School Dance on the Sabbath

The Parent-Teachers Association of the temple pro vides parties at various times for the children of the school. In planning the after-school parties for the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades (from thirteen to fifteen years of age) the Committee wants to give a dance with orchestra or records. This, of course, will take place on Saturday, after lunch, in the temple building. There were some members of the Commit tee who felt that it might be wrong to give a school dance on Saturday. What then, if any, is the attitude of Jewish law on the question? (From Vigdor Kavaler, Executive Secretary, Rodef Shalom Temple, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

All questions involving the observance of the Sabbath in Reform temples are difficult to deal with, since the observance of the Sabbath in Reform (and, for that matter, in Conservative) temples is rather vague and is always undergoing considerable change. Therefore, we cannot expect consistency in the feelings of the people. For example, no member of the congregation would ever think of raising any objection to the clear violation of traditional Sabbath law involved in the transportation of children to the school or in the writing which the children do in the classroom. Yet this latter question has raised a considerable storm in the legal literature of the past century. Questions had been frequently raised as to whether a shochet who sends his child to a public school (this was in Europe) where the child must write on the Sabbath, is fit to continue as a shochet, and whether the animals which he has slaughtered can be accepted as kosher. Such questions would never come up in America in a modern congregation. Yet, inconsistently, the question arises with regard to the comparatively mild violation of the children dancing on the Sabbath. Perhaps this question arises in spite of the inconsistency involved because it is an innovation now being introduced, or because dancing is, after all, not essential. In any event, whatever questions our people raise with regard to honoring the Sabbath should be respected. Even if, then, it comes from a minority, at least we should not dismiss such questions with a simple affirmative or negative. It happens, also, that this question of dancing on the Sabbath finds considerable discussion in the Law, and thus on its own account is worthy of investigation. Even in the traditional sources it is evident that a balance is sought for between strict law and the desires and the feelings of the people.

The question of dancing on the Sabbath is bound up with the question of dancing on the festivals. The law is mentioned in the Mishnah (m. Beza V : 2) and says that we may not clap the hands or dance on the holiday. This law is applied a fortiori to the Sabbath. Therefore, this prohibition stated in the Mishnah is cited, virtually verbatim, twice in the Shulchan Aruch, once as a prohibition for the Sabbath (Orah Hayyim 339 : 3) and secondly for the festivals (ibid., 524). On the face of it, this is a clear prohibition. Yet, remarkably enough, the law having once been stated in the Mishnah is immediately set aside and deemed theoretical. The Talmud itself (b. Beza 30a) cites the Mishnah, “You may not clap the hands or slap the thighs or dance,” and immediately asks the question: “Why is it that we see the people do these very things, and yet we do not rebuke them for it?” To which the Talmud (see also Alfasi) replies: “Since they are going to clap their hands and dance anyhow, it is better not to rebuke them. Let them rather sin in innocence than presumptuously.” This is the source of that widely cited principle in the Law which permits the rabbis to yield to a widespread preference of the people.

It is evident that the people loved to dance (see Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages). He speaks of the Tanzhaus provided in the medieval ghettos for wedding dances and very likely for general dancing. This love of dancing led the people to dance even on the Sabbath and holidays, and the rabbis apparently put up only a token resistance even in Talmudic times. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries in France, there was virtually a conscious abolition of the law as such, as stated in the Mishnah. This is seen from the Tosfos to the Talmudic passage which calls attention to the fact that the Talmud gives a reason for the original prohibition of the Mishnah, namely, that if dancing had been permitted on Sabbath and holidays, it might lead to the repairing of a broken musical instrument, which is certainly a work prohibited on the Sabbath. However, the Tosfos says it is precisely for this reason that the law is no longer in force. Inasmuch as we, continues the Tosfos, are no longer skilled in the making and repairing of musical instruments, it becomes totally unnecessary to make this cautionary decree against the danger of repairing on the Sabbath. This statement of the Tosfos, virtually abolishing the law as an unneeded precaution, is then cited by Isserles in the Shulchan Aruch. After Joseph Caro formally states the law of prohibition against dancing as it is given in the Mishnah, he says as follows: “As for the fact that people dance nowadays and we do not protest against it, that is because it is better they should do so in ignorance” and so forth (quoting this from the Talmud), “and because some say that nowadays all of this is permitted since we are no longer skilled in instrument making. Therefore it is our custom to be lenient” (this he quotes from the Tosfos).

Thus it is clear that from almost the very beginning, dancing was permitted on the Sabbath and holidays, since there was not enough basis in the law itself for resisting the universal preference of the people.

However, for the sake of completeness, it must be stated that there were occasionally some puritanical voices raised against this popular amusement, but these objectors were hardly concerned with the fact that the dance was on the Sabbath or holiday (although they do not fail to mention the letter of the law). Their chief concern was an objection to dancing itself, especially mixed dancing. Thus, the strongest responsum against dancing was by Joseph Stein hart, Rabbi of Fuerth in the eighteenth century. In his responsa collection, “Zichron Yosef” 17, he is very indignant at the people’s habit of dancing on the festivals, and tells of all the sexual immorality that can spring from mixed dancing. He tells how, when he was Rabbi in Alsace, he was shocked at the people dancing in mixed dances and he protested to the government against it. He calls upon all rabbis to prohibit this sin of mixed dancing. Of course, many centuries earlier, the “Sefer Chasidim” (ed. Margolis, 168) objected to mixed dancing, but this puritanical objection was not especially effective, nor is it of much significance to us today (see also “Sha’ar Ephraim” 36, and David Cohen, of Corfu, “Redach” XII: 1).

Some objection may be raised (or felt) about the hiring of musicians for this dance on the Sabbath. In this regard, it is of interest to note that the great Rhineland authority, the Raviah (796), says that there is no prohibition to direct Christian musicians to play on the Sabbath. He refers, of course, specifically to wedding dances, because the wedding celebrations lasted a week and included the Sabbath. This statement of the Raviah is quoted with approval by the Mordecai, at the end of chapter 4 of (Alfasi) Beza, where he says that Alfasi himself decided thus at the end of the tractate “Eruvim.” Thus, there is no objection to hiring Gentile musicians who, of course, are not prohibited by the law from repairing an instrument on the Sabbath if that is necessary. Of course, while the hiring of Jewish musicians would thus be objectionable to the law, it is certain that our people would feel no sense of wrongdoing if they themselves used a phonograph to provide the music.

Thus it is clear that while there was a law in the Mishnah objecting to dancing and clapping the hands on the Sabbath, and while some few puritan-minded rabbis objected to mixed dancing, which led them to object to any dancing at all on Sabbath, festival, or weekday, nevertheless, from the very beginning the rabbis yielded to the people’s desires in this matter, and the Tosfos, and Isserles later, virtually abolished the prohibition.