Monday, November 25, 2013

The Aveirah Song - Halachic Analysis by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Five Towns Jewish Times   [YOUTUBE As of this writing, it has about 170,000 hits on YouTube. It was uploaded in February of 2013 and it has already spawned a sequel.  Out of 1000 people who watched it and rated it, it has an eleven percent disapproval rating.  None of the comments are pareve – either the listener is bowled over or deeply offended and characterizes it as a grave Chillul Hashem.

What is the Aveirah song?  What is it’s appeal?  What has been the reaction to it?  And what do Torah sources have to say about the matter?

The Aveirah song is either a satire or parody that pokes fun at, well, something.  The disclaimer at the end of the video claims that it pokes fun at those who perform sins.  Its detractors claim that while this is what the producers claim that this is what it does, in reality it just parodies contemporary Orthodox culture, and has no redeeming spiritual benefit whatsoever.

As a background, the parody was produced by a very worthy Yeshiva in Israel that works with American high school graduates and not only gets them into learning, but catapults these young men into some very serious Torah growth.  Many of their graduates go on to the most prestigious Yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel.  The singer pronounces the lyrics with a Chasidic accent, and they are set to a modern rap tune. To get a feel for it, some of the lyrics are below.

I eat a gid hanasheh every bite,
I put on my left shoe before my right,
You think I don’t do aveiros? Don’t even wonder,
I never make a brucheh when I hear the thunder,
My wife wears a sheitel, not a tichel,
I eat the herring without the kichel,

I drink every night ad delo yudeh,
I never sing zemiros at the shabbos sudeh,
I hang around with a goyishe oilem,
I never do bikur cholim,
Yeah I hang out with goyim vus iz nisht gemalet,
I don’t put on my paper, beis samech daled. [...]

13 comments :

  1. Well you know if you put on your blog with a link that'll only add to its ratings. Certainly funny.

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  2. "...and has no redeeming spiritual benefit whatsoever."

    I disagree, its very good to laugh.

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  3. The lines are in rhyme, so he has to think of some stupid aveirah to rhyme with the last one. There is no ideological message to this. e.g. nobody cheers for Haman, even if they wear shitels instead of tichel, or use the internet.
    There is also the issue of Rap music, and how the culture is infiltrating everywhere.
    The problem might be that it is in the first person. If it was in 3rd person, it could be reflecting the Neviim criticising the sinners.

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    1. What do you mean the issue of rap music and the culture infiltrating? Most modern Jewish music is taken from popular culture. It was always the case and always will be. There is no "Jewish" music. The music of Russian Jews resmebled the melodies of Russian folk music. The tunes of Germany are very German and the melodies of Sephardic Jews are structured around the Arabic musical scales. It is only natural that American Jewish music be modeled after American pop music. It took me twenty years to realize that the tune for Modeh Ani I was taught was a total rip-off of "You are my sunshine."

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  4. It's horrible. Nebach nebach how low our generation has fallen. It trivializes Aveiros. Putting real Aveiros togethoer with things of no matter or substance, and mixes these with things which are minhogim kedoshim and with other things which are chumros or machlokes haposkim as if to say it's all the same and to trivialize all of it. Being presented in the format it is, being low level literacy, with cheap rap, it indicates that this is the message of the lowest rung of our society. It must therefore be seen as such and we see that we have a real problem on our hands(which we know already anyway) that there is tragically a large element who have no feeling for Yiddishkeit. It means our education isn't working. I'm hurt deeply by this Aveiroh Song, the way most any normal person would be hurt if someone would sing a song which makes fun of his father - "The fat Mr. ......... with the long nose song" I know that today many people wouldn't even mind hearing such a song about their father. In our genearation people have completely lost their feelings. As the Gemara says אין בשר המת מרגיש כשמחתכין אותו באיזמל If anyone could hear such a song and not be pained, he must see himself as void of the normal feelings of loyalty to our dear Father אבינו שבשמים and to Yiddishkeit in general - or something like that - missing some basic feeling that he should have.

    If you say say that you know that this song has in fact done some good, I won't argue, but what a sad state of affairs that people have fallen so deeply into the mud that this song is less of a mudbath than where the people have fallen, so even this song could uplift. We need Moshiach desparately.

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    1. I saw the video. I thought it's great. Truly an American sense of humor.

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    2. Katche lab-the only thing that's sad is you, there has never been a more knowledgeable generation in Jewish history and the fact that There are 170,000 people viewing this shows how much klal yisrael has grown (and how great everyone else's appreciation for good humor is)

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  5. I just read the lyrics of the song, but haven't seen the video. He combines serious d'oreisa averos "I eat a gid hanasheh every bite" with breaking minhagos, "I don’t put on my paper, beis samech daled", all in the same song.

    The message of the song is clear. Hasidic Jews (since the accent is Hasidic) don't seem to be able to distinguish between a mitzvah and a mihag; they treat them all with the same severity.

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    1. Except that the kid who is the lead singer in this video is not chasidic whatsoever. So you make a false conclusion.

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    2. Lol! This song is a joke. And it's funny. What kind of doofuses spend time analyzing a joke song halachically and hashkafically and look for hidden messages? Looooosers!

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    3. dovy,

      Welcome to Jew-Land. This is what we Jews do, analyze everything halachically and hashkafically. Otherwise, what would the purpose of life be?

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  6. The way I see it, song is making fun of the frum people (especially chasidim) who think that minhagim and chumros or "the way things are done" are just as, if not more, important than actual mitzvos and halacha.
    Eli

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  7. I think it is very clever and tries to show what happens when FahrFRUMPT meets his twin brother FahrKRUMPT! ABS

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