Limud HaTorah has, Boruch Hashem, come a long way in America. So much so that the Kol Torah emanating from the American yeshivas brings back memories to those who merited to learn in pre-war Europe.
But what about the sound effects?
What, exactly, is the origin of much of the noise that intrudes into the cacophony of voices that blend into a Kol Torah? Read the word noise as a catch phrase for the various types of drumming that sometimes assaults the sensibilities and disturbs the learning of those in the beis medrash who are somewhat rhythmically inclined.
This is not the drumming on shtenders that was heard in the European yeshivas. We’re talking hands here, not fingers, and this phenomenon is strictly American, by way of Africa and Latin America. And not just plain hands either. These are fast hands that move to the beat of a different drummer, literally that is, not metaphorically, and their owners run the gamut from the weaker bochurim to some of the very best, because who but a serious bocher with Brisk on his screen is going to be banging away in the beis medrash at 3:00 A.M.?
But no one seems to see the incongruity of all of this. Here we have good boys with rock solid hashkafas, boys who would never give so much as a thought to take a look at a secular newspaper much less actually read one, listen to a treife music CD, or even grab the news from the radio. And yet, these same boys don’t think twice about bringing the Street in to the beis medrash in the guise of their hands. The truth is that they don’t even think once, because if they did, we would be hearing the Kol Torah without the accompaniment.
And what exactly is the Street that they are shlepping, unawares into the beis medrash? It’s the syncopation that still survives from the earliest forms of jazz. It’s the Cuban Son and Salsa, and it’s the Acid, Punk, Hard, Heavy Metal, and more current varieties of rock that have taken up residence in their hands.
But why the hands?
One of the strengths of this generation is that good bochurim, such as these, are assiduous in their pursuit of perfection. Be it shiurim, vaadim, or shmuzim on any of the sifrei mussar, they are constantly being exhorted to watch their eyes, their mouths, and their ears. And to their credit, most do.
Left without much wiggle room, the Yetzer Hora found an opening by way of their hands when everyone was looking the other way. In a stealthy ride under the radar, the Yetzer strutted into the beis medrash undetected, and there he remains in the syncopated rhythms that punctuate the Kol Torah in counterpoint.
