Many wonder, is nothing sacred anymore? Selichos which for centuries had klal yisrael approach it with fear and trepidation as the preperation for the yemei hadin has now turned into full blown concerts and kumzits style events. The Piyut says זוחלים ורועדים we tremble and shiver as we beg Hashem to forgive us. The frum Jewish websites made sure to broadcast and post videos of these new selichos concerts. As if they were trying to one up each other by who could post the crazier newer hip selichos prayer. They couldnt portray what selichos looks like in a regular normal shul the way it always was.
Perhaps these concerts is the only way people feel they can connect and feel close to hashem as it says לשמוע אל הרינה ואל התפילה. Not until the emergence of the Carlebach style selichos has there ever been this phenomenon in previous generations. Truth many shuls had chazonim who would lead the service but it was not in the form of a musical happy concert. It was a soul stirring prayer in a serious atmosphere. Maybe this is what the dor needs but defenitely not the norm.
I have yet to daven in a place where there's a chazan (a real, old-world type chazan) who led a "soul stirring prayer." To me, chazanut in shule over Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur was more of an opera concert than anything inspiring. Perhaps this is why so many now enjoy the Carlebach type davening over the old fashioned chazanut.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect because people say stupidity like "this is what the for needs" the slippery slide keeps slipping. The problem is nobody is strong enough to stop all the shenanigans that go on. It's a free country and if you try anything they will call the cops or take u to court. Yiras shomayim? That's a dead concept. People just want to be Americans and have the good life. Walk into an average shul on any day of the week. How many people are actually DAVENING as opposed to saying words and looking around? The situation is very bad. I don't want to be mekatreig Chas veshalom there's enough people and malachim doing that already. The point is every time a good person accepts the matzav and says this is what the dor needs and similar terms of accepting mediocre yiddishkiet it is strengthening those who want to water things down. You don't have to be a kannai. Just want things to be as they should. And don't be afraid to say that it's wrong if it's wrong.
ReplyDeleteOh and I wanted to add you said
ReplyDelete"Perhaps these concerts is the only way people feel they can connect and feel close to Hashem." You don't realize how Krum that is. The nut case who murdered people at the toeiva parade also thought he's being close to Hashem. We can't just do whatever we want because it gives us an artifical feeling of being close to Hashem. What we need is to follow our mesorah as closely as possible and if we don't feel anything work on ourselves and do introspection as to why we don't feel anything. It's very wrong to think that we can change mesorah and do things how we want to make us feel close to Hashem. It's just baloney. You can think you're being close to Hashem while in truth you can be an oived avodah zarah...