Rabbi Bigman on Women Singing
While many of you will think that the prohibition of men hearing women sing, Kol Isha, is out-dated and absurd to say the least, for those who are interested, Rabbi David Bigman of Yeshivat ha-Kibbutz ha-Dati has let his opinion be known, permitting it in almost all circumstances. Here is a post in Hebrew by him on the topic, and in English one can read about Rav Bigman’s opinion here, and here about a recent Bnei Akiva event which is the backstory. After reading his post in Hebrew, one can see how this question and Rav Bigman’s treatment of it, raises similar issues to those discussed by R. Daniel Sperber in his recent book Darka shel Halakhah and criticized here. For a discussion in English on the subject of Kol Isha, see Rabbi Saul Berman’s article in the Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume (1980), pp. 45-66.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
no more absurd than not eating seafood.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Of course it is more absurd than not eating seafood: not many people are worried about equal rights for crustaceans, especially concerning their right to be eaten. Many, however, are keen to see our religion treating men and women as equally and justly as possible. The expression of human emotion through song is one area in which we can make improvements.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Okay, no more absurd than not allowing a woman to divorce her husband.
December 31st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I’m writing an article on qol isha for the May 2010 issue of Rabbi Marc Angel’s Conversations journal; stay tuned. I rely mostly on Rabbis David Bigman and Avraham Shammah on qol isha, but I also make use of Rabbi Henkin’s habituation thesis, as well as the lenient historical practice of the Jews of the Judeo-Spanish, Yemenite, Moroccan, and Cochin communities.
December 31st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Professor Emily Taitz (Ph.D. in medieval Jewish history from JTS, co-author of The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E.–1900 C.E.) has also given me some fascinating material.
Stay tuned!