[HANASHIR:9147] Re: Proper Topics for HN list

[Ethan Leigh Bueno de Mesquita <mesquita...>]

Jerry and Adrian,

I have to say, I find this most recent warning of the possibility of
slipping off topic bizaar. First of all, the main thread of late has been
a discussion of instruments on Shabbat and the halakha surrounding them.
Now, this has led to some debate over our relationship to halakha and
questions about mourning rituals. And, while not actually about
music, per se, these discussions are important ones for Jewish
educators to have and they grew out of a discussion about the use of
music on Shabbat. If we are restricted to stop discussing a musical topic
as soon as it touches on some non-music related issue, then we are doomed
to have boring and shallow discussions that do not help us confront
important questions. Why would we suspect that all questions related to
the use of music in prayer have a musical answer. It may be that to think
through them in a sophisticated way we have to consider broader
theological questions. Such issues are not incidental to Jewish music,
they are foundational. I submit to you that you will lose a valuable
subset of the subscribers to this list if you choose to eliminate these
sorts of discussions. I, for one, am not hanging around for the "does
anyone know a song by Debbie Friedman about (fill in topic here)?"
discussions, but for discussions that raise the important theological and
philosophical issues that people who are teaching music and leading prayer
face on a regular basis. 

On a more practical note. For people who feel that they receive too much
email from this list, there is an easy solution, digest the list. Send an
email to listproc (at) shamash(dot)org whose text is "set hanashir mail digest"
The result will be one email per day with all the messages.

Ok, back to my dissertation.

Ethan 
*******************************
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita 
Ph.D. Candidate

mesquita (at) fas(dot)harvard(dot)edu
www.fas.harvard.edu/~mesquita

Department of Government 
Littauer Center, North Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138
(617) 384-7303 (office)

"Can lack of bias ever compensate for absence of insight?" 
        -Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel 

On Tue, 22 May 2001, Jewish Songleading/Music wrote:

> 
>                           HANASHIR Digest 1238
> 
> Topics covered in this issue include:
> 
>   1)  Fwd: Re: halacha against instrumentation
>       by Janisbl (at) aol(dot)com
>   2)  Belief vs action in Judaism
>       by "Tamar D. Earnest MD" <tde (at) fast(dot)net>
>   3)  Re: Fwd: Re: halacha against instrumentation
>       by BEBWH (at) aol(dot)com
>   4)  Re: halacha against instrumentation
>       by "Tamar D. Earnest MD" <tde (at) fast(dot)net>
>   5)  Re: Fwd: Re: halacha against instrumentation
>       by Eric Simon <erics (at) radix(dot)net>
>   6)  RE: Jewish organists
>       by Richard Glauber <richglauber (at) yahoo(dot)com>
>   7)  RE: Jewish organists
>       by Eric Simon <erics (at) radix(dot)net>
>   8)  RE: Jewish organists
>       by "Adrian Durlester" <durleste (at) home(dot)com>
>   9)  RE: Jewish organists
>       by BEBWH (at) aol(dot)com
>  10)  Re: Fwd: Re: halacha against instrumentation
>       by QuelliPG (at) aol(dot)com
>  11)  Re: Belief vs action in Judaism
>       by GKaye (at) aol(dot)com
>  12)  Return Again authorship
>       by "H & R Shubert" <notfranz (at) total(dot)net>
>  13)  Re: Proper topics for HN List
>       by Andy Curry <acurry (at) san-carlos(dot)rms(dot)slb(dot)com>
>  14)  Re: Kol Bamidbar
>       by "Meris Ruzow" <meris (at) nycap(dot)rr(dot)com>
> 


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