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Any thoughts (halachik or not) on whether non-jewish music (which includes everything from Beethoven to rap to songs from Tarzan) is OK to listen to?
a lott of threads on this, i dont know how to copy and paste links but go to the ‘search the old threads’
Music which has inappropriate lyrics is one issue.
The Shulchan Aruch in O”C 560 Paskens like the Gemara (Gittin 7a) that music is Assur as a Zecher L’Churban. This would seem to include all music. There are many Heterim given by many different Poskim for many reasons. They are too numerous to actually list here but suffice it to say that if you listen to music you most likely have someone to rely on.
I once heard that a Ba’al Teshuva went over to tell R. Noach Weinberg z”l that he was a huge rock and roll fan before becoming frum and some habits are just too hard to break – he can’t stop listening to it. What should he do? Rav Weinberg laughed (as he was prone to do) and said he is 100% allowed to continue listening in order to “keep his sanity” and to help him grow in Yiddishkeit.
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was against people listening to any music, since the Churban habayis (other than music at Simchas Mizva occasions).
Nowadays as there is more depression, some Poskim are generally more lenient, and allow people to listen to music when they feel low. However they say you should ‘not listen when you eat, and wake up’ -Rabbi Shraga Kallus explains this to mean, you should not walk around with I-Pod listening to music all day long- music should not be your whole etzem-this detracts from Zecher Lechurban.
Musis is very powerful, it opens up all gates, different musicical notes have a powerful effect on a persons mood more then anything (e.g. music was used for prophecy).
Listening to non Jewish music is often ‘love songs’ (western music)that engender immoral thoughts, or ‘funeral dirge’ music (eastern music) engender murderous thoughts. Only Jewish music that is between the ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ cultures, that is in the ‘middle’ does not create bad feelings in a person, and consequently bad actions.
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