Thursday, August 6, 2015

Lipa pushes the envelope, possibly scoffing at Rav Chaim Kanievsky

Lifeinisrael- Radio Kol Hai's Menachem Toker has opened a front against Lipa Shmelzer.
Listen to the song HERE
Lipa's newest song, Buha Buha, which is not yet on Youtube but can be heard in this Kikar article, is creating quote a stir.

The song describes first how Lipa went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky for a bracha. Rav Kanievsky said "buha buha". Lipa asked the gabbai what buha buha means, and the gabbai explained it is an abbreviation of "bracha vhatzlacha" - בו"ה, and that Rav Kanievsky does not say the entire set of words out because he is busy learning and saying these words is bittul torah, so he minimizes his words. Lipa goes on to say how great it is that Rav kanievsky is so involved in his learning that even that little bit bothers him, yet he still sees and blesses all these people so they would not get insulted.



In the second part of the song, Lipa goes on to relate a story when he went t visit the Tosher Rebbe. After waiting for a long time, all night long, and it was about to be his turn, the gabbai came out and said the rebbe has to go eat before dawn.

Toker decided that this song is seriously disrespectful to the gedolim and he refuses to play it. Radio Kol Hai has reportedly backed him and gave instructions to all their show hosts to not play this song.

When I first listened to it, it truthfully sounded strange and disrespectful. As I listened though and paid attention to the words, it seemed to me to be very respectful and even expressed admiration - at least in the story with Rav Chaim Kanievsky. I still do not understand the point of the story with the Tosher Rebbe.

Lipa is a strange bird in general and seems to enjoy pushing the envelope...

What do you think about this song - is it respectful or disrespectful?

2 comments:

  1. The whole "booha" thing is weird. It doesn't take more than a tiny fraction of a second more to say "bracha v'ehatzlacha" than to say "booha".

    In general, RCK is obviously a tremendous talmid chocham and yorei shomayim, but he does have his idiosyncracies (e.g. his objection to "new" names, pressing American bochurim to grow beards, or - allegedly - American roshei yeshiva to wear their payos out, etc. etc.)

    Not sure if that's a subject for a Lipa song, though.

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  2. Can you please translate the Yiddish part of the song? I can't make a judgment on the song being respectful or not without knowing what that part says..

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