anyone who knows Torah please answer this reform are mocking Jewish law

[mord]

http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/170011/controversial-suspension-for-contestant-on-israels/   



Controversial Suspension For Contestant On Israel's 'The Voice'
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Ophir Ben-Shetreet, 17, of Israel’s “The Voice.”

We like to encourage young people to develop their natural talents and follow their dreams. Just look how far the preternaturally talented 13-year-old diva Carly Rose Sonenclar got on the “The X Factor” with the support of her family and community (not to mention millions of American television viewers).

But that’s not necessarily how things work in some sectors of Israeli society. Ophir Ben-Shetreet, a 17-year-old with a voice as outstanding as Sonenclar’s (at least to my untrained ear) is a leading competitor on Israel’s version of “The Voice.” One would think that she would be rewarded for her confidence, effort and talent. Sadly, that is not the case.

Ben-Shetreet is essentially being punished for having an exceptionally beautiful voice and wanting to share it with the world. The 12th grader has been suspended (with the agreement of her parents) for two weeks from her religious girls’ high school in the seaside city of Ashdod. Her offense? Singing in public.

As we know from news coming out of Israel in the past few years, enforcing kol isha, the prohibition against a woman’s singing in public (particularly in front of men), seems to be a top priority of the religious establishment.

In this case, the complaints against Ben-Shetreet’s singing on the popular TV show came from the parents of other students in her school. Ben-Shetreet’s suspension and required attendance at special Jewish law classes is supposedly meant to serve as a deterrent to her classmates — should they, heaven forbid, want to exercise their God-given vocal talent or just plain have some musical fun while within hearing earshot of a man.

Dressed modestly in a yellow and black dress knee-length dress with elbow-length sleeves, Ben-Shetreet blew the judges away with her incredible voice. They called it clear, clean, pure and angelic, and proceeded to fight for the opportunity to be her mentor during the competition. She ended up somewhat unexpectedly choosing rock star Aviv Geffen.

Back at home at Nir Galim, a religious moshav near Ashdod, many in the community are reportedly fully behind Ben-Shetreet. On the other hand, Rabbi Zvi Arnon, the moshav’s rabbi, said he was understanding of Ben-Shetreet’s situation and praised her for being “a girl with strong morals,” but he reiterated the Halakhic prohibition against her singing. “There is not a single rabbi who will permit a woman to sing in front of men, especially on television. It is simply not permissible by Jewish law,” he said in an interview with Channel 7.

In terms of the punitive action taken by Ben-Shetreet’s school, the rabbi basically said the school, which deals with hundreds of girls and their families, had to do what it had to do.

But is that really the case? Could the school have handled the situation differently and avoided singling out Ben-Shetreet? At the very least, the Jewish educators running the school must know that the Talmud teaches, “One who shames his neighbor will have no place in the World to Come.” Rabbi Arnon himself hinted that the school’s approach wasn’t optimal. “In my opinion, we don’t have to wage a war on this issue, we just have to give our opinions as rabbis” he said. “We need to try to bring everyone closer [to the faith]. We don’t excommunicate and we don’t punish.”

As infuriating as it is for me to learn of yet another case of kol isha-based discrimination against women, I am buoyed by the fact that it doesn’t sound like Ben-Shetreet is going to cave to pressure from the religious authorities. She knows she’s talented. Even better, she’s determined, and has shown that she can think and choose for herself.

“I have loved to sing since the time I was very young. I’m looking for a place to realize my talent,” she said on the show. “I think the Torah wants us to be happy, it wants music to make people happy. I think you can integrate the two, and because of that, I made the decision to come on to the show.”

This young woman is clearly going to go far — and I don’t just mean on “The Voice.”


