[Avodah] Kol Isha - HETER

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Michael Makovi <mikewinddale at gmail.com>
> Where's the  qol ishah in your example [of Egypt and Umm Kalthoum]?
> Because they knew  where the songs
> were from when they heard a male chazan sing  them?
>
> R' Micha Berger



>> No. What I meant was, the rabbi knew EXACTLY where these tunes  came
from, and far from criticizing listening to Umm Kalthoum, he  instead
allowed her tunes into the synagogue!! What this means is, the  rabbi
implicitly granted his heter to listen to her. If the rabbi thought  it
was prohibited to listen to her, then he wouldn't let her tunes be
used  in the shul. <<
 
 
 

Michael Makovi

 
 
>>>>>
Umm Kalthoum was a very popular female Egyptian singer.   People  listened 
to her on the radio.  Very few ever saw her in  concert.   Her radio 
broadcasts were probably pre-recorded or they may  have been live, but in any case 
there are certainly poskim who permit a woman's  voice if recorded and/or if 
broadcast over the radio, where one cannot see the  singer.  Some even 
permit watching a singer on TV or in a movie, and then  there are even some who 
permit a live show, if the woman's voice cannot be heard  naturally but must 
be "articially" reproduced and amplified via a microphone in  order to be 
heard.  Even in this order of increasing leniency, you do not  find any who 
simply permit kol isha, with no further qualifications.
 
The leap from the fact that this singer's tunes were sung in shul  to the 
assumption that the rabbanim of Egypt OBVIOUSLY permitted kol ishah is  just 
such an extravagant leap that it boggles the mind.
 
In other posts RMM has repeatedly asserted that R' Weinberg unequivocally  
permitted kol ishah.  I do not believe this is true.  Did he permit  women 
to sing solo in front of men?   I think he permitted women to  sing in mixed 
groups, such as oneg Shabbos  youth groups -- not as a  performance, not in 
a choir, not for the pleasure of an "audience" but in a  natural setting 
where blended voices did not readily permit one voice to be  picked out from 
the others.   I don't think this is such a radical  innovation as some seem to 
think and I don't think there is any basis for RMM's  repeated assertion 
that R' Weinberg held that there is no issur of kol ishah  anymore, period.
 
 
 

--Toby  Katz
==========

--------------------
 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20100212/71394dc7/attachment-0002.htm>