Kol Isha: male participation; percentage; liberation

[Fred Blumenthal <xd2fabl...>]

I apologize for my time-delayed response, but I get the ListServ in digest 
form, and today (Tuesday) am catching up on posts from this weekend and 
yesterday. 

The thought was expressed that arguments against Kol Isha were coming 
entirely or mostly from women, and I deeply regret that.  I'm a frequent 
contributor to this ListServ, and my contributions may even be too 
frequent, but I apologize if I haven't expressed my thoughts on Kol Isha. 

It's a "quaint and curious" custom whose place in Jewish history seems to 
be exaggerated by this discussion.  Ari Davidow has mentioned there being 
500 people in the List.  Seemingly the vast majority don't correspond, and 
similarly, I suspect, the vast majority don't support this woman-bashing 
rule.  I doubt if a straw poll will be conducted, but what number or 
percentage of correspondents do you think are sustaining the pro-Kol Isha 
side of the argument? 

At an Orthodox bas mitzvah I found it unfair that the girl had obviously 
studied as hard as her male colleagues, but was only allowed to give a 
divrei Torah at the kiddush.  Many women rabbis and cantors are credited 
with a kavenah that few males achieve, and the name "Shirah," Hebrew for 
song, is a girl's/woman's name.  Most posts to this ListServ are concerned 
with secular klezmer music, much of which features women singing, and my 
question about whether women in the congregation sing on the other side of 
the mechitzah went unanswered.  One wonders how (or if) those who advocate 
and even enforce this rule get through life without hearing women sing on 
the radio, on the elevator, in the drugstore, etc.  Anyone whose hormone 
level is so high they would be distracted by sexual thoughts at the sound 
of a woman's voice must be so sexually obsessed that they couldn't 
concentrate on their prayers anyway.

Together with how substantial a place Kol Isha has in Jewish tradition, 
the great question has to do with women's changing role in society.  I 
welcome women's entrance into the workplace as a liberating event for men, 
and look for the first female U.S. president to change the stereotype of 
basically corrupt, self-centered male politicians.

Fred Blumenthal
xd2fabl (at) us(dot)ibm(dot)com

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