Re: Kol Isha: excellent sources in English

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

thank you Robert:
It's important to hear about the whole "megillah" of options as it where!
Gut Shabbos!
Trudi the G


>From: "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Kol Isha:  excellent sources in English
>Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 15:14:43 PDT
>
>Though I've enjoyed (after catching up) the discussion on kol isha--and,
>frankly, I find the idea that such a discussion doesn't belong on this list
>a little bizarre!--I've also been struck by the considerable ignorance
>reflected of the actual Jewish legal background on this issue.  "There is
>[no] room or opportunity for discussion"--Wrong (or, as the kids say,
>"NOT").  "This is an inflexible ruling and there are no mixed choirs for
>Orthodox"--wrong on both counts.  Jonathan has helped, much, w/ some
>sources, and Bob W., in his usual sensitive fashion, discerned that there
>was apparntly "some differentiation" (even) within Orthodox circles.
>Indeed. Though I'm decidedly _not_ an apologist or defender on this issue,
>about which I'm in reality quite impatient (it seems to me that in my
>lifetime, women have been far more unhinged by the singing of Sinatra,
>Elvis, the Beatles, David Bowie, Tom Jones [!!], etc., etc., etc., than
>_any_ man has been by a woman's singing!)--and, though, obviously, those
>objecting to (variably applied--see below) kol isha restrictions, or
>personally injured  by them, may well retain their objections and anger,
>still, our discussion should be an informed one. Herewith, three superb
>sources in English on the sources and diverse interpretation and 
>application
>of kol isha:
>                                                    1) Saul Berman, "Kol
>Isha," article in the Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume--I will 
>look
>into wider availability.  A comprehensive treatment of the exegesis of this
>concept; Rabbi Berman, with characteristic subtlety and lucidity, explores
>the precise nature, context, and scope of what restrictions have been
>imposed, when, by whom, on what basis, and w/ what (often substantial)
>dissent and (quite liberal to quite restrictive) variability--as well as
>possible grounds for suspension of such restrictions altogether. R. Berman
>elucidates the thin basis in the Talmud, and in the history and origins of
>kol isha, for the restrictions that have developed (and, indeed, perhaps,
>for much or most of the accreted law of kol isha) and refers to the
>existence of substantial dissent re such stringencies as listening to
>recorded women's voices and mixed choirs.
>                                                   2) Reuven Kimelman,
>cassette recording of presentation at 1997 International Conference on
>Feminism and Orthodoxy:  a typically (for this brilliant teacher) rigorous
>analysis of the exact and variable meanings and implications (e..g, for
>zemirot, Megilat Esther) of the sources for kol isha.   Funny in parts, 
>too.
>
>                    3) David Bleich, Contemporary Halachic Problems, volume
>II, pp. 147-52:  elucidates the substantial variability of Orthodox 
>halachic
>opinions in re, e.g., mixed choirs, mixed singing of zemirot, and listening
>to women's voices on recordings or on the radio.  (Thus, the otherwise
>genial radio guy who would only play tracks from Wolf's CD that had no
>women's voices--even on background harmony vocals--was catering to a very
>stringent, far from normative, view.)  Bleich is, laughably, far from a
>liberal voice in such matters (unlike, e.g., R. Berman), but does expound
>halacha, in my experience, w/ unyielding integrity (as opposed to pandering
>to whatever right-wing political trend has swept the Orthodox world--e.g.,
>in re capital punishment); that he demonstrates a wide range of
>proscriptions _proves_ that there is such a range.
>
>                              I hope these sources prove useful for those
>interested in studying the issue--and I may have one other one to supply in
>a few days.--Robert Cohen
>
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