Avraham sends over this classic from the ever so humble self-proclaimed “Gedolei Torah.” Basically, women are not supposed to get an education to earn a living, yet they have to raise the children by themselves and support their husband who’s learning in kollel. This of course despite the fact that the husband is contractually and halakhically obligated to support her. I guess with all that talmud study, no one bothered to learn Aramaic, or they’re just relying on the warm fuzzy English translations.
He also seds a nice article on Chassidic Rock. Not only does this demonstrate that they read secular newspapers (unless they have their “shabbes goy” do it for them), but that someone must have listened to rock music in order to indentify it in the first place (unless of course, they are all ba’alei teshuva or they used the aforementioned shabbes goy). Their posek in Rock Music is Mr. Philippe Ayache, a R. Tendler-esque professor of Baroque music – who by the way must have had some secular education. Maybe they should have just seen School of Rock.
In fairness, some songs played at wedding make no sense. Check out some on this list of wedding songs to aviod. In addition to these, I’ve personally heard part of Live and Let Die played at one wedding (you know who you are) and I’ve been told by several people of I Will Survive being played at weddings, which of course is the English equivalent of Od Lo Ahavti Di – an old school wedding staple.
Too ticked to comment more on these now and I have a midterm to write. Feel free to rant in the comments.
(כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי (ישעיהו נה:ח
Haredi Rattle And Roll
October 30, 2003 Jewish Culture
Now, now… “Od Lo Ahavti Di” at least *acknowledges* the presence and desirability of another person, while “I will Survive” explicitly boots that person out.
Of course, I’ve also heard snippets of “The Lady is a Tramp” at a wedding, but we’re just not going there right now…
WRT the “gedolei” article: The Bais Yakov system is supposed to provide a framework for women to “earn a living in teaching and similar professions.” Out of curiosity: what would those professions be? Presumably, women would only be able to teach in Bais Yakov-type institutions, so teaching opportunities would be limited… where else could they work?
Od Lo Ahavti Dai is a song espousing zionist values – It’s about the desirability of settling the Land of Israel. – Certainly out of the pale of the Moetzes.
I was once at a wedding where the band started playing the Doobie bros “listen to the music”. Everyone who recognized the song found it rather ammusing and was at a loss to how one should dance to it. Do you go with the traditional two-step shuffle or try for a modified horah?
At another wedding I went to, the hatan was a typical Modern Orthodox guy and he married into a yeshivish familly. He had some fun with the music:
1. His brother walked down to He Ain’t Heavy (He’s my brother)
2. He walked down to Nights in White Satin
3. They walked in from the yihud room to the overture from Tommy
4. At some random part of the dancing, the band played the guitar riff from Roadhouse Blues
Because everyone else there was yeshivish, no one knew what they were playing. The rest of us were quite amused.