[HANASHIR:9137] Re: Fwd: Re: halacha against instrumentation

[Eric Simon <erics...>]

May I humbly submit what I intend as an "educational" type posting?

>In reference to the prohibition of playing
>musical instruments on Shabbat, I thought the
>halacha was that we were not supposed to
>participate in any creative work.   This
>would refer to anything similar to the
>building of the Tabernacle in the desert, as
>well as G-d's creation of the world.  Any
>creation of music on an instrument would be
>considered creative work.

This is, imho, an excellent question! and relates to the other reason for
the prohibition of playing an instrument on Shabbat.

Dr Tamar answered:

>A second concern was that someone might try to repair an instrument 
>that had broken on Shabbat or on a festival. This was forbidden under 
>the laws relating to Shabbat. The rabbis derived these laws from the 
>proximity of the directions about building the Tabernacle, in the 
>Torah, to the law about observing Shabbat. Any work that might have 
>been done to build, decorate, or serve in the tabernacle was forbidden 
>on Shabbat. They came up with a basic list of 39 categories of work and 
>found numerous derivative types of work within each of these 
>categories.

I'd like to stress that it is more than the "proximity" of the directions
about the building of the Taberacle to the law about observing Shabbat --
it is more precisely a simple matter of defining the words that are used.

What we're talking about is the word "melacha".  Nowhere does the Torah
actually define that word.  So, we must get it from context.  Melacha is
used in three contexts in Torah:

1.  When G-d is creating the universe.  (Note, e.g., the word "melachto" in
the "yom hashishi" part of the Friday night kiddush).  This is where we get
the idea that melacha is not just "work" but a "creative labor" kind of
work.  This is important, because it is distinguished from the word
"avodah", which also means work and/or service of some kind.  So, avodah
can mean work, or prayer (called "service of the heart).  Eved means slave.
 ("Avadim Hayinu", "we were slaves").  The Jews were afflicted with "all
kinds of labor" -- avodah.

2.  Whenever Torah talks about what we can't do on Shabbat, it uses the
term "melacha", not "avodah"

and, finally, "melacha" is use in _one_ other context:

3.  Building the Mishkan (Tabernacle).  There are all kind of analgies that
seem to show that our building of the mishkan was analogous to G-d's
building of the universe.  First, the same word is used (melacha).
Secondly, the master builder is called "Betzalel", which means in the
image/shadow of G-d.  And, the Torah tells us, he was filled with "Ruach
Elokhim", the spirit of G-d, and the ability to do "all manner of work"
(kol melacha).

And, so, the logical deduction is made, what is prohibited on Shabbat (a
melacha) are the same kinds of things that were used to create the universe
and/or create the Mishkan.  (As if to drive home the point, all work on the
Mishkan stopped on Shabbat).

To repeat: 'melakha' is not a general and all-inclusive expression of
labor, work and toil -- nor is it a general word meaning "work" in the
regular sense.  (from an essay I have on this:) "Rather, it is a specific
class of activities that are characterized by purposefulness, the exercise
of intelligence and creativity, and a process of transformation that
reshapes a coarse and crude material into a useful product.  It is indeed
significant that the word 'avoda' never occurs as a freestanding noun in
any passage describing Creation, Shabbat or the Mishkan."

And so, while one may (correctly, imho) think of singing, or procreating
too, as a "creative labor" of sorts, it isn't a _melacha_, which is, in
fact, what the Torah prohibits doing on Shabbat.  And that is why plucking
a blade of grass is a melacha, while moving a sofa in your house is not.

On top of all this, playing an instrument is not a melacha either, but
rather, as one pointed out, a "fence", because someone who plays an
instrument is _likely_ to engage in one of the 39 melachas
(fixing/repairing).  Anyone who, e.g, is playing a guitar when one of the
strings goes out of tune knows exactly what I mean.  (Tuning the string is
a melacha . . . are you really going to play a guitar when your top
e-string is a bit out of tune?)  Again, it's not the _effort_, it's the
category of activity.

(As for why there are 39, that's an interesting story, too, having to do
with Creation, but I'll leave that for another post, if somebody asks! <g>)

=========

The above reasoning, the proscription against melachas, is, as previously
mentioned by others, only one of the resons.  The other, more recently
discussed, has to do with mourning the Temple.

>However, if one believes that the rebuilding of the Temple is a virtual 
>rebuilding  ---- not necessarily building a physical place but rather 
>building peace in the world among all peoples ---- ('all the world shall be 
>One - bayom hahu......' ), then we should commit ourselves every day to that 
>end.

Fine.  But let's focus on that virtual rebuilding a second.  Our tradition
asserts that the Temple was destroyed because of sinas chinam -- senseless
hatred.  Can anyone doubt that it's something that we certainly still have
today -- particularly between denominations?

So, what we need to do, to "commit ourselves every day to that end" is to
reduce the senseless hatred between our people.

>To me, this means that using instruments honors the memory of the 
>ancient Temple and symbolizes its rebuilding.

To say that "we must commit ourselves every day to rebuilding the (virtual)
Temple, and therefore we should play music in our synagogues" is a
non-sequitor.  I don't see how one relates to the other.

For those who want to get rid of that custom let me also ask: would you
also eliminate the smashing of the glass at weddings?  Of all times, why
pick a wedding to allude to the Temple?  

And, certainly, another question begs to be asked: if the actual
physicality of the Temple is no longer important, then: (a) why bother
building our synagogues so that worshipers face towards the Temple; and (b)
why is the Kotel (Western Wall) a particularly important place in Judaism
today?

Food for thought, I hope!

-- Eric


+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Eric Simon     | erics (at) radix(dot)net                      |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| proud daddy to Joshua Ari  4/18/93 - 27 Nissan 5753   |
|        and Eliana Rebekah  3/12/95 - 11 Adar-2 5755   |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

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