Banging On the Table

It's a good thing that Gil keeps posting fresh stuff because I haven't posted about anything particularly new or fresh in a while.

He recently posted a short article by Ari Enkin on the permissibility of dancing, clapping, banging and using musical instruments on Shabbos. While everyone agrees that the use of musical instruments is impermissible, there is disagreement on dancing, clapping and banging on tables to the beat of music (although admittedly, the arguments for being maikel may not be the strongest intellectual halachic arguments I've seen).

Gil, the card-carrying Litvak, posted in a comment that he does not permit table-banging at his home. I posted, "What a surprise."

What I really meant to say is that we each have to decide what's important and what's not but, for my money, I will risk the wrath of G-d by being maikel on this issue. I will continue banging on my table and encourage my children to bang on the table because, in the long run, I think that they will be more influenced by heartzige Shabbos niggunim than by intellectual discussions like why it is not permissible to bang the table on Shabbos.

(And, of course, we go to a shul where dancing in the aisle is a weekly event and banging your shtender is almost a requirement).