This is from todays Hayom Yom.

Rabbis and scholars are called the “eyes of the community” and “heads of the thousands of Israel,” and when the head is healthy, the body is then also healthy.
Compiled and arranged by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 5703 (1943) from the talks and letters of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe.

I would say this is a great quote which applies greatly to the current hot topic.

(Idea from The Real Shliach)

The Jerusalem Post has now weighed in on it as well, how far will this go? What other major newspaper might we see this in??

Two interesting paragraphs:

Rabbis were consulted, and preparations were made to ensure the event was “kosher.” Attendees were guaranteed exclusively separate seating for men and women. And the intermission was nixed to avoid unwanted mingling between the sexes.

But despite these precautions, just weeks before the event, two community leaders who oppose this kind of entertainment, Asher Friedman and Avraham
Shor began circulating a petition to ban the event for “lightheartedness” and “immorality.” In the end 33 rabbis stunned the public with an announcement, published Feb. 20 in the religious daily Hamodia, prohibiting the concert.

… and

But the brouhaha has continued well into its second week. Many are wondering why the prohibition came at such short notice, and who is to be held responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dollars accrued in losses.

Some suggest that the rabbis were dragged into signing the ban by Friedman and Shor, who petitioned them to sign the document without ever contacting the singer or the producers of the show to express their concerns.

“In the end it narrowed down to two people that went and obtained signatures in a very slimy and shady way, two very dangerous people,” said Mendlowtiz, the producer of the show, who has been involved in the haredi music scene for almost 30 years. “If he (Friedman) had a problem with it, he knew about it more than two months ago, he should have called us to discuss it like a mensch, not caused so much chaos and loss of funds.”

Mendlowitz says he is owed roughly $700,000. Initially Friedman offered to pay part of that sum, but under the condition that Mendlowitz sign off concerts forever. “Who’s he to tell me not to do concerts, this is absolutely ridiculous,” said Mendlowtiz. “They want to shut down the Jewish concert business, because they don’t feel it’s the proper place for their followers.”

Crazy stuff folks, crazy.

So this is how “Daas Torah” works? Frankly, I’m embarrassed for Frum people everywhere. This was a complete and utter mess up on the Rabbanims side. Say what you will, send me the angry emails, but they dropped the ball here and allowed themselves to be used as pawns in a war of hatred and anger. It’s nice to be able to say that they were “misled” and/or “deceived” or that even though the methods in which the signatures were attained were shady but the “message” was still important. But no, this is wrong and it’s not how its supposed to be.

Someone needs to answer for this, someone needs to clean this mess up.

This is something I’ve been calling for, for a very long time.

Leading rabbis and the Jerusalem Municipality have joined forces in a battle against the widespread habit of smoking in the haredi public, in light of studies indicating that the sector has the highest rate of smokers in Israeli society.

The Health Ministry and local haredi authorities will also take part in the effort.

In a campaign that will be launched Thursday, rabbis will issue halachic rulings banning smoking. The rulings will be posted on bulletin boards and buses, and published in the community’s pamphlets. (full link here)

I just don’t know if it’s enough. I would like to see those same 33 American Rabbanim that banned the concert to also send out a Kol Koreh against smoking in general in America. How about taking on a topic that is mamash benogiah shomer es nefshecha. How many Yiddishe souls must we lose to one of the biggest killers.

Stop smoking now!

(Via OM)

Here is a great interview with Aryeh Kunstler in the 5 Towns Jewish Times. I happen to have LOVED his album, and very soon my review will be up. I have his review half written for a while now, I just need to do the second half. If you love good Jewish rock you NEED to buy this CD.

You can also hear Aryeh on OlamRadio’s Shmooze.

Click here. I’M SHOCKED!!

Here is a really beautiful music video from the upcoming Shira Chadasha Boys Choir album.

The Shira Chadasha Boys Choir are also featured on Dovid Gabay’s new CD, in the song Zarah. The choirs album also will feature Simcha Levinstein and the Bell Boys (from Sheves Achim.) I haven’t heard the first album, but based on what I heard of Levinstein, Sheves Achim, this music video and their part in Gabay’s Zarah I’m looking forward to hearing the new album.

This is from the Letters to the Editors page:

This is from Larry Gordon:

As long as it’s the topic of the day in many circles, let me comment on the
recent cancellation of the Big Event concert that had been scheduled to take
place in the theater of Madison Square Garden on March 9. Due to rabbinic
pressure, that program has been cancelled.

This has generated a lot of
discussion and debate. There’s also a great deal of speculation surrounding what
the catalyst of the ban on this particular program was in contrast to other
concert programs, which will hopefully go forward.

The featured
performer was scheduled to be Lipa Schmeltzer, a talented, creative, and
energetic—as well as controversial—figure in today’s rather small Jewish music
industry. Schmeltzer has been known to understand how to work an audience and
how to push the envelope, so to speak, to the point where it’s possible to see
the emergence of Jewish music dominated by holy lyrics placed in the context of
contemporary rap and rock music, which, it can be argued, has influenced and
changed more than one generation.

My feeling is that the rabbis got
together and drew a line here at this show and this performer not just because
of the music or the frivolity that was going to surround the venue. The feeling
was that Mr. Schmeltzer—and he himself apparently consented to the sentiment—was
exuding a message that so long as you had the look and the dress on the outside,
inside it was all right to party hearty.

I have no way of knowing
whether Mr. Schmeltzer ever felt that way when performing or recording his
songs. However, it seems that some of our leading rabbinical figures became
convinced that this was the message being received.

