[Avodah] Kol Isha - HETER

[Michael Makovi]

An article I've just written, "A New Hearing for Kol Ishah", has been
published by Rabbi Marc Angel's Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals:
http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/new-hearing-kol-ishah

To summarize my article:

1) Rambam and Tur-Shulhan Arukh link kol isha to etzba ketana and say
kol isha is prohibited only kedei leihanot. So if there is no hana'ah
/ hirhur, then there is no issur either.

2) According to the ha-kol le-shem shamayim shita (see especially
Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin), we may be lenient on ANY law of tzniut
provided that hirhur / hana'ah is absent.

3) Ra'avad and Ra'avyah limit kol isha to singing, whereas Rambam and
Rabbi Yehuda he-Hasid include even mere speech in the prohibition.
This speech-shita makes more sense, actually, since kol isha literally
means "a woman's VOICE", i.e. even speech. How could Ra'avad and
Ra'avya limit kol isha to only singing? They said that people are used
to women's speaking voices, that a speaking voice is like a normally
exposed part of the body. This is a general principle in the laws of
tzniut, that the laws of tzniut prohibit the exposure of that which is
customarily covered, but permit the exposure of that which is
customarily exposed. The basic fabric of the laws of tzniut permit
anything which is customary or usual (its being customary or usual is
assumed to negate its being sexually enticing).

4) The Jewish communities of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Syria,
Germany, and Cochin were historically lenient. (I wanted to avoid an
over-textualism, a la Rupture and Reconstruction. This is thus my
mimetic argument.)

5) Whereas the Aharonim forgot what the prohibition of kol isha was,
and treated it like some magical non-negotiable lo-plug-rabanan, by
contrast, the rishonim (and Rabbi Yehiel Weinberg) analyzed kol isha
based on its purpose and intention, i.e. hirhur and hana'ah. The
Aharonim somehow managed to avoid the embarrassing fact that kol isha
is limited to singing NOT because of the inherent basic nature of the
prohibition, but only because of habituation / hergel. The Aharonim
ran with the idea that kol isha is limited to singing, but
simultaneously forbade leniency based on hergel, even though this
position is self-contradictory.

The only criticism I can envision is that I have perhaps
underestimated how much hirhur and hana'ah people actually get from
women's singing. But I personally, and many people I know, claim to
get no hana'ah or hirhur from most women's singing.

Michael Makovi