#kol isha

[timothywinters]

yeah i'm into musicals

[starlightomatic]

trans jewish milestones: the first time you ask yourself “wait, am i still allowed to listen to kol isha?”

[laineystein]

So many things happened while I was away from the real world! A mainstream goy television show discussed kol isha! More terror in the place I call home (BDE) and the world was silent. Kanye went full Hitler on twitter and the world was silent. Yom Kippur. Sukkos.

All the #jew things!

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Jewish Song of the Day #5: Modeh Ani (cover)

Comments:

This is a Tzemed Yeled cover of a very famous Israeli pop song by Omer Adam

The words are based at least a little bit on this prayer, which is said immediately upon waking

I absolutely love this song and will be posting multiple versions of it

Boy duos, trios, and choirs are common in frum Jewish music, at least in part because it allows for singing in a higher register without men running into kol isha issues

[pargolettasworld]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YGcm8KeHqQ

Ma Ashiv is a text from Hallel, a selection of relatively joyful Psalms that are added, in whole or in part, to services on certain holidays and festive occasions.  Hallel tends to start strong and get a bit disjointed as a congregation sings it, which is why I’m always interested in good settings for the middle set of Hallel Psalms.  Ma Ashiv comes from Psalm 116, and not only is this a lovely and joyful setting, it’s set for a women’s chorus by its female composer.  Given the traditional anxieties over women’s voices in Jewish history,* Jewish music for women’s chorus always has a special place in my heart.

*I was chatting with a local cantor the other day, and she told me that she’d been told by an event organizer that when three women sing together, kol isha is negated -- three women cancel out each other’s dangerous femininity, apparently.  It’s unclear the degree to which this was true or not -- the event organizer was attempting to arrange an event in which Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews participated, and the Orthodox were Not Having With the idea of women singing at this event.  It was, in general, handled badly, as far as I can tell.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The Call of Avram

1 Now Hashem had said unto Avram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from the bais avicha, unto ha’aretz that I will show thee;

2 And I will make of thee a goy gadol (great nation), and I will bless thee, and make thy shem great; and thou shalt be a brocha (blessing);

3 And I will bless the one blessing you, and curse him that curses you; and kol mishpochot haadamah shall be blessed through you.[T.N. There is a brocha in this verse that many do not know but that every true follower of Moshiach should know.]

4 So Avram departed as Hashem had told him; and Lot went with him; and Avram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Charan.

5 And Avram took Sarai his isha, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had amassed, and the nefesh that they had gotten in Charan; and they went forth to go into the land of Kena’an; and they arrived in the land of Kena’an.

6 And Avram passed through the land unto the makom Shechem, unto Elon Moreh. And the Kena’ani was then in ha’aretz.

7 And Hashem appeared unto Avram, and said, Unto thy zera will I give ha’aretz hazot: and there built he a Mizbe’ach unto Hashem, Who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from there unto the harah mikedem Beit-El, and pitched his tent, having Beit-El on the west, and Ai on the east; and there he built a Mizbe’ach unto Hashem,and called upon the Shem of Hashem.

9 And Avram journeyed, going on still toward the Negev. — Genesis 12:1-9 | Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) Orthodox Jewish Bible Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. Cross References: Genesis 4:26; Genesis 11:31; Genesis 13:5-6; Genesis 17:4; Genesis 18:18-19; Genesis 33:18; Deuteronomy 30:20; Deuteronomy 34:4; Numbers 13:17; Judges 7:1; Isaiah 30:6; Luke 24:27; Acts 7:3-4; Hebrews 6:15; Hebrews 11:8-9

[matriarchybarbie]

“tw: kol isha” ... trigger warning: the voice of a woman!

[magnetothemagnificent]

Hey so it occurred to me that given your background maybe you know this, but I have a question about kol isha as a non-binary person. What is the deciding factor in whether something is kol isha or not? Is it the person's AGAB or is it how their voice actually sounds? Is it at all presentation or identity based?

That's honestly something I can't answer.

One thing is that Kol Isha isn't actually a prohibition on women, but on men. Men are the ones who aren't supposed to listen to women sing, but of course because of patriarchy the onus of enforcing that is placed on the women.

Kol Isha honestly is something so binary and so gendered and so patriarchal, and it's something I honestly have grappled with even before I realized that I'm trans.

But then, you'll find that many Orthodox men don't follow Kol Isha to a tee nowadays. Like unless you completely shut yourself away from radio and commercials and movies like some Chareidi groups, it's unavoidable hearing women sing. I had an Orthodox Jewish teacher in high school who told us "I know it's probably wrong, but I love opera. It's one of my vices".