And whether that’s
the case or not, it is just as important to deal with the issue, as this is the
impression that is being created. Today’s youth cannot seem to weather an
intellectually dishonest message. The insides have to match the outside. We
can’t afford to have that human pause button pressed, because while on pause
there are just too many other unhealthy things going on.

Under duress, but none the less, I bought a CD from a new group “Sheves Achim”, two boys, Shimon and Moshe Bell produced by Ari Goldwag and …. I like it. I’m not sure about the album as a whole, I have only had it for a day or so. Each time I hear it I like it more.

The boys have very nice voices and there are some good catchy songs. You can hear the sampler and get the scooop over at the J.E. Magazine. I don’t know if I’ll review it or not, but it’s not a bad puchase.

Let’s get back to talking about some music, shall we? Dovid Gabay’s first CD was a pretty good CD. I didn’t review it because it was before I was reviewing CD’s. I wasn’t in love with it, there were a few songs that were forgettable, but for the most part it was an enjoyable CD. One of my favorite tracks on that album is Oseh Shalom Tamshich which is a very unconventional rock song for a mainstream Jewish singer. I also enjoyed Legabay, Havvi, Avinu and Av Harachamim.

Dovid’s second album, Omar Dovid was released yesterday. You can hear a sampler from the album below and you can read a very extensive and interesting interview right here. I happened to have thought this was a pretty good interview, usually these sorts of interviews are copy and paste template pieces. But it seems Dovid has got some real personality, which I think also sets his style and songs apart from some of the other carbon copies.

UPDATE: It seems the interview with published early, unedited and unapproved. I was asked to take it down so I am, as soon as it’s republished I will relink and revisit this. I also plan on having an interview with someone who worked on the Gabay CD. But that will be after the album review. Which will later this week (3/1/08)

I’ve received an advance copy of the album for review about a week ago and have been listening to it non stop. There is a song on the album Birchos Avicha (composed by Elimelech Blumstein) with a stunning arrangement by Yonaton Razel, a master of Jewish music and brother to another master of Jewish music Aaron.

I think it’s a fantastic album and of course there will be a full review on the blog very soon. You can also see Dovid’s newly launched website by going to DovidGabay.net

Ya Ya, I know I said I’m done, I’m just linking to Blog In Dm’s great post, please scroll down for tons of links. It seems this story has bled into the general blogosphere and its all over the place from OM to Jewschool to Y-Love etc, etc, etc. Go to Blog In Dm for all the latest.

I just want to point out that the article in the Jewish Star (found by Blog in Dm) exposes many of the things we’ve all been saying and asking around the J’Music blogs for the last week. This was all about personal politics. This isn’t something the Rabbanim had set out to do. It was brought to their attention by someone with a personal vendetta against Lipa.

How can anyone claim this is Daas Torah? How can any fruit come from a stolen tree? Mamash lies were told, they lied to the Rabanim, I mean, who is shocked? But here we have proof. No one knew what was up and what was down. I’ve got a running list now of at least 3 Rabbanim that didn’t the full details, the full text, who was actually signing this Kol Koreh.

The damage has been done my friends and now either they need to clean up this mess or we risk things getting worse and worse. Now the backlash is going to come, now the Modern’e will have their say and the Chareidi who DON’T agree with this. The rest of the frum world not addicted to Yeshiva World will have their say and it’s going to get U-G-L-Y.

We are in very dark times, I keep thinking back to how we’ve been told the days before Geulah are the darkest. We must truly be living in Zman HaGeulah.

UPDATE: The J.E. gets into the mix with a very intelligent article on the situation.

Imagine a 10 oz paper cup. Now imagine a full container of juice. Now imagine trying to pour the full container of juice into that one 10 oz paper cup. It’s gonna overflow something terrible, it’s gonna go all over the counter, and become a nasty sticky wet mess. This story is the juice and this blog is the cup. I’m officially a sticky mess. I just don’t want to discuss it anymore.

I’ve got some better stuff to talk about today. If you’re dying for some more blogs takes on the story them read them here, here, here and here. You can also hear and interview with Lipa from last night here. And just because we’re hearing this show has been canceled don’t be surprised if the story is STILL not over - not by a long shot. That’s it, I’m done with this story, for now, which means barring any major dramatic surprises - which as I’m hearing still may come.

Here is the full clip of Benny Friedman singing Ani Maamin from that AskMosesTV clip last week.

… and another one bites the dust. VIN confirms it. I had a feeling this would happen.

I really liked Gruntig’s take on the whole thing. It’s really worth the read, it’s a very different approach and very interesting.

There is a lot of chatter right now about what exactly was told to the Rabanim who “signed” the Kol Koreh and it’s not pretty at all.

Let’s start with R’ Dovid Feintstein who I’ve been told only signed it because he heard another big rav signed it. The problem here is that there is a domino effect situation here. It’s like a few big names signed it and then a bunch of others were told “so and so signed it” and didn’t want to go against those names.

It doesn’t end there, it seems at least one big Rav only signed it because he was told that it was mixed seating and that Lipa was getting too wild and “out of control” and needed to be stopped. In fact what I’m hearing is that this ban stand (like the play on words?) was more out of controlling lipa’s “out of control” shows then about shutting down a concert. They used the mix seating lie as “proof” to these Rabanim that Lipa was losing it. Because if Lipa who only did separate seating was now doing mixed it must be a sign of how far he’s gone.

I’ll update you when I hear more, but if this is true, despite that the damage is already done it puts a very scary spin on it. It would also prove that this was more about trying to damage Lipa then about ending Jewish music concerts in America.