In the middle of the page there is a short dispute between Rav Yehuda in the name of Shmuel and a Braita as to what is required for a sacrifice to be valid. Rav Yehuda maintains it is Kohanim, Levyim and Yisraelim and the Braita expresses the opinion of R' Shimon ben Elazar that Kohanim, Levyim and musical instruments are required. What about Yisraelim who play instruments?
The disagreement is explained by what each side though with the ikar of the sacrifices. Shmuel thought it was vocal music while R' Shimon ben Elazar thought it was instrumental music.
This parallels the current debate about the validity of musical instruments in our modern day services. What is the ikar of the service? Is it about people coming together and davening the way that we have since the Temple was destroyed? Or is it about bringing people in and reclaiming an ancient tradition of instruments that has been lost and now rediscovered? Of course matters of personal preference play a role here, but I hear that Elliot Dorff and Elie Spitz are working on a teshuva about this for the Law Committee to make all of those Friday night Live services official.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That's a great point Micah. And this is percisely why learning a lot of text reveals great teaching material we wouldn't find otherwise. I am going to totally steal your use of this text at some future date, and I will give you no attribution for it. Just fair warning.
I am in DC for a couple of days, so I may not be able to blog, but I am sticking with the learning...we are almost ready to siyumacize (sp?)
Post a Comment