Jewish law, Hasidic lore, and Hollywood legend: the cantor, the mystic, and the jurist

Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt was offered an opportunity that would make any performer swoon: a star role in the ground-breaking film The Jazz Singer (1927). Yet Rosenblatt refused this artistic opportunity of a lifetime. This paper contextualizes Rosenblatt’s baffling decision, by exploring one possible relationship between the arts and law; in this case--the art of storytelling and the Jewish legal system. The study demonstrates where the two pursuits tread separate, unlinked paths to a common end. This vector is refracted through the lens of liturgical performances outside the religious synagogue service; specifically the propriety of cantorial concerts featuring prayers from the High Holy Days. This issue is addressed in legal writing and in storytelling, each modality using its own tools to tackle the trend. It is noted that legal systems without effective enforcement mechanisms--such as Jewish law in the late modern period--could use arts as compensatory media for achieving societal order. More significantly, however, arts and law are not umbilically connected; each cultural creation independently strives to fashion society.