Kol isha (the restriction that a woman’s voice must not be heard by men) can be a very hurtful
prohibition for a woman who considers singing an important part of her identity. As a dancer, I know that performing publicly is prohibited. But if I were to stop dancing, I would be giving up a huge part of my life. I’ve been dancing for 13 years, for around 12 hours a week. Performing for me is the culmination of all my work and makes it feel worthwhile.

I imagine that for a singer, being prohibited from singing would represent a similar loss. Sarah Speigelman, an aspiring opera singer who gave up her career in order to follow the laws of kol isha, said, “[The decision to give up my career] was a long, painful journey, but in the end, kol isha turned into a gift. It liberated me from my ego and enabled me to express my soul in song.” However, not every woman finds liberation at the end of this journey. As Rabbi David Bigman reports, “there are women in certain communities who are so offended by the ruling forbidding them to sing in public that they turn away from the Torah and commandments due to it.”

Modern Orthodox institutions such as schools and camps have taken a range of approaches to this issue. Some do not allow girls to sing alone in front of boys or men, but they do allow girls in groups to sing in public. Others allow girls to sing in front of boys, but they give the boys and male staff the opportunity to leave if they are not comfortable listening. However, some Orthodox schools, such as Ramaz and SAR, allow even solo girls to sing in front of boys and men without restriction. This last position, although it feels comfortable to me, seems strange given the halachic sources about kol isha.

Although people interpret kol isha in several ways, there is still a blatant prohibition.The gemara states, “The voice of a woman is ervah, as the verse [in Song of Songs 2:14] states ‘let me hear your voice because your voice is pleasant and appearance attractive’.” Rashi explains that a woman’s voice is attractive to a man, and is therefore prohibited to him.

The question of kol isha surfaces in many common situations, such as singing zemirot. We were raised to sing zemirot, and we consider that activity important, but how can women take part in it if they cannot sing in front of men? Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg says that although nowadays women commonly do not sing zemirot in front of men who are not family members, general practice in Germany just the opposite. Rav Weinberg records that Rav Azriel Hildesheimer and Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (two great German Rabbis of the nineteenth century) sanctioned this practice. He says that they based it off of the Talmudic rule “trei koli lo mishtamai,” that two voices cannot be heard simultaneously. This makes it permissible for women to sing in a group.

Another questionable case of women singing relates to a recording or a broadcast. Because the
singing is not live and the listener cannot see the woman singing, shouldn’t it be permitted? Some Rabbis permit listening to the recorded voice of a woman because the gemara states, rather ambiguously, that the yetzer hara is not interested in what the eyes do not see. However, Rav Yaakov Breisch argues that the gemara does not apply to the case of radio, and he forbids a man from listening to a woman’s voice on the radio. He says that a man’s yetzer hara is interested even if he only hears her voice.

From the classical sources, it would seem that modern Orthodox schools should have impose at least some restrictions. What are the reasons for the approach of those schools that do not place restrictions on girls singing publicly? Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of Ramaz has said, “the real source is that my father, Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein, allowed it, and I continue in his policy.” This response does not do too much to help us understand the reasoning. Rabbi Jonathan Kroll from SAR says that SAR’s policy is based on an article by Rabbi Bigman who has five criteria for appropriate singing in public: an appropriate atmosphere, appropriate dress, appropriate musical style, appropriate lyrics, and appropriate body language. Based on this, he says, “According to this approach, there is no problem with those among our daughters who are modest and upstanding to develop a career in singing, even within the general culture, as long as they do not make concessions of the refined foundations of Torah culture, and do not cooperate with the vulgar, commercialized aspects of the culture surrounding us.” This approach seems to go even further than allowing girls to sing in school performances and even opens up the opportunity for a woman to pursue a singing career.

But Rabbi Kroll admitted to me that this is a minority opinion. Despite that, SAR chooses the minority opinion because singing can be an important form of expression for girls. To SAR, it is worth keeping the more lenient view in order to allow girls this form of expression. Additionally, girls in the SAR community do not follow the stricter opinion anyway in their personal lives, so they rationalize that it is not worth trying to enforce it in the school.

The minority opinion seems worth following. Performing can be such an important part of a girl’s identity and self expression. Many performers I know would give up many things in their life to be able to perform. I believe that If we have a way to allow girls to perform while still following halacha, we must do everything to encourage it.