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<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote"> RSZN writes:<br></blockquote>
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<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">>are viewers/ listeners who are meikel/don't hold from kol isha issues<br>>bound by the request of performers who don't want their own psak of<br>
>kol isha issues violated?<br><br></blockquote>
<div>Well leaving aside dina d'malchusa dina issues (after all, there may be copywrite issues if a performance is used in a way that the performer specifically does not wish) there is a concept at the beginning of Baba Basra as to whether hezek riya shmei hezek or lav shmei hezek, ie does violation of a right to privacy constitute a form of damage or not? That is, if you can see into my courtyard does that damage me, and can I act to prevent this. However, I am not aware of this concept ever being used beyond questions of physical property (except perhaps as a grounds for divorce without kesuba, and even there, it would seem that it is the attitude by the woman not the fact of inappropriate viewing, that is problematic, as otherwise strictures would apply in cases of ones).</div>
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<div>But this is part of the problem. Tznius has taken on a life of its own, and seems to be being treated as a halachic entity in its own right, a bit like privacy, but aside from this one example in Baba Basra, and the grounds for divorce in Kesubos, I personally can't think of a situation where mere seeing is regarded in halachic terms as violating the rights of the one who is seen (or their husband perhaps) - and certainly not of a case where one is considered violating the rights of one who is merely heard.</div>
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<div>Of course, if you understand prohibitions like kol isha operate vis a vis women as a form of lifnei iver, then we can have a fruitful halachic discussion. Given that today a man is quite capable of finding many opportunities to hear a woman sing on film, it would seem that the biblical prohibition of lifnei iver, requiring two sides of the river, would not be applicable here. So the real discussion is about mesaye lei, the rabbinic version of lifnei iver, and presumably it would need to centre on the machlokus between the Shach (Yoreh Deah siman 151 si'if katan 6) and the Magan Avraham (Orech Chaim siman 347 si'if katan 4) as to whether mesaye lei applies to a mumar or somebody who is sinning b'mezid, the Shach holding that it does not (see eg Iggeros Moshe Yoreh Deah chelek 1 siman 72 for the understanding that when the Shach referred to a mumar, he was including anyone sinning b'mazid) , whereas the Magan Avraham holds that it does.</div>
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<div>If you hold like the Shach therefore, then if a man b'mazid, after having been warned, goes to a film like this, then there should be no violation of mesaye lei on the part of the women, even if they do hold that watching such a film by a man is assur. On the other hand, according to the Magen Avraham, arguably were such a man to go, the women would end up being in violation of mesaye lei according to their lights, if not according to his. However, given that lifnei lifnei iver even at the d'orisa level is mutar, I doubt that mesaya mesaya is assur, assuming that you hold that the ikar act is mutar. So while, if the women follow the Magen Avraham, they may feel the need to go to great lengths to make sure that a man is not able to come and see the film, because of mesaye lei, and by going a man might cause such films to be even less available to women and girls in the future, so it might be wise to desist, I can't see the halachic basis on which he would be required to desist, if his position is, eg that recorded singing is mutar.</div>
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<div>But this is part of the ironies that comes into play every time tznius comes up - halachic thinking and its categories appear to go out of the window and people stop thinking in halachic terms (probably because the people doing most of the thinking, ie women, have generally not been trained to think in halachic terms). So you almost never see these kind of analyses.</div>
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<div>Regards</div>
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<div>Chana</div></div>