If the WWW hadn’t asked me to write an article about an upcoming chamber music concert – where a Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Dovid Lipson, would be playing piano – I more than likely would never have considered attending, even if I had noticed the advertisement. Although I have enjoyed classical music occasionally in the past (Dvorak comes to mind), and I have a fairly eclectic taste in music, classical music wasn’t something on my usual “playlist.” But because music itself has been on my mind these past few months – I have been preparing various articles on the subject – I was eager to speak with yet another musician, particularly one who is a Rosh Kollel, who would surely offer unusual insights. What a privilege it was to even speak with such a person!
As it turns out, not only was the interview with Rabbi Lipson an enlightening and pleasant experience, but I even enjoyed the concert! Rabbi Lipson, Rosh Kollel of Kollel Aliyos Shlomo, an English-speaking institution in Jerusalem, told me that he had once written an ad for one of his U.S. concert tours, which read, “If you love classical music, or even if you only tolerate it, you’ll have a wonderful time at this concert.” And he was correct.
For those unfamiliar with Rabbi Lipson, this talented, world-class concert pianist doesn’t take time away from his busy kollel schedule merely to show off his incredible talent. The benefit concerts he gives in the lovely homes of generous people across the U.S. are for the purpose of raising money for his kollel. “I use the music because it is a way of connecting with people, and it’s a way of making friends,” he says. “From friends you can develop a financial base for a makom Torah.” And apparently, this one-of-a-kind fundraising method has added significantly to the kollel’s coffers. When he “did the books” for 2018, he found that the amount coming in from various sources came out to almost exactly the amount of that year’s expenses!
During this tour, Rabbi Lipson will be sharing his talents in Baltimore and Los Angeles as well as at a premier performance in Chicago. The beautiful home where Rabbi Lipson performed in Baltimore was that of Jason and Shani Reitberger. As Eli Schlossberg said, in his introduction, “This home is special, not just because it is spacious but because, in the Reitberger tradition, this home was built for chesed.”
From Piano Virtuoso to Rosh Kollel
Rabbi Lipson has been playing piano since he was a young child and even studied under Mischa Kottler, of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Even after he was forced to give up formal lessons with this Russian virtuoso, his love of the piano never left him, and he continued playing and learning from others. “Certain kids just have music pouring out of them,” he says. “You can’t stop them. I was one of them. I was so drawn to music that they couldn’t have stopped me if they had wanted to.”
He was therefore very lucky that when he entered Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld’s (zt”l) yeshiva, Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv he was encouraged by his rebbe to continue his playing and was always given opportunities to do so. Rabbi Freifeld was a great influence on Rabbi Lipson. “I was attracted by the learning itself. It was a fantastic experience, and Rabbi Freifeld was very inspirational. I learned the importance of learning and learned techniques. It became something I’ll never want to leave. He was a very strong inspirational influence.”
Kollel Aliyos Shlomo, founded around 20 years ago in memory of Rabbi Freifeld, is a relatively small kollel, and very particular about the type of students it admits. They must be high achieving bnei Torah to begin with who wish to be challenged even further with a highly-structured intensive program that includes sharing of chidushei Torah and periodic testing.
Rabbi Lipson said his kollel program is “not one where you stay in for six years or 10 years and then you have to leave. The program is available for whoever has a to’eles (can benefit) from it. There are people who have been in this kollel for 20 years,” he explains. “They started off in their 30s and are now in their 50s. I don’t care what age the person is. They just have to be young at heart.”
Many of the men learn in a second kollel in the afternoons and/or also teach. The wives usually work as well. When I asked Rabbi Lipson how they are able to support their families, he replies, “Everyone manages somehow. They manage to support themselves and marry off their grandchildren.”
Schubert’s the Thing
At the Baltimore concert, Rabbi Lipson was accompanied by two other extremely accomplished musicians: Dr. Ismar Gomes on the cello and Dr. William (Zev) Herzog on the violin, both of whom have earned doctorates in musical arts. The first time the three met and practiced together was only the day before the performance!
Rabbi Lipson marveled that one of the pieces they were playing by Schubert, his Opus 99, which is one of two piano trios that Schubert wrote in the last year of his life, is remarkable. Schubert was suffering from a terminal illness and knew he was dying. “He knew he had all this music inside. There were probably things that he still had inside of him that he never got to write.” Rabbi Lipson is awed by how musicians like Schubert could write so much complicated music. “I don’t know how they did it,” he said. “It’s a mystery how these musicians could even notate so much music! Some composed over 1,000 opuses, and each one has several pieces in it. Unbelievable.”
Rabbi Lipson avoided playing the Schubert Opus 99 for a long time, thinking that this one “was not for me.” He much preferred the Opus 100 which he calls “very sweet, an absolutely phenomenal piece” that “grabbed” him. However, after acquiescing to suggestions that he consider the Opus 99 and trying it, he found he loves this piece as much as the other one and now considers it magnificent as well. The second offering that evening was the Arensky Piano Trio Op. 32. “When I first heard it, it didn’t excite me,” says Rabbi Lipson. “But as I continued to play it more and more, I have found it, too, to be a magnificent masterpiece.”
