I am so tired of this Kol Isha in the IDF business.
Please do not misunderstand. I am not saying that one should
in any way violate Halacha. It is Halachicly forbidden for a man to hear a
woman sing. Kol B’Isha Erva- the (singing) voice of a woman is considered ‘nakedness’.
I never quite understood that Halacha, because the laws pertaining
to Erva – nakedness – are designed to prevent men from having lascivious
thoughts about women. To my mind, unless there is sexual content in the song,
or provocative moves on the part of the singer - I don’t see this being a
problem for normal people.
Be that as it may, it is nonetheless Halacha that a man may not
listen to a woman sing. But there are variations on this theme. The Halacha is
not universally interpreted in the same way by all Poskim. It varies from very
strict to very lenient.
The strictest interpretation forbids hearing a woman sing
in any incarnation – even in a recording or on the radio. On the lenient side of this issue there are Poskim that permit hearing it even in a live performance if one
cannot see the woman directly and one hears it only through the amplification
system. So that a theater performance might be acceptable. I recall back in the
sixties that one of the religious schools here in Chicago had a fundraiser by
selling tickets to a live performance of Fiddler on the Roof using that Heter.
The most common Heter, however, is that a man may hear a
recording of a woman singing if he does not know what she looks like.
Some permit men to listen to women singing Zemiros at the Shabbos table since that will never generate lascivious thoughts.
There
are some Poskim who allow a man to hear women
singing as part of a group with men as in a
choir. Some permit men listening as a group even if they are all female as
long as the men don’t look at them.
I recall being told by a former student in Beis Yaakov of
Detroit that Rabbi Sholom Goldstein (the renowned Talmid of Reb Sharga Feivel
Mendlowitz who helped pioneer Jewish education in America) used to train the
Beis Yaakov all girl’s choir in Detroit so that they could perform for various
Jewish women’s groups. He instructed them and then left the room during the actual singing during rehearsals and listened outside the room. Then he would go back in and continue instructing
them.
But I digress.
The issue has once again made the media. It is being
reported in the Jerusalem Post that last week a group of approximately 10 Hesder
soldiers in basic training and serving in a field intelligence unit requested using
earplugs or MP3 players during ceremonies to solve the problem of listening to women
singers in performances during Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel’s Memorial Day,
and Israel’s Independence Day. They were
denied.
Earplugs are a bad idea. Can you imagine how a singer might
feel when they begin singing and some members of the audience take
out their earplugs and start listening to their MP3s?
I know the standard response to this is that the
singers will know that it is for religious reasons and not be insulted. Maybe that’s
true in most cases. Maybe. But I can easily see a scenario where a singer not
so knowledgeable about Kol Isha will see it and be insulted.
While it is true as stated above that Kol Isha is a Halachic
issue - this has never been a problem in the past, despite the fact that there
have been seriously religious soldiers in Hesder units since the
earliest days of the State - many of whom I'm sure had challenges like this
along the way.
Why is this now suddenly such a hot button issue? Based on
the history of natural antipathy the religious right has against all things
'Medina' I believe that this attitude is what fuels this whole thing. Any
opportunity to bash the evil Zionists is quickly pounced upon in these circles.
Those who will retort that the protesters in this case are actually
not from the religious right but from the Hesder program – I nevertheless stand
by what I said. These soldiers are certainly not the first Hesder boys to be
faced with Kol Isha. Hesder has been a part of the IDF since the earliest days
of the State. Has the IDFonly now begun having female singers at these ceremonies?
Hesder boys have comprised
some of the most dedicated soldiers in Israel -both in religious and military
terms. I do not recall this ever being an issue until very recently. Why now?
My guess is that the new religious fervor in Hesder boys is
the result of religious Zionist leaders not wanting to be out-Frummed by
Charedim. Now that Charedim are coming into the army via their own programs
like NachalCharedi and taking issue with
things like this, Religious Zionist Rabbis will not be outdone!
So now comes the Religious Zionist Rav of Kiryat Arba and
Chevron, Rabbi Dov Lior:
(He) ruled on Sunday that men should not attend theater
performances in which women perform, even if the women do not sing and are
dressed modestly.
See how Frum we are? Take that, you Charedim!
The question remains - what to do about Kol Isha problems? I
don’t know but earplugs are not it. Why not just look and see how it was
handled over the past 64 years?
