When the Jewish people went out to war, the Kohen would give them words of encouragement and tell them not to be afraid, not to tremble, not to panic and not to become weak hearted.  The Gemara says that there are four terms used here because the Gentile nations would use four methods of frightening the Jews: by screaming; by blowing shofar; by clanging their weapons together; and by making their horses stamp their hooves loudly.  We see from here how loud noises could shake up a person and make him lose his equilibrium.  During World War II, the enemy used to fire bombs known as “Screaming Mimis,” which would terrorize the soldiers.

 

         The evil inclination uses everything he could in his arsenal.  When we hear the deafening sounds which society calls music, it enters our soul and has the power to shake us up.  Recently, while I was stopped at a traffic light, my car began to shake and I wondered what could be wrong, until I realized that the car next to me had his radio on so loud and the sounds were so powerful that they actually caused a car next to it to vibrate!  Music has the ability to inspire and to elevate a person closer to Hashem, provided it is pure and sweet. What the world now treats as music is closer to cacophony which incites feelings and emotions in a person that will not get him closer to Hashem.

          We have to be judicious in what we let enter our ears and especially those of our kids.  (I am not even speaking of some of the lyrics which are downright vulgar and offensive.)  The sounds we hear affect us tremendously and we don’t realize the extent and the long term effect it could have on us.  If the Torah emphasizes the hazards that it had on Jewish soldiers, we could readily understand why the yetzer hara (evil inclination) made a whole industry out of it.  Let us hear only the music that will inspire us to greater heights of sensitivity.

 

Rabbi Shmuel Choueka