Re: Kol Isha - erotically

[Sylvie Braitman <curlySylvie...>]

Dear Alex,
This is a very interesting message. I agree that the arousing issue is a
real one. I often feel we live in a world where women are TOO unveiled, and
physical apearance is a marketing tool (for men also actually).
 But what about my arousal when I hear a beautiful cantorial male voice? And
if the cantor happens to be handsome, what do I do? I do not want to imply
that male and female sexualities are identical. But is is not fair that we
should sigh and suffer when males can be spared the pain (or delight) of
arousal...
 When I last performed for the Holocaust Center in San Francisco, a man in
the audience, dressed as a khassid, sat and just bowed his head in order not
to look at me. Or was he just sad?
Sylvie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Jacobowitz" <alexbjacobowitz (at) yahoo(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 12:21 AM
Subject: Kol Isha - erotically


> B"H Munich
>
> Good morning,
>
> Some of the posts I´ve seen recently on this
> issue have indeed forwarded the discussion,
> if not the debate. The present thread seems
> to touch a few points about classical/traditional
> Judaism. Additionally:
>
> Erotic "imagery" isn´t eroticism; if it were,
> there would be little need for imagery.
> Anthropomorphic images in Judaism are a means of
> putting a "human" face on the divine - we don´t
> take them literally (though many Christians do),
> and the same goes for our "erotic" liturgy.
>
> When viewed spiritually, why not count
> the physical (erotic) imagery as divine metaphor?
> That is, shuckling isn´t Ersatz Sex; rather,
> sex is ersatz shuckling? Seeing only what´s
> immediately visible is boring, and ultimately
> counter-productive, to informed Judaism.
>
> Biblical text is (B"H) so variegated that one
> can read in or read out almost whatever message
> one chooses. THAT´s why we´ve needed hard-and-fast
> legislation from the get-go. The Tora acts as
> (lehavdil) our constitution, and rabbis are
> in fact our legislature. And ignoring a law
> doesn´t invalidate it - on the contrary, it
> obviates the need to again discuss and confirm
> its existence, to the bewilderment of some,
> and to the benefit of all.
>
> Nor is the "Kol Isha" law by any means the only form
> of "separation" in Judaism. We separate Shabbos from
> the week, in that playing music (for the time being)
> is forbidden. We separate men from women
> (or, if you like, women from men) with a mechitza
> during the Avoda Kedosha for the sake of approaching
> the divine, i.e., trying to leave the physical behind.
>
> (This goes back to the receiving of the Tora,
> where we read in the Midrash that the men were
> separated from the women for three days prior.)
>
> We are required to dress modestly at all times,
> but particularly during the Avoda Kedosha. Why?
> To support the concentration (or, if you like,
> holy intercourse) by deleting the superfluous.
> And it´s quite likely that this was the
> context of the Kol Isha´s provenance. If
> women were (are) exempt from davening, then
> listening to women´s voices during a man´s davening
> could only have been considered a distraction. At the
> time, these laws were made, may I point out that
> concerts as such didn´t exist, and instrumental
> music was banned in most Jewish communities,
> with only particular exceptions: weddings
> or funerals, for instance. And with time, the
> general public decided to ignore the ban
> on instruments, creating their own "halacha vivendi".
> This process of change is happening in similar areas
> of observance, though faster in our generation,
> in many cases so fast that many Jews don´t even
> have time to learn what the law is, or was; they´re
> too busy reestablishing a new "praxis". And
> Kol Isha is part of this new practice.
>
> An important question: will the Kol Isha issue
> be able to be settled within the context of
> Orthodoxy? Or only from without?
>
> Why hasn´t anyone written about the hard fact,
> that a woman singing in public is for many men
> a turn-on, a "spinning in the marketplace"?
> Why hasn´t anyone complained, that men don´t
> want to be aroused, or women to arouse? Why hasn´t
> anyone forwarded the solution of Bruria,
> who taught Tora from behind a barrier?
>
> I fear that too many of us actually enjoy
> being aroused, or enjoy arousing, to protest
> too much. And if anyone chooses to answer
> "that´s the men´s problem", well, what happens
> when a woman on stage decides she wants to
> show more skin than halacha would allow? "Well",
> shall we say, "that´s show business"?
>
> Most succinctly, at what point do we -
> as a community - draw the line? Has no one
> here ever received fan mail? Has no one
> here experienced an enthralled listener with
> that look in his or her eye? Are we all
> really ignorant of the effect our music
> has on our listeners, holy as well as provocative?
>
> Alex Jacobowitz
>
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