Halachot for the DJ
This brilliant work by Guy Emanuel translated from its original french (“Les Halachot pour le DJ”) in 1945 really gets into the ins and outs of the halachik (Jewish laws) issues in regards to DJing. The first chapter discusses Kol Isha (the womens voice) and how some say it is permissible on a patiphone (turntable) to broadcast said voice to oneself or an audience since a, the soul does not translate through this medium. b, since the specific restriction only applies to a situation in which the person is being presented with simultaneous visual and audio of said person in the flesh. The next chapter deals with the concept of a “fence around the Torah” and applies it to DJing in general. The concept is stressed in the fact that most DJs transition into becoming producers. The issue here is that hip-hop and electronic producers generally derive most of their source material from previously recorded music which is ripe with copyright issues. The main problem here is that the production generally contains so many samples that the DJ could not possible clear these copyrights and so the tracks are full of elements that were not granted to the DJ for use. The fence here would be DJing since inside of it is the desire to use material without permission and so some say that it is not permissible to DJ because of what it would bring said person to do. The subsequent chapters have titles like, “separating the sexes at DJ parties” and “how to mix in a bit of your Rabbi’s class into a heavy funk instrumental”
