women's choices

[Judith Cohen <judithc...>]

Way to go, Lori!! 
>..... If I understand correctly, there is nothing
> in the Tanach that prohibits men from hearing women sing during specific 
> prayers
> or any other time.  At some point in history, some man was distracted by a 
> woman's
> voice and decided to make it a law to not hear it.  It is always a goal in 
> prayer
> that one's kavanah be centered wholly on the prayer, but so many things might
> distract any person.  Maybe this man had a personal problem, but that was way
> before Freud, so he had an alternate, testosterone-empowered way of dealing 
> with
> it - rub it out.  From my admittedly incomplete studies, I don't believe this 
> was
> an original intention of our maker.  The laws of Judaism, while enlightened 
> as to
> Humanity, can be repressive to women and this, again IMHO, was a male
> interpretation of the divine intention.  We are imperfect and have not 
> represented
> perfection perfectly.  It is up to humanity to strive for continual 
> approximation
> of this perfection.  Mistakes should be corrected; apologies and retribution 
> made
> to those wronged.  That is the Jewish way.

Lori, you said this much more efficiently and much more politely than I
was preparing to say it when I scrolled down and reached your message! I
would need to borrow Wolf's hard hat if I said everything which occurs
to me! (and about it's needing to be black - a sight indelibly engraved
on my memory is that of tall, dignified Orthodox men on a rainy day in
Mea Shearim, with their black hats carefully protected by plastic
grocery bags in gentle hues of pink and pastel blue.) Judith

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