Permalink | Comments (21) | Share | Email | Filed under: the x factor, the voice, ophir ben-shetreet, israel's the voice, carly rose sonenclar
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+17
VanEman's avatar - Go to profile

VanEman · 19 hours ago
It's not true there are no rabbis who would allow her to sing in public. Reform, progressive and conservative rabbis would allow her to sing. Time to welcome pluralism in Israel so women can develop all of their talents.
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+12
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drjoshmark · 19 hours ago
It's also not that clear that orthodox law prohibits listening to a woman's voice either. Throughout recent Jewish history, loopholes have been found and exceptions have been made. There are anecdotes of great European scholars attending operas and musicals. Furthermore, Maimonides only prohibits listening to a solo female singer during prayer services (because of the distraction) and at other non-prayer times only if one is overwhelmingly sexually aroused by the singer. The intermediary of electronic equipment also presents a very wide loophole for Torah committed Jews. But like so many other similar clashes, Judaism, in whose name people get so stirred up, really would just rather be left out of it. What these conflicts are really about is exclusiveness and inclusiveness or that great human addiction to define. There seems to be no greater human joy than to figure out new ways to say, 'you! out!'. The administrators of the school are worried that they will get exiled from some club by people who are worried that they will get exiled from some other, 'higher' club, and so on. It's so sad and yet so comical.
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+6
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SergeLiberman · 18 hours ago
May Ophir Ben-Shetreet share her gift widely and long give pleasure to everyone everywhere who will listen.

I don't recall anyone throwing the Book at Shoshana Damari, Chava Alperstein, Netania Davrath and others who long delighted the nation with their art.
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+14
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JosephKay · 18 hours ago
Could these men who think they have a direct phone line to God please get ear plugs?

Is dancing and playing an instrument OK?

Exodus 15 20-21

20 וַתִּקַּח֩ מִרְיָ֨ם הַנְּבִיאָ֜ה אֲחֹ֧ות אַהֲרֹ֛ן אֶת־הַתֹּ֖ף בְּיָדָ֑הּ וַתֵּצֶ֤אןָ כָֽל־הַנָּשִׁים֙ אַחֲרֶ֔יהָ בְּתֻפִּ֖ים וּבִמְחֹלֹֽת׃
1 וַתַּ֥עַן לָהֶ֖ם מִרְיָ֑ם שִׁ֤ירוּ לַֽיהוָה֙ כִּֽי־גָאֹ֣ה גָּאָ֔ה ס֥וּס וְרֹכְבֹ֖ו רָמָ֥ה בַיָּֽם׃

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

Of course the "experts" would claim that she only sang in the shower.
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+11
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Runner1983 · 17 hours ago
This is in fact infuriating and appalling. I suppose it is ok to marginalize women, prevent them from walking on the same side of the street as men, remove their images from advertisements and from public view, prevent them from ulogizing their fathers or husbands at funerals, force them to ride in the back of buses, spit on and curse little girls if they don't meet some rabbi's subjective standard of modesty, and yes, prevent them from singing in a venue within earshot of a male. These are not western values of a modern society. Halakhic laws are subject to the intrepretation of rabbis, and if their intrepretation goes against human values, these interpretations should be considered incorrect, ignored and relegated to the trash heap.

The best thing that this young girl can do is leave the cult now before she is married off at a young age. With the very high relative birth rates of haredim, those cultural norms listed above will become more and more common. The biggest threat to Israel are the Haredim.
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+11
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Michael1950 · 17 hours ago
A tragedy in its' true sense! A woman of her talent should be allowed to sing in front of anybody regardless of gender. This is the kind of nonsense that people like Osama Bin Laden are made of. There is no place for this gross intolerance in our great religion of Judaism. SING GIRL SING!!!!!
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+10
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TheBigJ · 17 hours ago
And yet women singers were part of the choirs in the Temple of Jerusalem. Just read the Book of Nechemia.
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-8
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@CMVasquez · 13 hours ago
This article (and the comments that follow it) is infuriating only in that it is nothing more than another attempt lo slam Torah Judaism by the Jewish Daily Forward. Hey guys, you made your point Years Ago. Let It Go...Move On.
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3 replies · active 1 hour ago
+8
Runner1983's avatar - Go to profile

