Aish’s New Chanukah Video: Jewish Rock of Ages
I loved this new Aish.com video, but after I initially posted it I realized that it is causing a lot of controversy among people who think it’s inappropriate.
What do YOU think of this video, JewishMOM?
Many of the people commenting here, find it deplorable:
http://matzav.com/the-matzav-shmoooze-has-kiruv-crossed-the-line
I think this is a disgrace. It’s sick.
Unfortunately I have to agree with the previous commenters. Not only is this video completely devoid of content, the fact that they are men does not give them license to pull off such immodest dance moves. What rabbi gave haskama for the dance at around 0:50?
I have no problem at all with using dance, modern music and other forms of art for holy purposes and particularly for kiruv. There is a very thin line, however, between art that is lma’an Hashem and art that is leitzanut. IMHO, this video crosses that line.
I must say that as an FFB Monsey girl, I did not see anything wrong with it! I was shocked to read on http://matzav.com/the-matzav-shmoooze-has-kiruv-crossed-the-line that sooo many people thought it was crossing the line.
There have been so many people over the years that changed non-jewish music to jewish music. Nobody ever said that there is a halachically okay way to listen to music. We can listen or watch anything we want, as long as it is ‘kosher’ – and their dancing singing seems fine to me.
i’m speechless and i’m a baal teshuva. i must admit the video made me smile but perhaps b/c i remember all these songs from way back when. these guys are talented and certainly had fun. so i guess their message is that Chanukah is fun. not sure. i would vote for Charlie Harray’s informative videos. certainly much more thought provoking about yiddishkiet than this video would ever be.
I think the video is a lot of fun and with the captions it does tell the story of Chanukah in a very entertaining way. I would think that Aish HaTorah sees this as a way of telling our story to people that would not hear it another way. The video has already had a quarter of a million hits on youtube in less than two weeks. It is definitely reaching a wide audience and as Jews we need to get our message out in a way that can reach as many people as possible.
I once asked a great Rabbi why one should not listen to non-jewish music. He quoted a Gemora that tells us something interesting.
“Why is it that the Torah that Acher had learned did not protect him from becoming an APIKORES?” The Gemora answers that ACHER, who was one of Reb Meir’s formost students (in the time of the Talmud), used to listen to GREEK MUSIC!”
I understand this to mean that there are certain avenues of Kedusha that connect our NESHMA to Ha-shem. The more Torah we learn – the clearer is our connection. This type of music causes spiritual static to “jam” our connection.
I think we can all understand that this type of dancing, although it may not be halachically forbidden, I am sure we all agree that it definitely does NOT induce a better “connection” with our Creater.