Friday, March 8, 2013

Kol Isha and a Rabbinic Conundrum

In my class on Halachah this week at Orot, we studied the halachot of Kol B'isha Erva (the prohibition against hearing women sing) in the context of the recent appearance of a religious girl on the Israeli reality show "The Voice" (or, as they say here, "de voyce"). It's not an understatement to say that this episode has been a rather significant issue here in the religious community in Israel.
From my perspective, it's clear that the producers chose her in the competition not only for her voice, but specifically because she's religious. The issue comes up during her first tryout, and the words that they use to describe her singing ("pure", "modest") are clearly influenced by this issue. They even ask her to sing piyyut, which she gladly does.
Her appearance obviously raised the challenging question of how to respond when a member of the religious community does something that contradicts the values of Jewish law. (And her singing publicly clearly does violate halachah according to the vast, vast majority of poskim, despite arguments to the contrary. This episode reminds me of when the Maimonides grad who participated in a modeling reality show.)
How should her school - a religious Ulpana react? Educational institutions are not charged with policing the actions of their students, nor should they be. But when a student publicly acts in a manner that clearly contradicts the values of the school, she becomes a de-facto spokesperson and representative of that school. Other parents rightly or wrongly begin to wonder: "Really, that's how students at that school act? Maybe it's not the best place for my daughter." (We might not like it, but that is how things work). In this case, the school struggled mightily with this tension, and in the end the student agreed to leave school for two weeks voluntarily, allowing the school to express its displeasure with her performing without officially punishing her.
What about her rabbi? How should he conduct himself throughout the episode?

In my prep for the class, I came across a fascinating article describing what happened when the film crew came to the girl's yishuv to film hoping to conduct a joint interview with the rav of the Yishuv, Rav Zvi Arnon.
Rav Arnon refused to speak on camera, even after the camera crew literally ambushed him at shul during minchah. He explained his refusal by saying that no matter what he said, he would be portrayed as a villain, specifically because he represents a viewpoint that's against the underlying values of the entire television show.
Fascinatingly, the members of his community (a religious community), rather than supporting him, were angry with him for failing to support the budding television star.

The article raises fascinating and important rabbinic issues, including:
1. Dealing with a media hostile to religious values
2. Dealing with ba'alei batim who don't support a halachic viewpoint
3. Representing a Torah point of view unpopular in a modern Orthodox community
4. Interactions between religious and non-religious Jews: In her tryout, three different mentors vied for her to choose them, one of whom clearly had religious tendencies. She chose Aviv Gefen, apparently the most secular of the three. Is that something we should try to discourage? The clip I shared above is her visit with him to the shul in Nir Galim, as they talk about religion and faith. Can you create a Kiddush Hashem in the context of a larger violation of Jewish law?
5. Finally, why don't Modern Orthodox Jews, by and large, adhere to or seem to care about the halachot of kol isha?

Personally, I believe that Rav Arnon made absolutely the right choice. He found himself in a lose-lose situation, over which he'd have no control. But it cannot be easy to be the representative of an unpopular Torah value without even the support of the members of your own community.

9 comments:

  1. " clearly does violate halachah according to the vast, vast majority of poskim, despite arguments to the contrary."
    If there is a "despite arguments to the contrary." - then it is not "clear".
    And that is the answer to most of your questions.
    Moshe

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  2. Moshe, I think my point is that no recognized posek would allow her to perform the way that she does. You can always find individual opinions on any issue, but the question becomes, does that individual carry enough weight to argue with the accepted positions. Here, the most lenient position, in my view, does not. It's not a matter of halachic debate, but we look for the view that agrees with what we do, instead of really asking whether our view conforms with halachah.

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  3. Isn't one of the leniencies people use based on the idea that the prohibition only applies to songs of a passionate, seductive nature? I can't access the video you put up, but I seem to recall that the video was tame in that regard.

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  4. I think the issue, as noted above, is the acceptance,or dismissal of the 'vast majority of poskim' on the issue. The article you linked shows that Rav Bigman and others have no problem with her singing non-erotic songs. My guess is that many Tzohar or those affiliated with Ne'emanei Torah v'Avodah would agree as well. Certainly there are many Orthodox Rabbis in the states who also would not have a problem. Many Modern Orthodox schools and camps have had women singing in the past. I am not sure why you deny the girl, the family, or the community to hold like Rav Bigman or the others.

    What frequently is below the surface is that psak halacha is heavily influenced by the underlying methodology and assumptions. For example, those who claim that metzitzah b'peh is mandatory at a bris essentially hold that the science of the Talmud is mandatory even if it is wrong according to contemporary science, and/or there are certain achronim(Maharam Shick in this case) whose views cannot be overridden. Even if 99% of poskim hold this view, it is not rational to force this position on someone who holds diametrically opposite(and Halachically acceptable) underlying assumptions- in this case someone who believes(with the Gaonim) that the science of the talmud was their best effort given the understanding of the time, and that the acharonim were not the last word in psak.

    Many in the thinking MO community agree with the rationale, underlying assumptions, and thinking set forth by Rav Bigman, and certainly do not agree with Chareidi views of society and the place for women. Why should they adopt the Chareidi psak? If you think that Rav Bigman's view should not be followed, then in order to make a case that will fall on accepting ears you have to address the issues. For the thinking MO, it is the quality of the argument, not who said it(within reason) or how many said it, that matters. So if you oppose the action, you have to make an argument based on sources and logic, not a list of poskim.

    Finally, there is the issue of consistency. There are many other halachic restrictions on women(not teaching, not going out of the house, not walking behind them) that have been codified that seem to be willfully ignored, but being strict on kol isha seems to held out as some sort of litmus test for frumkeit(this idea is not my chiddush, I dont recall where I read it). Those who want to take a very machmir position need to explain why they are not being consistent with all the other restrictions.

    Noam Stadlan

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  5. " I think my point is that no recognized posek would allow her to perform the way that she does. "

    I personally know two religious Jews who have been given permission to their rabbis to sing operatic works. I have personally been given permission to attend opera performances by my rabbi, who cited Rav Soloveitchik z'tz'l in support of his decision.

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  6. " I think my point is that no recognized posek would allow her to perform the way that she does. "

    I personally know two religious Jews who have been given permission to their rabbis to sing operatic works. I have personally been given permission to attend opera performances by my rabbi, who cited Rav Soloveitchik z'tz'l in support of his decision.

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  7. To echo Dr. Hall- the Rav attended the opera where both thin and fat ladies sing. While some may try to deny or explain away this fact, his public actions should be enough support for any Modern Orthodox

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  8. Noam and Charlie,
    Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I will address them in a separate post coming soon.

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  9. A really naive question here, but . . . is it possible that the main issur is on the men hearing it, but not on her singing it?

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