I have been doing some thinking lately. A lot of very religious Jewish people claim that it is not modest for a man to listen to a woman singing who is not a relative. According to the Chabad website, "The singing voice of a woman is considered sensual and possibly stimulating to males." The Chabad website claims that Jewish law forbids women's singing because it is not good for a husband to get sexually aroused via a woman's singing voice who is not a relative. This whole concept is taken from Song of Songs 2:14, which states, "Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is beautiful." The Talmud evidently explains this verse by claiming that the sweetness or ervah refers to nakedness and should be interpreted to bar women's singing.
Yet, although I consider myself modern Orthodox, I don't agree at all with this way of looking at the world. While maybe such arguments made sense if one woman was singing alone in front of a man who is not her husband, what could possibly be wrong with having a group of women and men singing together in the synagogue? What is wrong with a family of men and women singing together at a dinner table alongside some guests who aren't relatives? What is wrong with listening to a CD of songs sung by a woman, where you can't see the woman at all? What is wrong with going to a concert full of thousands of people, with one woman singing in front of a mixed audience? To me, none of these seem sexually arousing. To suggest that it is sexually arousing is not to have confidence in the strength of our men that they can control themselves.
It is moments like this where I question whether I will ever be more religious than I presently am. I have no problem with my husband listening to a woman singing, either on a DVD player, at a family gathering or in a concert. I view such things to be great fun, not things that should be shunned. I have full confidence that my husband will continue to remain loyal to me, even if he listens to other women sing. While I do keep Shabbat and wear a hair covering when I go out of the house, and have a strong belief in G-d and have great respect for the Tanakh, I don't understand at all why so many orthodox Jews have a problem with women singing, even though G-d created the woman's voice just as he created the man's voice. While I will continue to respect people who have a different life-style than me, I nevertheless fail to understand the reasoning for why they chose to live like this.
Hi
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Israeli people are sitting on the hump(!) and shoulders of Palestinians, but still I see that a literate person in this blog is defending Israel!!!
Ms. Rachel! What do you see in the ideology of your government that you love it? Don't you think that occupying a country, killing the natives and besiege their territories is such inhuman?!... and a good reason to "not" love that regime??? Am I wrong?
Before I saw your blog, I thought that only illiterate people love this fascist regime!! And I thought that elite people in your society are against this kind of terror an fascism!!! but... but...why?! Can you tell me why you love Israel? I'll be so thankful if you tell me...