Three Weeks

[Alex Jacobowitz <Alex_Jacobowitz...>]

B"H Kiryat Arba, Israel

"On the one hand," says Tevye...

I'm surprised and pleased to read the letters and comments concerning the
(Halachic) 
restrictions on playing during the Three Weeks, since so many people have
something 
interesting to say. It's one of those rare times when, in Kabbalistic
terms, the constrictive 
energies of Judaism meet the expansive energies of music -- and we as a
Jewish people 
and as Jewish musicians are theoretically balanced. Joy, associated with
music, is 
tempered for the sake of the Temple loss, associated with mourning, so that
we will in 
turn temper our behavior to deserve the Next Temple (joy, religion and
music).

"But on the other hand," says Tevye...

Who among us really will change our behavior, even in something so simple
as the 
playing of music? Will anyone on this list NOT play during the Three Weeks?
Or will 
NOT play for the Jewish community during that time -- out of PRINCIPLE? All
rhetoric 
aside, has anyone here ever TURNED DOWN a gig because it was on the first
day of 
Succos? The eighth day of Pessach? Or even Shabbos Kodesh? Has anyone said
no to playing on Saturday night AFTER Shabbos was over, since it might
substantially
distract their enjoyment or concentration during Shabbos itself?

"Then again, on the other hand,"...

How many of us know how to lehn (Yiddish, to sing/read from the Tora, from
German lesen)
the weekly portion (parasha) with the proper trop (cantillation signs)? 

To read the Haftora trop (similar cantillation signs, but different musical
notes)? 

How many know the Shabbos modes from davening (praying) -- on Shabbos, with
a 
Siddur (prayer book), with a minyan, with a tradition -- instead of from
some book on "Jewish music"?

"...there IS no other hand!"

The question isn't properly put, "what is Jewish music?", but rather, "what
do we, Jews, want to do
with our music?" Is it an expression of individual or communal pain? Is it
a form of prayer? Is it
an Ersatz solution to "feeling" Jewish minus the rigors of religion? Is it
a (albeit poor) way to 
"make a living"? Of "surviving"? Of marking time until we know what we want
from our other music(s)?
Are we "compelled" to do this? Is it self-discovery? A warm fuzzy feeling
that our Yiddish-speaking
grandparents and parents left us in place of the knowledge of Yiddish?

"For if I bend too far, I'll break!"

I'm a simple street-performer, and, thank G-d, I'm able to make a very good
living at it. Play on Shabbos?
I can't. Every week, through not playing on Friday night and Saturday, I
"surrender" more money than
most of my fellow orchestral musicians earn, but that's my system -- I do
what's 'right', and my Creator
gives me a living for the rest of the week. Is there anyone else here who
keeps these traditions?
Does anyone else here care about THIS aspect of being a Jewish musician? Or
only Heisse Bulgars,
Max Bruch and David Lee Roth? Are we excluding ourselves from being the
Temple musicans
when the Next Temple will be built?

A git woch - Shavua Tov - a good week

Alex Jacobowitz