“Today there are styles in the
chassidic music that have no connection to chassidus,”
says the singer Mordechai Ben David Werdigger. “It is like being in the jungle.
The kushim sing in a more refined way than they
do. The words don’t make the song chassidic. Maybe it gives pleasure – like
eating pizza, but there is no spiritual pleasure in it.” [from an interview in
the Bnei Brak paperKol HaIr 12th Tishrei 5764].
“Something has happened to the chassidic music in the past few
years,” says Avraham Freed. “The truth is that today’s young singers have no
red lines. I know that I have my limits that I will never cross….. The
situation today has worsened to a point that very soon we, the singers and the
public will have to shout – ‘The music has reached the gates of hell!’” [from
an interview in the magazine Shaah
Tovah, Erev Sukkos, 5764].
The singer Gidon Levine [in the same magazine] sums up the
situation: “My problem is that the imitation of goyishe music is likely to
bring a deterioration in our society, and particularly among the young people.”
These singers [with the exception of R’ Ben Tzion Shenker] fail to mention that they are the ones who started the trend to imitate American rock and roll, and that the younger singers who they criticize are only taking an example from them to copy the new styles of popular street music. Let us finally hear what the “Composer of the year – 5764” Yishai Lapidos has to say about the subject:“I know many people who claim that today’s big singers introduced the disco beat and the rock. For example, Mordechai Ben David introduced rock and roll, Deady Groucher brought in the rock, Vindish with Boruch Hagever brought in the trend of ‘converted songs’. The song ‘Moshiach’ of Mordechai Ben David is in the style of real rock and roll, and there is not much difference between rock and roll and dance. The disco of all the big singers such as Werdigger, Freed and Deady have come from the American rock and roll and disco.” [From the magazine, Shiru Lo, Chanukah 5764, p.20].
At present in this country we are witness to the phenomenon of ‘Greek song’. Two of the mushchossim of the tzibbur who were thrown out of Eretz Yisroel returned to America with their merchandise to sell to the public. One of them made rachmono litzlan, a song about the most important principle of the 13 principles. The second took examples from this to make a song about the destruction of Amolek, and they turned them into jazz רח"ל – literally! What happens to a person’s heart when he listens to this version of mechiyas Amolek? He hears that to wipe out Amolek is jazz! Is it possible to receive any good influence from this? Or chas vesholom the opposite, that he is disconnected from the whole concept of destroying Amolek? Or if he hears ‘Moshiach’ with that imbecilic nigun – is it possible to elevate oneself by hearing this? In this way they are killing the public, and we have to publicize them by name – one is called Freed (Fried), and the other is called Werdigger (Mordechai Ben David)!
“I love the songs,” Fried said of the new album. “I think there’s some great material. There are great messages. There are songs to cry to, there are songs to dance to, there are songs that will inspire. I think it’s a solid album.”Anyone who lets their songs into his house must know what this will cause to his Torah. Elisha ben Avuya, one of the four great members of the chaburah, did not stop singing a Greek song, – and it made him into a different person and finally a heretic! We have to throw this out of the house! Throw it all out! And not let this trash remain in the house!
Fried said that he has adopted a certain style to which he has stuck in this album as well. “I have a certain style which is what we call the Hassidic style. In that Hassidic style there are some areas where we’ll take a disco feel or a rock feel, but that’s the extent of it.”
[Rabbi Yisroel Elya Weintraub שליט"א,
Lakewood Yeshiva, Cheshvan, 5755]
“Speech is the expression of the mind.
Music is the expression of the soul, and by means of this it is possible to
determine the level of a person at any time. The prohibitions related to speech
apply also to musical expression.”
The Rebbe of Bobov, Rabbi Ben Tzion
Halberstam הי"ד.
“I have heard that there is something new
that they call “Chassidic music”. I don’t know whether it is kosher or not, but
one thing I can be quite sure about – that it has no connection to chassidus,
and I do not know if it is suitable for yeshiva boys to listen to it.”
Rabbi Elazar M. M. Shach זצ"ל.
“The non-religious street has managed to
infiltrate into chareidi society by means of the modern music.”
Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapira זצ"ל.
SOURCE:THE TORAH IS NOT HEFKER
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