[Avodah] Kol Isha - HETER

[Michael Makovi]

RRW suggests that Kathy Lee Gifford might be mutar, while Britney
Spears might be assur. --- Exactly!!!! I am NOT arguing that ALL kol
isha is magically permitted. What I'm arguing that MANY (not all)
varieties of kol isha are permitted, while many are prohibited, and
the difference is based not on technical abstract factors, but rather,
on whether there is hana'ah / hirhur. By contrast, the mitzvah of
shofar is entirely abstract and technical.

Contrary to many poseqim, then, I'd say that even if a recording is
electronic, the kol isha is nevertheless prohibited if there is hirhur
/ hana'ah. For me, technical factors (such as the recording not being
the "real" voice) are entirely irrelevant. Technical factors apply to
shofar, not to kol isha.

What I'm trying to do is NOT to create some magical one-size-fits-all
heter. What I'm trying to do is the shift the focus of the entire
issue. Poseqim on kol isha need to stop looking at abstract factors
like they do for shofarot, and instead, they must look at sociology
and sexuality. Perhaps kol isha will still be prohibited, but the
basic question will have entirely changed.

> but they [ = the poseqim] felt that "opera" when the women
> were properly attired were "more or less ok"
> RRW

Dr. Charles Hall told me that Rabbi J. Soloveitchik held that the
prohibition of kol isha applied only in situations that would engender
improper thoughts. Dr. Hall told me that Rabbi Soloveitchik attended
the opera, and considered it to be “advanced culture”, and that far
from being prohibited (for containing kol isha), that its attendance
was actually to be encouraged. He added that Yeshiva University holds
an annual opera fundraiser.

I found that Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff gives apposite testimony in
a lecture from 28 January 2002,
<http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/709758/Rabbi_Aaron_Rakeffet-Rothkoff/2002-01-28_R._Emanuel_Rackman___28-Jan-02>
---> <http://download.yutorah.org/2002/920/709758/2002-01-28%20R.%20Emanuel%20Rackman%20%20%2028-Jan-02.MP3>.

Rabbi Rakeffet-Rothkoff, at 73:14, says Rabbi Soloveitchik classified
as kol isha only "sexual" or "sultry" singing. At 73:44, Rabbi
Rakeffet-Rothkoff says, "There is eidut that the Rav and Rabbi Yitzhak
Hutner attended operas in Berlin. Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner attended operas
in Berlin??!! These are facts! Rabbi Hutner had actually a
subscription to the opera in Berlin."

I doubt Rabbis Soloveitchik and Hutner would have been as lenient as I
want to be, but nevertheless, they clearly subscribed to my belief
that the operative factor in kol isha is NOT technical/abstract (such
as: "Is the voice her "real" voice, or is it electronic?), but rather,
it was sociological/sexual ("Is there hirhur / hana'ah?"). Rabbis
Soloveitchik and Hutner clearly DID rely on hergel mitigating the
issur, contra those rabbis who forbid the application of hergel to kol
isha.

Michael Makovi