THE TRICKLE-DOWN

Lipa Schmeltzer is a Hasidic singer-songwriter who has been called ‘the Jewish Elvis’.

[I just got the giggles then, I don’t know what’s funnier, his name or the Elvis reference. It’s a bit rude to laugh at people’s names but when I hear ‘Lipa Schmeltzer’ my brain thinks it heard ‘Lipid Schmaltz’, which is pretty funny, because schmaltz is a kind of fat, or lipid. Well, I think that’s funny. Moving right along.]

So I saw this recent video, ‘Hang Up the Phone’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvwpNkJd82w

which is quite catchy, and I confess I enjoyed the song and the slightly bizarre video. The basic message is pretty clear- we are too reliant on electronic gadgetry, and the irony is that the more we rely on our phones, the less we communicate face-to-face. The rest is rather heavy-handed analogies. The charm factor is raised by the Yiddish lyrics. How can you not love ‘Instead of searching Google, I’m busy making kugel’? Or ‘Mein futer hot nisht kein computer’? And 'Oy vey, gevalt, leig avek shoyn der phone!'?

Lipa and his friends are robots.  They come to life in the electronics store after dark. They dance and fool around with the other appliances. There is a robot DJ spinning discs. A little boy outside the shop sees what’s going on inside but can’t attract his Dad’s attention because- you guessed it- Dad is on his mobile. Lipa opens the door to the shop and some real, live Hassidim come dancing in, literally dancing rings around the robot Lipa. But then the rather hunky Hassidic ‘robots’, shedding their ‘futuristic’ robot armour, start breakdancing. I must say, good to watch. Sort of Hassidic eye candy. Can I say that? But not making sense, if a music video is supposed to make sense, that is. Is it a dance fight?

Then a little boy robot- who was flesh and blood earlier- starts to juggle with fire. Whoah! Heavy symbolism! Our children are playing with fire and are turning into robots! Then there’s an inexplicable cut to a spinning disco ball in which we see the mesmerized face of a child; it’s a quick cut and almost subliminal.

SO. This song is an indictment of the effects of rampant electronic consumerism on us all. Blackberries never used to grow in New York City, he sings, in Yiddish! Once upon a time, ‘i’ meant an ‘ay’, an egg, as in ‘ayer mit tzibbel’! And now we are robots, in thrall to our Blackberries and iPhones and iPads. And in the end it was all a terrible dream that Lipa tries to relate to his friend Donny, who isn’t listening because he is- correct- texting on his mobile.

OK! I actually think he has a point. But I can’t help thinking that he is walking a very narrow bridge as a Haredi performer  (‘Jewish Elvis’!?). And this is the fate of such a performer; you may have great appeal to the Haredim, but take one wrong step and you are plunged into Cheirem. He nearly fell into the abyss in 2008 when he was forced to cancel a concert in Madison Square Gardens after a full-page ad was taken out in the local Haredi rag, HaModia, prohibiting attendance of the concert AND forbidding hiring him or any of the singers involved ‘for any party, celebration or charity event’. This was signed by a number of rabbis. So Lipa cancelled because:

 “I have a career, I have a wife and kids to support, I have a mortgage to pay, I have to get out of the fire”.

As a result, the charity for which the concert was being performed lost a large sum of money. And then later on, it seems that at least one signatory rabbi recanted. Apparently, the Rabbis were given false information about Lipa, which they chose to believe. The power of Loshon Hora and bearing false witness.

Since then, he has released albums, performed at large concerts and generally, put everything back on track. All is forgiven, whatever the problem was in the first place.

I don’t envy Lipa, having to watch his back like that. And I think he should be careful with this video! I laugh at the irony of using technology to criticize the use of technology. I laugh at the trickle-down effect of American culture; how come breakdancing is kosher? Because it had its heyday in the 80’s? Why is techno-style music, with a DJ, noch, kosher? Because it’s also dated?  Why is auto-tune OK? I think it’s a bit dishonest, myself. I wonder what we are doing today that is not acceptable to Haredim, that will be acceptable in 20 years? Who knows.

And the last irony is that the Orthodox Jews are probably the only people who DO actually ‘hang up the phone’ for 25 hours, over Shabbos. And it’s a good thing.