Additionally, many agree that if women are singing in a group with men in prayer, Kol Isha doesn't apply because it's a) prayer and b) it's not one voice but many voices indistinguishable from each other.

What's always bugged me is why the concept of Kol Isha exists in the first place.

Like it's supposed to prevent men lusting after women, but men aren't prohibited D'Oreita from adultery like women are. Shouldn't men therefore be the ones who shouldn't sing, so women don't lust after them? But of course it comes down to patriarchal structures that don't acknowledge women as capable of having sexual desires and fantasies. It really seems to only exist to keep women from the public eye.

It's honestly one of the Halakhot that I've never really found an answer to, and one I can't even seem to justify through logic.

And I don't think it's something Non-Orthodox Jews really focus on, because it hasn't been an issue in Conservative and Reform congregations in years and years, because it was one of the first things they rejected. So there isn't really much scholarship about it.

The way I see it, women have always been involved in Jewish ritual and cultural life, including using their voices and singing. Miriam helped compose Shirat HaYam, and Devorah composed Shirat Devorah. Women throughout Jewish history have been scholars and teachers, so somehow they got around this.

My current thoughts on Kol Isha are:

-Either it's a Halakha that has somehow been misinterpreted from it's original roots, or

-It's a Halakha that needs to be updated for modern times and ideals, just like many Halakhot have been, even among Orthodoxy.

But, I do have hope.

Orthodox Judaism has come a really long way, even in the last few centuries.

While girls still don't get to read from the Torah, girls do get a Bat Mitzvah celebration and get to read a Dvar Torah in Orthodox congregations, something that would be unimaginable 100 years ago.

Rabbaniyot and Yoetzot Halacha are becoming more and more common and respected as valid Halakhic authorities in Orthodox communities, something that was inconceivable even 10 years ago.

More and more Orthodox congregations and schools are opening up to more LGBT-inclusive policies and curriculums.

There's obviously a long way to go, but I have hope that we will find an answer to Kol Isha.

(I'm obviously using "men" and "women" here because I'm talking about a very very binary and gendered Halakha)

[laineystein]

Chag sameach! 🇮🇱☺️💙

(tw: kol isha)

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I would honestly listen to a lot more frum music if so much of it didn't involve boys singing at the very top of their vocal register.

[gabrielitas]

So I was babysitting for this super orthodox family today, and I had Cardi B songs stuck in my head all day.

[pargolettasworld]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG7aNAfBVg

Esther Freeman is one of a relatively new group of singers in the Jewish musical world.  She is a deeply spiritual singer-songwriter who comes from a Haredi family (Chabad, in her case).  The Haredi world takes seriously the prohibitions of kol isha, of not allowing women to sing in public, in front of men, so as not to cause any . . . issues to arise that might distract men from leading virtuous lives.  Even traditional recordings have proved problematic, largely because a lot of Orthodox distribution outlets for hard copies of recordings just won’t distribute recordings featuring women’s voices.

But the lovely thing about YouTube is that women can record and self-publish.  Women performers don’t need to rely on men to publicize their recordings, and the existence of recordings means that they are keeping up their end of the kol isha rules; they’re not singing in public in front of men.  What men do with the recordings the women make is their own issue, not the women’s.

And so people like Esther Freeman have a venue where they can express their own musicality and spirituality.  Freeman herself has said that her goal in composing and singing music is “to show Jewish girls that they can make their own music with holy messages and express their own voices.”

YouTube is by no means a perfect platform.  But it is quite amazing for Haredi women singers.  It provides the cover of a sort of electronic mechitza, but at the same time it gives these singers an extraordinary degree of freedom to connect with each other, and with the broader Jewish world.

[assigned-frog-at-birth]

wow it’s really rare that i get a crush on a girl

[thegittelbug]

Speaking of other random interests of mine, I was a classically trained singer for.. 15 years or so, and every time I hear some singing on TV I MISS it. Never ask to hear my thoughts on a singer. I'll write you a 15 page analysis and you do not want to hear it.

I briefly tried some warm-ups and a few old arias and art songs, and man am I out of practice. Definitely something I want to get back into if I find a good teacher and like, the time for this.

One of the earlier exercises my college teacher had me do was to gather all my text books (and I mean ALL OF THEM), lie down on the floor, put the books on my stomach, and practice breathing from your diaphragm. Move them stack o' books up and down.

"If it doesn't feel like you're doing sit ups, you're breathing wrong!"