Thursday, September 6, 2012

Rosh Hashana 5773 Music Videos

Here we go! Another Rosh Hashana, another season of music videos!

From the Technion Institute in Israel - one of the most original, creative and fun videos I've ever seen.


From Aish.com we've got "What Makes Rosh Hashana  Beautiful" based on a song by One Direction.



UPDATE 9-12-12: The Maccabeats have released a cute Rosh Hashana greeting card video, featuring members of the group whistling the well-known Yomim Noraim niggun as they prepare for the Yom Tov!



UPDATE 9-13-12 - Also not a music video, but a great performance of "Chadesh Yameinu" by Shlomo Katz along with Rabbi Lazer Brody.


UPDATE 9-19-12: From Rabbi David Sirull of Augusta, Georgia, we have "Because It's Rosh Hashanah! A Musical Greeting"



Disclaimer: The following videos feature women singing.

The Ein Prat Fountainheads are back with a new video for Sukkos called "Livin' in a Booth" based on Bruno Mars "Marry You."

UPDATE 9-12-12: Apparently, the Fountainheads have released a 2nd version of their video, "Livin' in a Booth." The music is the same, but there are different video segments/the video is cut differently. The 1st version is no longer accessible by searching on Youtube - but can be reached via a link, which I happen to have in the paragraph above ;)

The Jewish Agency in France has a video based on Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe" entitled "Call Me Maybe - Chana Tova." I'm not sure what the lyrics mean since I don't know French. Also, apparently "ch" is used instead of "sh" in French.

While not a music video, WonderingJew presents a humorous video called "Yetzer Hara"


In terms of meaning and uplifting impact - I still think nothing can top "Book of Good Life" released by the Maccabeats this time last year...

If anyone has found any other music videos for Rosh Hashana, please post them in the comments and I'll update this post.

5 comments:

  1. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!
    Call me maybe in French for Rosh Hashana? Wow. That's epic!!!!!

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  2. I was listening to this shiur by Rabbi YY and he mentions (albeit in passing) that "kol isha" is specific to live music, and she has to be in the same room as you.

    http://www.torahanytime.com/scripts/media.php?file=media/Rabbi/YY_Rubinstein/2012-09-04/Elul:_Connecting_with_Hashem_Through_Teshuvah/Rabbi__YY_Rubinstein__Elul:_Connecting_with_Hashem_Through_Teshuvah__2012-09-04.wmv

    And those links are awesome. Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Interesting. I learned in NCSY Kollel based on a psak by Rav Moshe Feinstein that it depends on knowing what the woman looks like. A recording, without knowing the woman's appearance, would be mutar, because there is nothing in your mind to conjure up hirhurrim.

      Thus it would be a big problem in today's society when the artist's picture is plastered all over the CD, jacket art, advertisements, music videos, etc.

      Hence, a video seeing the women singing would also be a problem.

      Granted, it's been a while since I was in that chabura, and the fellow giving it was only early 20-something anyway. I'll have to check out that shiur.

      PS - the women in the videos are also dancing, which may present its own halachic issues.

      PPS - There is a Gemara in Sotah that talks about a the young kohanim desiring an accused Sotah whose tunic is ripped to the point of leaving her torso bare. It elaborates that an inappropriate desire isn't created in a man unless they've seen the woman in person. My chevrusa and I found this hard to believe, given the amount of smut available nowadays where a guy will never be in the same room as the woman in question. We resolved for ourselves that this was written in an era where such print and video mediums didn't exist, hence that was the only way possible to create thoughts about women (I doubt woodcuts or crude paintings did the trick). We figured it may very well be different nowadays. We weren't determining psak halacha, just musing for ourselves.

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    2. In that shiur Rabbi YY talks about the frame of reference; back then, women and men were so segregated (yes, more than today!) that it didn't take much to excite men's fantasies. The most "tsniusdik" person nowadays, for instance, would be the biggest zonah back then. He says himself, "How many of you had had an impure thought from a woman singing?"

      I'm not determining psak either (obviously) but this may be a matter for what each person knows is their limits.

      Delete

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