Re: kol isha--redux!

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

>In Exodus 15, starting at verse 20, we have the recounting
>of Miriam's leading the Israelites in song, instrumental music,
>and dance.  Actually the Isaraelites are identified by the pronoun
>"them", which loses gender specificity in English.  In the Hebrew
>in verse 21 the phrase is "vata'an lahem Miryam".  "lahem" is
>the third person plural *masculine* pronoun, and in Hebrew if
>the object described by that pronoun is mixed gender, then the
>masculine pronoun is used.
>
>It could not have been simply a women's group because then the pronoun
>would have been lahen, not lahem.  Far smaller points of practice
>than this have been determined on even less that the difference of
>a single letter, a nun vs a mem.  Yet this "smoking gun" is never
>brought into the argument.


The language of the Torah is actually ambiguous:  It first says (v. 20) that 
"Miriam ... took the drum [tof] in her hand and all the women [nashim] went 
after her with drums and with dances [or flutes]."  The next verse has 
Miriam speaking to them--lahem, which indicates a mixed group.

This is indeed an intriguing and _vort_, an intriguing point of departure 
for commentary and, perhaps, implications; I believe that at least one 
traditional commentator--I can't find the name now--suggested that Miriam 
may indeed have chanted to both the men and the women, or led them both in 
song.

It's a very well taken point, but the petulance of this posting is otherwise 
most off-putting.  The subject of kol isha has, in fact, not been 
perpetually discussed on this list; in fact, it hasn't been raised for a 
while, and I did so because a source I referred to long ago was finally made 
available on the Web (perhaps because I kept nagging for that to happen, but 
no necessary connection ...).

But in any case, the Torah and its proper interpretation and 
understanding--and its implications for our lives--are indeed and have 
indeed been the subject of "pereptual" discussion amongst the Jewish people, 
thank G*d, and may that continue to be so--at least until Messiah comes.

--Robert Cohen


>I dropped off the list because I'm overly annoyed with the
>perpetual kol isha discussion....For all the sources in the article,
>...I find one striking omission, even granting
>that we are (thank God) rabbinical Jews, not Biblical Jews.


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