Re: Jewish music performance series/tcg

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

Patience but not passivity. HaShem helps those that shake things up.
I have great reverence for the Orthodoxy, because they keep true Torah 
alive...but as I see it HaShem's making me a woman is also true Torah..and 
HaShem gave me a voice to sing with to boot.
If God doesn't want me to sing God will tell me so. Not some  man or woman 
quoting intent from the commentaries or otherwise.


>From: "Kame'a Media" <media (at) kamea(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Re: Jewish music performance series
>Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 10:42:04 -0400
>
>
>
>Marvin wrote:
>
> > I see it as a remnant of the past that will change in time.  In America,
> > most affiliated Jews are in Conservative and Reform congregations that
> > accept women in all roles, including rabbis and cantors.  It is natural 
>that
> > the Orthodox will change more slowly, but it will happen.  Meanwhile,
> > patience is called for and gentle persuasion.
>
>I appreciate your optimism,  although I do not share it,
>as far as the Orthodox are concerned.
>
>
>If I may be permitted to draw a parallel  that comes to mind:
>In several Islamic countries, where women are made to wear the <chador>
>(a head-to-toe heavy cloth covering) whenever they appear in public --
>progress for women is measured in the enlargement of the mesh that covers 
>the
>face,
>moving from just one eye "exposed", to both.
>This and the new contemporary and fashionably-cut <chadors>.
>In Afghanistan, poor women without <chadors>, cannot leave their homes.
>For any reason.
>
>I don't see the orthodox just throwing out the rules of <kol isha>.
>They might "amend" them in time -- although I can't help but wonder what
>Byzantine regulations will be instituted in their place.
>
>I remember the journalist Oriana Falacci, who,
>wearing a head and face-covering, -- once cameras were in place--
>told the subject of her interview,  the Ayatollah Khomeini:
>"I'm taking this (the chador) off right now", much to his aghast.
>
>I don't know if the sight Ms. Falacci's face and hair compelled the 
>Ayatollah
>go out and commit an indecent act or not, although he did appear to me to 
>be
>grinding his teeth, if that means anything.
>
>For me, the late Ayatollah and <l'havdil> the orthodox men who are guided
>by issues of <kol isha> inhabit similar mental landscapes.
>
>I can't  think of a historical situation (perhaps excepting Vaclav Havel's
>Velvet Revolution)  where patience and gentle persuasion ever accomplished
>anything.
>Unfortunately.
>
>
> > One response is to see it as an admission that some men aren't able to
> > control their emotions.  I feel sorry for them.
>
>Well and good, but leaving it at that is no solution and does nothing
>for those who are routinely and uncomfortably subjected to these rules.
>The self-loathing and  loss of self-esteem experienced by girls in these
>communities must be monumental.  Not to mention the acquired collective
>neuroses  of the menfolk.  You have only to ponder the subtext beneath it 
>all.
>  As the man said to Pee-Wee Herman:"Whatsa matter; you don't have a VCR at
>home?"
>
>No disrespect intended to anyone;
>Moslems, orthodox Jews, Pee Wee Herman,
>-- their employees, families and fans included.
>
>Wolf
>
>
>

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