Dear Chaim,
a couple of weeks ago you took a very strong stance against Jews listening to Christmas carols. While I agree in some way, I wonder what you think of the following:
I get hired very often to play piano gigs - some of these events would be "Christmas parties" and the like, where I'd get $200 or $300 to play carols for an hour, or 90 minutes. To me, the carols are just notes on a page that I sight-read out of a book. I don't see the harm in that. People might call them "the First Noel", or "Jingle Bells", but I think of them as "F major, 3/4 time", or "G major, 4/4 time". While my friends would be out working jobs for 8 or 10 bucks an hour, I would get paid 10 times that for doing something that required almost 0 effort.
if, Baruch Ha-Shem, I have a talent such as being able to easily sight read piano music, should I turn down very lucrative gigs because they involve playing Christmas music? Again, to me the songs are just notes on a page, in a given key, with a given meter, and a given melodic/harmonic profile. I don't care for the lyrics or the message. Is this bad?
Toda Raba Chaim!
Gimatria