Wait, I don't get it!

Ok, so it's the month of Av; the sad, mournful month. There is a prohibition to not listen to instrumental music from the 17th of Tammuz, until the 9th of Av (actually, into the first half of the 10th of Av as well). Quite frankly, I dread this period. I love music....and play it everywhere. When I was in Miami though, I could deal with it by listening to the shiurim CDs you could pick up for free in the shuls and in the Judaica shops. Yes, I would get a lot of aural Torah learning done during this period.

However this year it's different. Here I am without my CDs and my books. Talk radio was beginning to curdle my stomach, so I took a stroll down to Pinsker's the other day to get some CDs. I was pretty surprised to see that they had very few recorded shiurim on CD. What!? Not even some stuff from Rebbetzin Tzipporah Heller?

I did not want to leave empty handed, so I headed over to the section of "acapella" CDs. Being a musician of sorts, I know what acapella is...and it doesn't really have too much of a pull on me (unless it's Boyz II Men...see below!). Nonetheless, I got A.K.A. Pella 2 which had some good reviews. While it is not my favorite CD of all time, it is quite listenable. Maybe too much so. While no instruments may have been used, it sure does sound like it. Or some sort of synthesized, computerized "stuff". In addition, there seems to be no prohibition on the subject matter of the music...just on the musical instruments part. But modern singing techniques mirror a lot of the sound effects musical instruments make (or maybe it's always been that way).

So here I am, driving along, listening to my "acapella" CD; and also wondering, honestly, what exactly is going on here? Yes, maybe if you grow up frum, the halacha becomes internalized...and you know all the "do nots"...but what about the intention behind the halacha? I am not scrutinizing those Yidden who have always been Torah observant; and I fully admit my feelings probably have root in the fact that I am not well-versed in halalcha. However, I do sort-of-kind-of remember Rabbi Yossi not particularly agreeing with listening to acapella music during the three weeks (again, do not quote me on that!). Thousands of Torah-observant Jews fully enjoy acappella music during this time...so who am I to judge?

It's during times like these, I wish I had a Rav to talk to...just to get musings like this explained. Oh, it's very, very hard to come in from outside the frum world and internalize all this stuff. Sometimes I don't even know where to begin!

Now as a treat, here's some Boyz II Men; don't worry, it's a totally kosher song!