Dear Readers, These columns began on my area of America Online, called:  Judaism Today:  Where Do I Fit?   People anonymously sent me E-Mail, and I began to choose one for a public response in my Jewish E-Mail of the Week column. The column has become quite popular and is now syndicated internationally in many Jewish papers and websites.  I hope you find they help you as you think about the Ethics, Spirituality and Peoplehood components of the Jewish way of Life.  I welcome your comments... see the end of the column. Gil PS  Teachers and others, feel free to copy my columns and forward them or use them as you see fit.  Please see the friendly copyright notice at the end.

A Woman's Voice Should NOT be Heard! Part II

My last column about "kol isha," the prohibition in Jewish law against men hearing a woman sing, hit a nerve! I received more email on this topic than any subject in recent memory. This week, I'd like to share some excerpts with you.

First, a response to a number of writers who asked for the source in the Torah for this prohibition. The source is not in the written Torah, but the Talmud (the oral Torah.) The talmudic warning against listening to a woman's voice is because it might lead to sinful thoughts (Ber. 24a; Kid. 70a.) This also led to a prohibition of female voices in a synagogue choir (Sh. Ar., OH 75:3.) However, in the Bible itself, there are numerous references to woman singing, including: Miriam (Ex. 15:20­21) and Deborah (Judg. 5:1­31) or the "women singers" mentioned as members of the choir of the Levites in the First and Second Temple (Ps. 46:1; Neh. 7:67; Ezra 2:65; I Chron. 25:5­6).

And now to the email (shortened, but punctuation left as is.) I wish I had room for more than 7 excerpts:

1. "I find the rule of "kol isha" to be one of the dopier Orthodox restraints on women. If a woman is singing, does a man not have the choice to leave the room, or the building? Why should a woman, with the gift of voice, be silenced, because a man MIGHT have impure thoughts? Please. To me, this is just another case of building fences around fences around fences. When this is done, Torah is not protected....it is obliterated from view."

2: "It's no wonder that within orthodoxy, women's prayer groups and women's other support groups are springing up. I cannot understand how some orthodox women I know, accept the male dominated culture. When I overhear some of the conversation, its rationale sounds like slave talk. ''We don't need to touch the Torah. Our hearts are pure. The men need to touch it because they are weak.' This was said to me on Simchat Torah, when the men were dancing with the Torah and the women were dancing in separate circles. Yet, the Torah was given to all of us, men and women."

3: "It is issues like this that prompted me to take a more serious look at traditional Torah-observant Judaism, and eventually to see the beauty and wisdom of kol isha, as well as other traditions and laws that once seemed to me to be repressive or archaic. Although I do not observe the halacha of kol isha, I do recognize that it works for some communities. Additionally, I would like to point out that it is dangerous for people to learn isolated aspects of Judaism, as occurred in your exchange with "r," for it is only within the context of truly understanding the depths of the concept of modesty that she would understand why some Jews observe this halacha."

4: "What about the flip side? Is a man's voice not capable of sounding sexy? Cannot a man's singing cause *women* to have sinful thoughts? Of course it can...[this] makes kol isha, in my humble opinion, nothing more than sexist dogma, another plank in the fence designed to keep women from the joy of fully experiencing Torah....Kol isha -- and its like -- is spiritually selfish... A woman can study, too. A woman can be as learned. And to prohibit women from those paths that lead them to greater spiritual fulfillment is cruelty."

5: "This prohibition also reminds me of the Christian Doctrine of Original Sin and the medieval belief that because Eve tempted Adam successfully with fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that all women are temptresses and can bring men to perdition just by their very existence. It seems to me that as Judaism rejects the concept of Original Sin, it should also reject the idea of the 'woman temptress' and 'weak-willed man'."

6: "The ultra Orthodox view is meant to restrict female potential from having an impact on society that might somehow outshine male influence. Male leadership within the community is to be the dominant leadership. That is essentially behind the restrictions, however they may wish to rationalize them."

7: "This is a topic that I have struggled with for many years as an orthodox male singer. It is always a struggle for me when I listen to a woman sing or when I perform with women. I don't have an answer to this difficult question. It would seem that I am more comfortable in hearing a woman's voice than in not hearing it. Somehow I have never been convinced that it is wrong in our time. If I did think it was wrong, I would hope that I wouldn't do it. There is however always that nagging doubt that I am just telling myself what I want to hear."

I (this is Gil again,) was struck by the anger in many of the emails against Orthodoxy -- particularly since they came from writers who have chosen to live a non-Orthodox lifestyle. One writer ended her email with "thanks for the opportunity to vent -- you brave man."

I am not a brave. I find nothing fearful in trying to understand how and why different Jews from atheist to ultra-Orthodox practice Judaism. I learn from each of them -- learning the most, from those who differ from me. This understanding enriches my own sense of who I am as a Jew. I hope you feel similarly. Thanks to all who wrote.

Gil

A FRIENDLY COPYRIGHT NOTICE © Copyright Gil Mann These columns can be found at www.beingjewish.org.  Not only do I give you permissions to copy these Jewish Email columns...I HOPE YOU WILL and that you share them with others!  All I ask is that you never charge anyone for them and that you also include this little copyright notice.  Thank You!

Thanks,
Gil