Mail Archive sponsored by
Chazzanut Online
jewish-music
re: kol isha
- From: ganzl azoi freyl <d6l...>
- Subject: re: kol isha
- Date: Mon 27 Sep 1999 15.47 (GMT)
before i dive into this conversation, i probably should introduce myself,
since i've been lurking on this list for a while without saying anything...
my name is daniel lang; i'm more a theater than music person at this point
(puppetry, movement, etc), though i'm working at a jewish-music booking
agency. i think my religious and political attachments will come through
fine in this post, so i won't go into that now.
two days away from the computer at work and there's so much to respond
to....
first, the issue of change over time in religious practice seems to me
to be one of the most important ones. to say 'kol isha is a time-honored
part of the tradition and we can't expect it to change overnight' is of
course true as a pragmatic tactical point, but as part of this discussion
(which is not a conversation about the best way to go about overturning kol
isha) it's purely an excuse for inaction and not challenging the
so-called-orthodox position. it might be worth mentioning that slavery and
polygyny were part of the same mainstream rabbinic tradition that gave us
kol isha....they are not now part of jewish life because they were
challenged both through halakhic and non-halakhic channels. but they also
went the way of the dinosaurs because of influences from non-jewish
practice, which was also moving towards a marginally more egalitarian
position (though both slavery and marriage practices which hurt women are
still with us, the latter at least in judaism as in the rest of the world).
it doesn't appear to me, in any case, that most current supporters of kol
isha hold "carefully arrived at positions based on differeing
interpretations of text" <jordan>. the perpetuation of the doctrine seems
more like an un-examined clinging to past practice that can be justified
within 'orthodoxy' only because other interpretations of the texts are never
even mentioned.
related to the question of change:
eliott and steve's posts both set up an equation in which the pro-
kol isha position stands for a "revered and important" <steve> "authentic
beauty" <eliott>, and the anti-kol isha position is a "PC religious fad".
this attempt to declare so-called-orthodox practice to be the one and only
way to be truly, authentically jewish is not only absurd, it's downright
insulting -- akin to referring to women who believe that judaism should be
egalitarian as shikses.
this is the _only_ period in jewish history when one strain of jewish
practice has succeeded in getting so complete a hold on jews' ideas of
authenticity. even in the high rabbinic period, there were three or four
main strains (not counting the karaites) of practice, and of course with
post-rabbinic regional variations there were many more for most of the time
since. but the only groups that have declared the others to be non-jews
(either explicitly or by refusing to perform marriages and recognise
conversions) are the contemporary 'orthodox' and haredim.
but the really troubling thing (besides the support for an
unchallenged kol isha) that i found in these posts -- and one which seems
quite relevant to this list -- is the seemingly unexamined opinion that the
choice for jews is fundamentally between assimilation/disappearance and
so-called-orthodoxy. i'm third-generation secular myself, and like the rest
of my family very strong in my jewish identity -- one which has very little
to do with the religion of judaism in any direct way. and part of that
identity is jewish music, from 'dona dona dona' to 'di sapozkelakh' to
'dayenu' to dylan. it seems to me that over the years we (both my family
and jews in general) have found ways of preserving our cultural distinctness
without restricting ourselves to the often-problematic (and i mean sexism
here, not the difficulty of finding a glat-kosher thai restaurant) halakhic
stipulations, and without even using them to "root us" (as steve claims we
must).
i'd argue that the vigorous life of (secular) jewish musics (most of which
are immoral, if not worse, by so-called-orthodox halakhic standards)
demonstrates this perfectly. and all the more so because it is so often
expressed in the voices of women, who have been so firmly excluded from full
participation in jewish life by religious authorities.
and i guess that's my two bits (inflation being what it is)
zayt gezunt
daniel
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
- Re: Kol Isha, (continued)
- Re: Kol Isha,
KLEZMER313
- Kol Isha,
PabloAzure
- Re: Kol Isha,
TROMBAEDU
- Re: Kol Isha,
TROMBAEDU
- RE: Kol Isha,
Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky
- Re: Kol Isha,
TROMBAEDU
- RE: Kol Isha,
Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky
- Re: Kol Isha,
TROMBAEDU
- RE: Kol Isha,
Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky
- KOL ISHA,
robert wiener
- re: kol isha,
ganzl azoi freyl
- Re: Kol Isha,
Hayyim Feldman