&^%$#!!!!!!!!!!!: Kol Isha, or one of the disadvantages of working for an Orthodox organization
A couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a portable CD player so that I could listen to music at the office. I bought one with built-in speakers, since I can't use headphones when I'm answering phone calls. Therein lies the problem—when I’m using the speakers, I can’t listen to everything I want to listen to. It’s bad enough that I forgot about Sephirah, when many traditional Jews don’t listen to music, and played Mark’s radio blog (see—or, rather, hear—http://www.mosheskier.com/index.htm) at the office. Now I have to refrain from listening to my Neshama Carlebach and Debbie Friedman CDs at the office because of the right-wing Orthodox belief that a man is not permitted to listen to a woman sing. (For my opinion on that subject, see my Thursday, October 14, 2004 post, “Men in Halachah—Shirking their responsibilities,” at http://onthefringe_jewishblog.blogspot.com/2004/10/men-in-halachahshirking-their.html#comments ) Sigh.
Labels: Kol Isha
posted by Shira Salamone at 12:07 AM
2 Comments:
i have always wanted to make a connection between kol isha and the unwillingness of the rabbis to hear the voice of a woman at a beit din for divorce. now, they won't hear of the voice of a woman singing or in court. one of these days maybe they'll recognize that the world would cease to function without the "evil inclination", and that women have a right to divorce without being held hostage.
Wow, that's certainly an interesting connection!
There have been many comments on the issue of agunot (women whose husband refuse to give them a "get" [Jewish religious divorce], and on how unfairly many a beit din (religious court) treats a woman seeking a get. If you haven't caught up with some of the scathing posts (probably in the June archives by now) at
http://bloghd.blogspot.com/, I strongly that you do so. And the Out of Step Jew in Kfar Saba (http://outofstepjew.blogspot.com/)even had enough of a fit of pique to suggest that he and his fellow and sister Orthodox Jews violate Sabbath massively until the problem was solved. (He later calmed down and tried to present something more rational.)
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