank goodness they failed.

There's a particular aspect of this that bothers me - and it's not the ban itself. I personally don't listen to Lipa's music, so I can't honestly and in good conciense say that it's good or bad for Jews to listen to. So, if you feel that the music is spiritually harmful, then by all means say something -- that's your right. What bothers me the most about this whole ugly affair is the way the ban was carried out last year and the way it was attempted again this year.

In both cases, the concerts were heavily advertised well in advance. If anyone had any objections to the music, the venue, the seating or any other aspect of the event, they could have spoken up well in advance. But the banners decided to wait until the last minute before making their move. Because they waited for the last minute, the gedolim could not investigate the true story behind the concert and Lipa and his partners lost a great deal of money from the cancellation. I believe (and yes, it's only my opinion) that this was done on purpose.

The same thing occured this year. Again, the concert date was known well in advance. And again, the banners didn't raise their ugly heads until the last minute. Rather than standing up for their principles in the right way, they again chose the underhanded and cowardly way of going about their business. And this time they lost. The concert is going on as planned and, as I hear it, it's likely to be a packed house.

The Wolf

EDIT: Upon further review, I think the word "kanoi" works better than "askan" in this post. There are plenty of askanim for the Jewish community who are wonderful individuals who selflessly give of their time and money. However, since I put it in the title, I can't easily change it. But you all know what I mean.

The Wolf

The Charge of Avoda Zara and Lipa

I'm sure by now you've heard about the incident this past week in Brooklyn where Rabbi Schorr attempted to disrupt a wedding at which Lipa was singing. You can read the full version of what happened at Life of Rubin. The summary version (based on LOR) is as follows:

Both Lipa and Rabbi Schorr were invited guests at a wedding. At some point during the wedding, one of the Ba'alei Simcha asked Lipa to sing. He went to the stage where the hired singer graciously gave over the microphone. Lipa began singing the "Hentalach" song. At some point, Rabbi Schorr stormed the stage and grabbed the microphone away from Lipa and demanded that he descend from the stage. At one point he even began yelling "Avoda Zara! Avoda Zara!"

I know that there is some history between Rabbi Schorr and Lipa. From many accounts, it seems that Rabbi Schorr was involved in the edicts which led to the banning of last year's "Big Event." I don't know Rabbi Schorr or his agenda -- I don't know if it's simply anti-Lipa or anti-music in general. But I can state that it seems, from all accounts, that Lipa was doing nothing wrong -- on the contrary, he was being m'sameiach (making happy) the bride and groom.

I'm going to overlook for the moment the fact that Rabbi Schorr chose to make this stand in the middle of someone's wedding, which is bad enough. I'm also going to overlook the fact that he chose to publicly embarrass Lipa, which is all bad enough. What I don't want to overlook is the fact that he publically accused another Jew of avoda zara -- idol worship. If you think about it for a minute, the accusation of avoda zara is probably the ultimate accusation that you could throw at someone -- worse than saying that he's a thief, worse than saying that he's a lowlife, worse even than saying that he's an apikores -- a heretic. Saying that someone is an idolater is the ultimate accusation that you can level against a person -- in some respects, the idolater is treated in halacha as a non-Jew. I don't think there is a single accusation that you can throw at someone than the accusation that they are an idol worshiper.

And yet, that's what Rabbi Schorr decided to yell. He didn't yell that the music is treif. He didn't say that Lipa's dancing was not b'kavod for a yid. He didn't say any of that -- he out and out accused Lipa of (or what he was doing) idolatry.

Now, I'll admit that I'm not a rav and not a posek. Perhaps I'm missing something about the hantelach song that invovles idolatry - but I don't think so. I'm fairly confident that whatever you think of Lipa and his music, there was no idolatry involved. Of course, if someone can point out to me where I'm wrong, I'll be more than happy to retract, but, as it stands, I just don't see it.

So, why did Rabbi Schorr do this? I don't know. But what I do know is that unless there is some serious justification for his charge of avoda zara, he needs to be held accountable for his actions and accusations. He needs to publicly explain why he felt the need to level this charge at Lipa in the middle of a wedding, or else to publicly apologize and ask mechila (forgiveness) of Lipa and the ba'alei simcha.

The Wolf

Our Wicked, Wicked Shabbos

My wife has a good friend who is a big fan of the Broadway show Wicked. Wicked is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West (the green one) and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (the one in white) before the events of The Wizard Of Oz.

We were due to have this friend over for Shabbos, so eeees, in her incredibly thoughtful style, decided to truly have a "Wicked" Shabbos and have our house resemble the Emerald City. She went out and bought a green tablecloth (overlaid with white so that our children will still be able to get a good shidduch :) ). Green plasticware and napkins were bought for the occassion. I was able to find green roses and have them shipped to the house. The water under the oil in the lachter (candleabra) was colored green, as were the guests' shabbos candles. The desert (shown on the table) was green Jello (the kosher Jello substitute, actually). Green liqueur was obtained for the occassion. Lastly, the guest stayed in my daughter's room where she was supplied with green sheets and a green blanket. My wife and daughter both wore their green robes, while I lamented the fact that I don't own a green tie.

One of the nicest parts of the meal, I thought, wasn't inspired by Wicked, but by another Broadway musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The first number of the play is called "Any Dream Will Do." (sample here) It's a song that really makes no sense whatsoever (IMHO) and adds nothing to the play but merely acts as a filler piece. One thing it does have, however, is a nice tune and interplay between the singer (Joseph) and the chorus of children. What we discovered is that D'ror Yikra goes very well with this tune, especially with the kids doing the chorus parts. Our Wicked friend told us that she thought it was quite nice. Of course, we've also shamelessly ripped off MBD in his ripping of Close Every Door and applied the words of M'nucha V'Simcha to it. In the end, we may very well have a complete Broadway review of Z'miros!

Of course, there are those who will view this as sacriligious. Truth be told, however, there is probably very little that is truly and uniquely Jewish in what passes for Jewish music today. Music is one of those things that tends to bleed through cultures and tunes that were uniquely identified with one group tend to be adopted by other groups and adapted to their own needs and made their own. I would be highly surprised if most of today's Jewish music didn't have it's origins and roots in non-Jewish music of various times and places.


The Wolf