Music for the Soul
Everyone intuitively understands the power of music, and there are many questions about the intersection of music and Yiddishkeit. I asked Rabbi Lipson whether he feels a spiritual pull when listening to music, whether religious or not. Rabbi Lipson responded, “As I learn a piece and I learn how to understand it and express it, there’s definitely a spiritual essence that can be felt if you learn how to feel it. You become attuned into it.” He points out, however, that music has a different effect when it comes to nigunim or davening. “They are all completely different. The music still affects the soul, but the neshama has many aspects to it.”
Interestingly, Rabbi Lipson says he is not interested in all classical music. “I’m not going to turn on the radio to listen to it. But there are certain pieces and certain composers who are considered the geniuses of all time in terms of music – they just have it! In the case of Brahms, almost everything he wrote is deep and spiritual and magnificent.”
Rabbi Lipson also thinks highly of Beethoven’s music, although Beethoven was apparently not a particularly nice person. “Beethoven had no control over his ka’as (anger),” says Rabbi Lipson. “Unfortunately, he was so into music that he didn’t have time to learn how to be a human being. But that didn’t stop him from being the kli (vessel) that Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent His spirituality through. Hashem has his own cheshbonos (calculations). We don’t know why He picked this person or that person.”
“Good” Music/“Bad” Music
Rabbi Lipson relates sources that speak about the essence of music and its effect, even music that seems far from spiritual. “Rav Shlomo Alkabetz, who wrote the Lecha Dodi, wrote a sefer called Manos HaLevi on Megillas Esther. He speaks at length about everything that goes on in the Megillah and points out if you look at the seuda (feast) of Achashveirosh, you’ll find that the seuda offered pleasant things for every other sense to enjoy, except for the sense of hearing. There is no mention of music. Rabbi Alkabetz says that is very strange. How could Achashveirosh, who was making the most elaborate banquet not include music? Who ever heard of such a thing?
“Rav Alkabetz’s answer is that there wasn’t any music at the banquet because his purpose was to be machshil the Jewish people to do aveiros (to entice them to fall into sin). That was one of the main ideas, because he knew that in the Jewish neshama, there is a kesher (connection) to music. If he had had music at his seuda, the Jews might have totally missed all the things that were being offered to attract them towards sinning. They would have been so transfixed by the music that they wouldn’t have noticed anything else, and all that work would have been for nothing.”
When I asked what if it had been “bad music” at the party. Rabbi Lipson said, “Even bad music. Every music has within it some spark of kedusha (holiness) that the Jewish soul can grab on to. Even this would have distracted him from all the other temptations.”
I found it interesting when Rabbi Lipson told me, “I personally do not like having background music in the house. Even if it’s classical, it’s too distracting. It’s too attractive, and it doesn’t allow you to use your mind. Music has its place but it should not fill our lives overly much.”
Teaching Music to Children
Because music has played such a big part in his life, I was wondering if Rabbi Lipson thought it would be a valuable subject to be taught in yeshivas. He didn’t think it was necessary as it takes away from Torah study. He was asked by a famous gvir, “What’s going to be with the Jewish people, what’s going to be with us? We’re too frum to study music. We’re going to lose instrumental music as a part of our lives!”
This is how Rabbi Lipson answered him: “To push kids into it just because everyone else does it or it’s a cultural thing, that doesn’t make sense. There will always be kids who are filled with music, and they will just do it. There’ll be no stopping them, and they will go places. I know from experience; no one ever forced me or asked me or pushed me to take piano lessons. It’s better that we don’t push everyone, because most of the people you are pushing are the wrong people. They don’t need to be in music. Kids who are drawn to it should be encouraged; you can’t even stop them. People who have music in their neshamas, those people will become musicians, and their parents should facilitate and help them.” He jokes that when he finds yeshiva bachurim who are musically inclined, he tells them that they should “keep it up…because maybe someday they’ll open a Kollel and use it as a way to raise money.”
I asked Rabbi Lipson what he thought about the direction that Jewish music was going. His answer highlighted for me his love and understanding of different types of Jews. “There are Jews coming in with different backgrounds and all different types of music, and they’re all sincere, and they are all expressing themselves musically in many different ways. So Jewish music has become much more eclectic and wide-ranging. For example, there’s Jewish rap music, and that’s what some people connect to; so that’s what it is. You know, everybody is different.
“There are all different kinds of shuls, and people gravitate to the shul that does something for them. Some shuls don’t have very much singing at all, and people go there because the singing doesn’t help them. And for other people, the music helps them along more than the words.”
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The Baltimore community is very fortunate to have families like the Reitbergers who offer their homes to be on Rabbi Lipson’s “circuit.” Anyone who missed him this year has something to look forward to next year, iy”H. Those who missed the opportunity to donate to this unique kollel can still do so at https://www.aliyosshlomo.org. They will be helping ensure that this year’s books will reflect an amount not just “almost equal” to the expenses but surpassing them, allowing the kollel to take in more students and become a full-time program, as it once was.
