Re: Kol ishah

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Jonathan,

Can you direct us to the rabbinic sources where can we read about the
development of the principles concerning Kol Ishah?

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Schorsch <jonjack (at) uclink4(dot)berkeley(dot)edu>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Friday, September 24, 1999 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: Kol ishah


>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had concert offers withdrawn or cancelled here in Toronto (never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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