A week or two ago there was a news article that became a bit of a sensation... it was about a wedding in Bnei Braq during which the bride went up on the stage and started playing the drums for a bit. Obviously this was a bit unusual and exciting. Personally I did not think much of it - I have seen similar at many weddings (sometimes it is the drums, sometimes the keyboard or the guitar, and I have seen it with the violin), even though it is a bit unusual and exciting when it happens. While fun and exciting, it does not seem overly newsworthy to me.The news item went viral and some in the Haredi community got very upset about this saying ti is immodest and inappropriate and it made some waves..
Today it was announced that in light of that incident new rules are being put into place to avoid such situations in the future.
The Eida Hachareidis is requiring the band that allowed the bride to play the drums to sign a letter of apology with a commitment to not allow such a thing to happen again. They have agreed, and made a "kinyan" to that effect, that if it should happen again they agree in advance that it can be publicized to prohibit hiring them as a band for events.
This seems a bit draconian. I am not quite sure how this is so different than the "mitzva tanz" so common at Haredi, especially hassidic, weddings. The Eida should ban the mitzva tanz as well, insist all hassidic rebbes and groups not allow such incidents and not participate in them as it is immodest for the bride to appear and dance in front of the men. The kalla should not be allowed in front of the men at all. They should have a stand-in at the chupa, cancel the mitzva tanz and all weddings should be men only - let the women stay home and have a little get together in the house while the men go to the wedding hall to celebrate.
I am also not sure what the Eida's involvement here is. Perhaps they give a hechsher to the wedding hall the specific wedding took place in? I am not sure why they are involved at all and what power they have here over the band?
Regardless of that, the band is now enjoying, for the moment at least, the ability to tell people they are currently the first, and so far only, band to be playing with the hechsher of the Eida Hachareidis...perhaps this means the Eida is about to branch out and now require all bands be approved by them (or other organizations) and create a new hechsher for bands...
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