Well it’s finally happened. A major concert has now been banned in America. I suppose it was only a matter of time that a ban like this made its way here from Israel. Just like every other Charedi Psak from there.
Secular studies are banned in all Charedi Yeshivos in Israel. That’s now happening here too. It’s just a matter of time before we will see no Limudei Chol in any American Charedi high schools. Those Yeshivos that don’t follow suit… will be second class at best and will eventually fall into obsolescence if they insist on calling themselves Charedi.
Eventually one will only be able to get a high school education in (horror of horrors) a modern Orthodox high school. Schools like Torah VoDaath, Ner Israel, HTC and even Telshe will have to make a decision about whether it will offer any secular studies: Which camp do you want to belong to? (I can guess which one Telshe will choose.)
But I digress.
The issue here is concerts. And a major one in Madison Square Garden has been banned. The signatories read like a who’s who of the Charedi Torah world, Yeshivish and Chasdisic. Even Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky’s name is on it.
Who exactly are they banning? And why are they banning him? Well the ‘star’ of this concert is a very talented Chasidic singer by the name of Lipa Schmeltzer. Anyone with the slightest sense of humor will appreciate his music. Most of it pokes gentle fun at some of the stereotypical behaviors in some of the Frum world. The melodies are taken from the some of the more popular secular tunes of our era.
The poster announcing this ban tells us that the concert is a great stumbling block, Rachmana Litzlan (God save us)! It is a great sin to attend. Those participating in this concert - great is their sin for they are causing the public to sin greatly.
Frankly I am bit skeptical of posters like this. This isn’t the first time signatures were affixed at the bottom of such announcements that were fraudulent. I suspect that many of these names were added without the permission or even the knowledge of the people whose names were undersigned. At best these ‘banners’ misrepresented the concert if permission to use their names were given at all.
I suspect that much of this is sourced in the Chasidic world’s vendetta against Lipa Shmeltzer. Last year he had came out with a very funny video parody to the tune of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. For some reason that song put Lipa in virtual Cherem. Apparently some Chasidic leaders have absolutely no sense of humor and were grossly insulted by it. They saw it as an attack against their community and their values. So they Assur'd Lipa Schmeltzer and his music. The claim was that it was Leitzanus (scoffing at the Torah) and that the music was grossly un-Jewish (or something to that effect). I'll bet this is just more of the same and is being done by the very same people.
It should be pointed out that many Poskim hold that listening to any music in our day is forbidden since the era of the destruction of the second Temple. But this cannot be the reason here. Otherwise we wouldn’t be having any concerts of the type that have been going on over the last 20 or 30 years. There are obviously Heterim by many Poskim to have concerts. One should also be aware that this concert is indoors with separate seating for men and women. Even the concerts banned in Israel were only banned if they were out-doors where men and women could God forbid end up talking to each other. I do not believe that indoor separate seating concerts were banned. I guess we one-upped the Israeli Poskim. It's their turn now.
If this ban is true than I am at a loss for words. What’s more - here is the kicker. One of the sad ironies of this so called ban is that there is another Lipa who signed on to it, Rabbi Lipa Margolis. If that name sounds familiar, it should. He is the Rosh HaYeshiva who thought it was perfectly fine to allow a Rebbe in his Yeshiva to teach there for over twenty years even though there were many accusations of child molestation during that period. Rabbi Margolis knew about it. He even asked Shailos about it. Those Shailos were based on whether the specific sexually abberative behavior was cause for dismissal. He was told, no! ...not serious enough!
So that Rebbe was allowed to continue molesting children for 20 years until this horrible situation was made public. The Rebbe was then finally dismissed and arrested. Rabbi Lipa Margolis apparently feels that allowing a Rebbe like this to continue teaching is of little significance compared to attending a concert by Lipa Shmeltzer.
Now that’s Daas Torah! I get it.
