MUSIC, MOVIES & TV-----jewish music (II)

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It was a little disappointing to find out that a lot of the music I listen to is "questionably Jewish".

I thought that I threw away all that garbage music and was only listening to pure Jewish music. now I hear people are saying that music like d'vaikus, shalsheles and yehuda are only questionably Jewish. the ppl who composed them and made them are frum, respected Jews, why can’t the music just be plain Jewish?


Don't worry about it. The phrase "Jewish" when referring to music is not quantifiable, like when you're referring to someone with Jewish mother. The music you are describing is more than OK to listen to. You're doing nothing wrong.

Calling music "marginally Jewish" or "Jewish" or "reconstituted Jewish" is just words. If the music has words that are only Torah-oriented, and the melody is not obscene or even disrespectful to the words, then nobody will have a problem with you listening to it. Go for it.

The issue of whether its origins are purely Jewish or not does not touch upon the permissibility of your listening to it.

It's a pity, though. Because if our music wouldn't be mixed up the way it is, if it would be purely an expression of the Jewish Neshoma yearning for Hashem, it would do a lot more for us than it does now.

But that's not to say that what it does now is always bad. It's not. Not at all.

So enjoy your music.