Re: kol isha: some perspective?

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

I have two responses to Judith's lament redux:

1) I posted as web link to Rabbi Berman's article, once it became available 
(and, as I mentioned, I kept nagging until it *became* available!) because 
it reflects how un-hard-and-fast this halacha is; how poorly grounded in 
historical halachic development--though that may not be a fair rendition of 
Rabbi Berman's teaching; and how variable it is, surely, in interpretation.  
I wish it were more widely distributed in the Orthodox world--and, 
specifically, among those who feel governed and restricted by kol isha 
restrictions.  Perhaps a few--even if not many--would rethink their 
objection or apply it in more limited contexts.

2) That being said--and I'm not going to restate, at any length, my own 
dubious views about this halacha and my own considerable support for Jewish 
women's music; I regret these obstacles continually being put, apparently, 
in Judith's musical and professional path--I think it's gratuitously 
disrespectful to refer to men's, or rabbis', observing what they believe are 
the restrictions mandated by kol isha because they doubt their "internal 
strength or moral fibre" or their ability to withstand "succumbing to base 
impulses."  Neither has anything to do with why most Orthodox men who 
observe the kol isha restrictions as they understand them, observe them.  
They observe them, pure and simple, because they feel obligated to--in 
accordance with a structure of obligations which governs their entire 
life-style.

Don't judge another without putting yourself in their place.

--Robert Cohen

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