Re: Kol ishah

[Jonathan Schorsch <jonjack...>]

Even as a man, I quite agree with and share Judith's feelings.
Incidentally, the issue of a man hearing a woman's voice (kol isha) goes
back to rabbinic texts.  As usual, the original proscription widened and
widened with time; it was a saying of one particular rabbi and had to do
only with the problem of a man being distracted while trying to say the
She'ma by hearing a woman singing.  This was expanded to encompass ANY
hearing by a man of a woman singing.  By the way, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, z"l,
HATED this pseudo-issue and I heard him argue vehemently (in his usual
style, even viciously) against its stupidity and a-halakhic presumptuousness.

Jonathan Schorsch


At 03:20 AM 9/24/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Lynn asks how we feel about this - I guess "feel" is the word here, since 
>how I feel about it isn't necessarily how I THINK about it.How I THINK about 
>it is my nice, value-expurgated, tolerant, ethnomusicologist way.  But how I 
>FEEL  about it is the same  negative way I feel about the many times I've 
>had concert offers withdrawn or cancelled here in Toronto (never mind the 
>times the offers simply haven't been there for the same reason) because of 
>Kol Ishah. I am furious about it. If men feel spiritually feeble enough that 
>listening would be detrimental to them, they needn't come. (read both 
>Maimonides and the Muslim Al-Ghazzali on the issue; both exist in English 
>translation).
>This contradiction is not limited, for me, to this issue - does anyone else 
>have a similar set of reactions? Judith


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