Kol Isha

i feel like i'm being muzzled. (C, a 23 year old Frum female singer)

When I started writing this blog I had a grand idea. I'd be a musical schadchen, though I didn't even know the term yet (it means matchmaker). I'd break down barriers between Jewish music genres and movements. And I'd learn a lot in the process. One thing I learned is that some barriers are harder to tear down than others. One of the big ones is Kol Isha.

Kol Isha is a Orthodox rabbinic decree that men should not hear a woman sing, unless that woman is his wife or a child. As Rabbi Howard Jachter explains, quoting Rashi "a woman’s voice is attractive to a man, and is thus prohibited to him." That means that every time I post a recording of a woman singing, I'm violating Kol Isha and am encouraging frum (Orthodox) Jewish men to do the same.

The controversy around Kol Isha runs deep. First, it is a point of contention between liberal and traditional Jewish movements. To the liberal movements, who cherish their female rabbi's, cantor's, songleaders, and fellow congregants, the implication of Kol Isha is that women have no place in religious life and no role in society other than as a sexual temptation to men. To the traditional movements, as noted in the Rashi quote, Kol Isha is an important element of female modesty and propriety, one of the many shields that a frum woman builds around herself, her family and her Torah.

Even within the traditional movements, Kol Isha is controversial. As Rabbi Jachter notes, "Rav Hai Gaon (cited in the Mordechai Berachot 80) writes that this restriction applies to a man who is reading Kriat Shema, because a woman’s singing will distract him." So which is it, is any female singing a problem, or just singing at specific times? Is it only a problem if the singing is live (since you can't see a woman who's singing on the radio)? What if the woman's voice is part of a mixed group, where you can't single out any specific woman? Each of these issues gets debated by the Rabbis and the Orthodox community.

But it's more than abstract issues. Kol Isha has a lot of impact on women's lives and on the development of Jewish music. The quote above, about feeling muzzled, comes directly out of the frum community. The young woman, writing to a frum Jewish Music mailing list, was not for a moment questioning Kol Isha. She was complaining that, because she couldn't sing for men and because the Jewish "Woman Only" music market was so much smaller than the male market, she wasn't able to get a publisher to give her a contract. That's one small example of many I've run across.

Kol Isha has had some interesting side effects*, the existence of a "women only" music scene is one of them. The "women only" genre of frum music is significantly smaller than the male scene, but has it's own stars, concerts, a blog, and a radio show. I've seen a number of emails by non-frum female Jewish musicians who play both "women only" and mixed concerts commenting on how much they prefer the warmth and energy of the "women only" shows. (A sentiment that reminds me a lot of the masculine energy of punk shows). Of course, I've seen an equivalent number of complaints by female Jewish musicians who can't begin to make a living with their music because of the strict limits on their performances. Frum men can play mixed events like weddings. Frum women can't.

In case Teruah readers haven't noticed, I'm the kind of Conservative Jew that sometimes gets called "Conserva-dox," meaning that I spend a lot of my time fretting about my mediocre observance and thinking that I should become more Orthodox in practice. But this is one place I hit a brick wall. I respect the choices made by the Orthodox community and the reasons for those choices (love of Hashem and Torah, and a good faith effort to live by them), but disagree with the interpretation, the need for such strict adherence, and the burden placed on females who deserve a larger role than they are given.

But mostly, as a writer, I'm fascinated to find this unexpected wall between liberal and traditional Jews. It makes me wonder if I should specifically label recordings with women vocalists as I've seen in a couple of other places. (I won't.) It makes me wonder if I (a man) should avoid featuring (and listening to) frum women vocalists. (I won't). It makes me wonder if even bringing up this topic is likely to get me in trouble with both the liberal and Orthodox communities. (Probably). Oh well, I haven't been ignorant in public in a couple weeks. I'd hate to get too out of practice.

UPDATE: The author "Kol Isha" on the Jewish Music Report has written a nice article on Kol Isha from an Orthodox woman's perspective.

* I'm going out on a limb here, but I think that two other effects of Kol Isha are the recent rage in the Orthodox circles for boy sopranos singing with adult men (which echo's the Elizabethan English use of boys to play woman's roles) and the Sephardic love song (which emerged in an environment where the Rabbi's didn't hear the songs and therefore didn't ban them).