He quotes the Maharsha's gloss on the Gemara in Berachos [57B] who explains that music [lit. "kol" or sound] calms a person, removing worries. He also cites the Malbim [Shmuel I, 16:14] that music has the power to heal depression.
These sources are notable because they do not provide any support for Rabbi Luft's thesis. They appear to be there just to up the scant number of Torah citations in this book.
On the negative effects of music, Rabbi Luft resorts to junk science and distortions. Here's a quote:
On the other hand, it has been found that wild noisy rock music has a serious influence on the heart-beat and its constant heavy rhythms have been found to change the heart to beat in accordance with the rock beat. This is the reason why many rock musicians die from heart attacks in their forties. Rock music has also been found to cause high blood pressure and also affects digestion [this can be felt at weddings where the bands play loud wild music, besides the pain to the ears, pressure can also be felt in the heart and stomach].Really? Rock musicians die in their forties due to merely to playing this music? Mick Jagger yochiach!
Rabbi Luft then quotes "former rock guitarist Bob Larson" who "in conjunction with a physician" describes the physical effects rock music has on the cerebral spinal fluid. The result: lacking enough blood sugar "ceases to function properly, causing moral inhibitions to either drop to a dangerous low or be wiped out altogether."
Apart from the absurdity of quoting an anonymous physician to give medical gravitas, this quote is also not relevant, as "former rock guitarist Bob Larson" himself has withdrawn these claims. In fact, Larson, a televangelist, has recanted his earlier views of rock and roll entirely and has even embraced "Heavy Metal" Christian music as appropriate. It is disingenuous for Rabbi Luft to quote Larson, when he renounced his thesis around thirty years ago, in the early eighties. You can find more about Bob Larson here.
Rabbi Luft then deploys another bit of "scientific evidence" to prove his point. This section is titled "The Influence On Plants" and features a description of experiments conducted by Mrs. Dorothy Retallack, wherein she "demonstrates" the effects of different music on household plants. Naturally, she found that rock music kills plants. Also, naturally, there is no documentation to back up her assertion. And, she appears to have had no scientific background whatsoever. Oh, and actual scientific research appears to have found the exact opposite result. The Straight Dope addresses her "findings":
"More recent work by four University of North Carolina scientists casts doubt on Mrs. Retallack's hypothesis. Their research indicates that 100 to 110 decibel noise (the equivalent of standing 100 feet from a 727 jet) will cause 100 percent more turnip seeds to germinate in 10 percent less time than with a control group. This suggests, of course, that a healthy jolt of industrial-strength heavy metal may be just the thing to invigorate your rutabagas."For a botany professor's take on the subject, here is ESCU Professor Ross Konig:
Plants have no ears to hear and no brain to process or develop musical taste or music appreciation...so any attempts to show relationships between music forms and growth or other responses have met with total failure in the hands of true scientists. This explains the lack of literature for you to read on the subject.In other words, Rabbi Luft is clearly using "junk science" here. Neither Dorothy Retallack nor Dr. T.C. Singh, who he also quotes to similar effect, have published any documentation of controlled experimentation proving their claims, let alone subjected their "research" to peer review. And, the scientific community does not support their contentions.
But what about those few articles and books that do make such claims?
Yes there are some quack "scientists" who have claimed that (in highly flawed experiments) certain kinds of music caused improvements in plant growth...but no such claims have met the rigor demanded for publication in respected journals. Such projects are often labeled "pseudoscience" because they fail to explain the control of critical variables, nor do they specify replication levels, nor do they show actual data or the results of statistical testing.
There really is not much good information about the effect of music on plants because all attempts to do controlled studies on plants and music result in "no difference". Any "differences" between a music treatment and a no-music control (or other-music treatment) in pseudoscience studies can almost always be attributed to some difference in other variables in the project which have not been suitably controlled (light, water, fertilizer, soil type, humidity, etc.).
Moreso, it is clear from his presentation that Rabbi Luft has no understanding of how scientific research is conducted. He seems to believe that every proposed theory fitting his world view is valid, irrespective of whether its proponent has provided legitimate evidence to that regard. That's not how scientific investigation works.
Junk science. Not exactly a compelling case for accepting Rabbi Luft's position.
Next up, Chapter 5: "The Influence On The Soul."
Here are my previous posts in this series:
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part I
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part II
"In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part III"
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part IIIa
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker"; Part IV
Blog in Dm: In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part V
UPDATE 2/1/09:
For your convenience, I have updated the posts in this series to include links to all of the posts on this topic.
Here are the links to all of the posts in this series:
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part I
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part II
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part III
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part IIIa
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part IV
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part V
In Review - Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part VI
In Review - R'; Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part VII
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part VIII
In Review - R' Ephraim Luft's "The Torah Is Not Hefker" Part IX