Runner1983 · 12 hours ago
If protesting and objecting to the haredi practice of marginalizing women in this and so many other ways is as you say, "slamming Torah Judaism," so be it. It deserves to be slammed. What you call Torah Judasim is only an intrepretation by some rabbi, accountable to no one, giving his opinion on what the Torah says. Rather than blindly follow that intrepretation, why don't you use your own common sense and critical judgment and determine what is right, not what someone interprets is right.
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Runner1983 · 1 hour ago
Let's stop worrying about the minutia (very minor details) of how one lives one's life, and be more concerned about how one relates to his fellow man. This is what G_d intended. When one dies and is being eulogized, never is it mentioned that "she didn't sing in front of men, or if a man, he never heard a women's voice in song." What is mentioned is the good deeds done during one's life, how he or she raised his or her children to be good citizens of the world, the contributions made to the betterment of society as a whole, and whether the deceased was a person of integrity. This is what Torah Judaism is all about. No one should care if some rabbi many many years ago in a different time and place decided that women should not sing.
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+3
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Jewishmomma · 10 hours ago
Then why are you reading it?
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+6
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honestabe99 · 9 hours ago
It is actually incorrect that a woman is not allowed to sing in public according to jewish law. It is actually a prohibition for a man to listen to a woman singing, and this only if the man is looking at the woman while she is singing. Otherwise, it is permitted. This halacha is brought down by many Poskim (Halachic Authorities). This is because all potential forbidden sexual arousal can only be a result of physical or visual interaction with the woman. So watching a woman sing, is equivalent to looking at a woman with specific parts of her body uncovered. Just hearing her sing, if not looking at her is perfectly permitted. So Ophir did nothing wrong according to jewish Law.
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+8
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Miss_X2 · 8 hours ago
Sing on child! To hell with the misogynists.
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+3
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marjemkalter · 6 hours ago
Why would God give women talent? Why music? Why song?

The Orthodox need to understand the human experience.
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+3
hag's avatar

hag · 4 hours ago
got to be carefull .........she may turn out to be a person
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+2
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idrobny · 2 hours ago
it is not the orthodox who oppose her. the "ultras" of this sect are interpreting judaism for all jewry.
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+3
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D___ · 2 hours ago
In Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs, JPS translation) 2:14-16, it says:

"Oh my dove, in the cranny of the rocks,
Hidden by the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet
And your face is comely."
Catch us the foxes,
The little foxes
That ruin the vineyards--
For our vineyard is in blossom.
My beloved is mine
And I am his
Who browses among the lilies.

These is a lot of beauty in these words, which are quite familiar to many. It is astounding that one innocent line, "Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely," would later become the basis for Kol Isha!

Some sources say that a man can hear a woman sing if she sings into a microphone. Others say that's forbidden. Some say it's fine if the voice is on the radio, while others disagree. One opinion says that women can sing zemirot with men, but others say "not so." There are so many divergent opinions that one hardly knows what to believe!

The basis for all these Kol Isha prohibitions is so flimsy that the time has come to say once and for all that most of them are no longer valid.
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2 replies · active 38 minutes ago
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@selkie305 · 42 minutes ago
Especially ironic, since the Rabbanim instruct us to understand Shir Hashirim (from which these words come) as an expression of the love between G-d and the People of Israel, and never as a simple love song of a man for a woman.
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@selkie305 · 38 minutes ago
Men who observe this stringency have the burden of responsibility to avoid hearing (and seeing) a woman sing. TURN OFF YOUR TV. Hey - don't your rabbanim prohibit having one in the first place?
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+1
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Michael_Welbeck · 1 hour ago
These guys belong in Iran.
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1 reply · active 27 minutes ago
+1
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@CMVasquez · 27 minutes ago
In the Islamist world little girls are shot for going to school. Murdered for being raped, Lets not mak

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