Tuesday, June 8, 2010

No Matter Who or What I am, I am a Jew - Music Video

My wife really likes this video. And since I just saw it now on Raisin' Soul, I realized that I hadn't shared it before. Enjoy!

Possible Kol Isha note: At one point, there is a large group of people singing, including some women. If you don't rely on "trei kalei lo mishtamei," you might not want to watch the video, or at least you might want to be ready to turn the sound down at that point. Kol tuv.

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6 comments:

Shmuel said...

This video reminds me of Rav Weinberger's melave malka in L.A., where he told the story of that young boy at the shiva house...

"I may not be spiritual...but I am a Jew!"

Unknown said...

Another way to get out of the Kol Isha issue is to not look at the screen while the women are singing. Acc. to the psak (of Rav Ovadia Yosef I believe) that there is no issue of Kol Isha if you don't see the woman singing, and you don't know what she looks like.

Yehoishophot Oliver said...

I'm sure there are people who will misunderstand me, but although the composers of this song definitely mean well, I must say that I dislike the implication in this song that religiosity has no bearing on Jewishness.

It is indeed true that every Jew has an inner core that is equal, the etzem hanefesh. However, one who submits to Shulchan Aruch and so on, ACTS as a Jew should act, and that makes him DIFFERENT and yes, BETTER in that respect than those who are only Jewish. This is not to say that frum Jews are perfect and sinless, of course they're not, or that non-frum never do good deeds--Chazal say that all Yidden are full with Mitzvos as a pomegranate is full with seeds. However, *all things being equal*, although they are both Jewish at their core, in terms of their actions, a frum Jew is more of a Jew than a not-yet-frum Jew.

DixieYid (يهودي جنوبي) said...

Rabbi Oliver,

Jumping Jehosephat! How can you say that a frum Jew is "more of a Jew" than a not-yet-frum Jew?!

Every Jew has a nekuda penimis, a Nefesh Elokah Mi'ma'al mamash, a Nefesh HaElokis which can't be touched by his aveiros. Every Jew is a child of Avraham Avinu.

I can understand if you say he's much further from Hashem, if his Jewishness is heavily concealed beneath the shmutz of his thoughts and actions, or that his guf isn't sanctified relative to the frum Yid. But that he's "less of a Jew"???

This is not true. And anyway, I think the song was *not* saying that you don't need to be frum. It's point was totally different. It is that no matter who you are or what you've done that you are still a Jew, beloved of Hashem, and that you're no less of a Jew than Moshe Rebeinu, Dovid Hamelech, or the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

The video is geared as a message, I think, for people who have done things wrong and need chizuk to be reminded that they're still Jews, still beloved of Hashem, and still worthy of being accepted if they do teshuva. And doesn't this apply to most of us, frum and non-frum alike?

I heard from one smart person that one shouldn't think that things meant for the "kiruv" purpose aren't necessarily the right message for someone who's already a "karov."

If someone's already a Tzadik, then you'd probably right. The message you want to get across for such a person is that it's bad to fall, that you'd be worse, work on yirah, etc.

But for someone who's already fallen in some area needs the chizuk to remember that they're a child of Avraham, a Jew no matter what, and is worthy of being accepted in teshuva.

Yehoishophot Oliver said...

Yes, one who acts like a Jew expresses his inner core of Jewishness more than one who doesn't. It's not enough to have a Jewish neshamah; that neshamah should be expressed through Torah and Mitzvos, and the one who does keep Torah and Mitzvos is, in terms of his actions, fulfilling Hashem's will, and is thus in this respect NOT equal to one who for whatever reason (even if through no fault of his own, as is often the case in our times) does not.

micha berger said...

RYO: Still, we were ready to receive the Torah as a consequence of our unity -- "like one person with one heart" -- at the foot of Mt Sinai. The unity of our common Jewishness expressed in the song is the cause of our having Torah and mitzvos and shouldn't be made a consequence.

(I hope someone still follows comments on this post. I was going through my bookmarked posts in Feedly, and decided to take a listen.)