Re: Re[5]: Der yidisher tam

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

(Sorry, accidentally sent defective text...)

Rich,

On Tue, 10 Mar 1998 17:42:55 -0500, you wrote:
I don't mean to say that local customs adapted from the Eastern European
milieu are wrong or bad.  I just don't demm them INTRINSICALLY Jewish per
se.  Therefore, they may indeed have historical value, however, I wouldn't
hesitate to modify or replace them with something equally valid.

_____
Reply:
I think it's important, in this rather difficult discussion, not to 
lump together ORIGINALLY JEWISH and INTRINSICALLY Jewish. 

Halakha is not a culture. Halakha is a legal code that has been (a)
interpreted in various ways in different Jewish cultures (e.g. the
Sephardim eat rice on Pesakh, the Ashkenazim do not), (b) has been
fleshed out in many regional forms, as with any other people.

It is these various regional forms, which comes under the concept of
_minhog_ (local custom), which I am saying, is a basic conept for
understanding Jewish music. Even though our particular concerns are
different, Rich -- you are interested in adding variety and, as it
were, constructing a new "American" nusakh, new, but connected with
tradition, I am interested in mainatining old traditions (which I
think is far more of a concern with respect to klezmer, because at
least here in New York there are many extremely traditional communities
that keep up the vocal traditions of Eastern Europe, but not the
instrumental ones) -- even though our concerns are different, I think
we can agree that minhog, as a concept, is by no means indifferent
when you speak of Jewish music.

Therefore, when something is adopted in, it becomes intrinsically
Jewish. Gefilte fish may have a halakhic explanation -- not to separate
the bones from the fish on Shabbes, you say -- yet it's only found in
Eastern European Judaism, not Sephardic or something else. Uou also
have to consider the possibility that many of these halakhic explanations
were made "after the fact" - to explain _minhogim_ that were already
age-old practices.

Itzik-Leyb