Ben Yehuda Drummers and Sefira Music

This is a picture I took yesterday night in Ben Yehuda. These drummers keep playing for over 4 hours every Motze Shabbes and they've become part of this street's peculiar array of musicians. At some point a woman stormed in and started doing belly dancing, and although not all the drummers were religious, they immediately stopped playing. One of the things you can only see in Israel - hippies playing music not for stam partying but for Hash-m. Nice.

Incidentally, these drummers reminded me of another post I was planning to write about music in the Sefira. I gave up on that, because I got dragged to another issue, namely, listening to music during the WHOLE year. According to the foremost poskim, only drumming (hence the connection) is allowed and that is by the way the source of the old Jerusalemite minhag of not using full bands for weddings in the city - people only hire drummers. I was told that the Jews in Yemen used to be makpid and wouldn't listen to music throughout the year.

Anyways, one thing is clear - the music from the Ben Yehuda drummers is Kosher Lemehadrin.

(I refer you to this antique discussion in Hirhurim, which deals with this topic and has great comments)

Yemenite Music and Pronunciation

I saw this video (UPDATE: it was taken down from youtube for some reason, but the guy has another great one here) and I was very impressed. Numerous times I've heard about the distinctive "havara" of the Yemenite Jews but this is the first time I hear and understand what's being sung.

We have all heard that the Yemenite pronunciation is probably the most correct and precise from all Jewish sects. Evidently, the Ashkenazim have a very strong European flavor to their (our) liturgy and it's quite amusing to hear such a different reading.

One thing we got it right, it seems, - the "Kometz" pronunced as "shOlom", opposed to the Sephardi/Mizrachi version "shAlom".

I was once in Amsterdam and there's also a very unique havara there, quite similar to the German Jew's (Yekis) pronunciation. What stroke me in particular was the way the Baal Koreh pronounced Shevi'i (i.e."the seventh day") - he said SheviNi.

In the US (and UK), the Jews have also been heavily influenced by the English accent. So if the European havara was quite far from the original, so much more the English one. And so on.

When we "import" other music styles into Jewish Music, for instance, I think we are contributing with this phenomena and pushing our music further and further away from what it was. Possibly, that's a process we can't stop and it might just be part of life. But I surely hope my children will be listening and enjoying the same Nusach I sing every day.

But what's most important to keep in mind, and that's the reason I'm posting this, is to remember that there's no single truth when it comes to Havara. All of the different pronunciations are valid and should be carefully preserved.

You can listen to another Yemenite mizmor here.

PS: I once heard that one Ashkenazi Rishon hired a private tutor to learn the Sephardi havara after hearing that their Havara was more authentic. Anyone else heard this? Anyone knows the name of this Rabbi?