Re: john zorn's camo pants (tzitzis)

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

I appreciate Howard's comments on tzitzit and kippah, but I would like
to make 3 points:
1. where Howard writes "observant Jews" I am confident that he meant
"observant Jewish men"
2. many observances considered mitzvot were not as explicitly received
in the Torah as the mitzvah of tzitzit (e.g., not eating milk with
poultry)
3. observant Jewish men today do not observe the mitzvah of tzitzit as
explicity received in the Torah

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Howard Freedman <hfreedman (at) bjesf(dot)org>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: john zorn's camo pants (tzitzis)


>I would suggest against rushing to judgment about presuming "style
vs. religious
>feeling."  Wearing tzitzis is a mitzvah we receive in the Torah
(indeed we read
>it in daily prayers as the third paragraph of the Shema).  Covering
one's head
>is just a custom.  While it has become normative among observant Jews
today, it
>has developed slowly, and does not have the same level of obligation
associated
>with tzitzis.  Covering one's head doesn't find any fuller
endorsement in the
>Talmud than a passage buried in Shabbat 118b noting  that Rav Huna
would not
>walk four cubits with his head uncovered.  While covering one's head
at all
>times has gradually developed as suggested and expected behavior
among observant
>Jews, not all communities have adhered to this practice.
>
>I too cringe a bit about the possibility of using serious Jewish
ritual objects
>for show (remember those ice skaters with the tallis motif a few
years ago?),
>but I don't think it's a good practice to presume someone's spiritual
leanings
>by what he/she is wearing.  Particularly when Zorn's music, whatever
one feels
>about it, and the music his Tzaddik label has sponsored, does
certainly show
>interest in Jewish spiritual exploration.
>
>Howard Freedman
>
>>
>> Camo pants would be "camoflague pants"--those casual green or
mottled
>green pants that one picks up in this country at military surplus
shops. The
>couple of times I've seen him, tzitzis have been stylishly arranged
to hang
>out, as well. I'm not unsympathetic to the idea of important ritual
items
>used for artistic effect, but it is sometimes unsettling. (I presume
style
>vs. religious feeling because I don't recall him wearing either
kippah, or
>other head covering.)
>>
>> ari
>
>
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