Some time ago I attended a 3-day concert festival in Eilat. Classical music orchestra, male and female singers (opera and Israeli), classical and jazz pianists, even a professional whistler! The audience consisted of secular and modern-Orthodox alike.

Remember the old newspaper cartoon puzzle: “What’s wrong with this picture?” So what seems “off” about the above festival description?

If you can’t figure it out, that’s because the “contradiction” has become quite commonplace. It relates to Jewish religious law – halakha; the specific prohibition is called “kol isha,” the proscription against hearing a female sing, as this might entice men to do something that shouldn’t be done (I’ll leave what to your imagination).

So how is it that there were dozens of kippah-wearing men in the audience, even showing up every morning for self-organized prayer services – and then sitting in the audience listening to glorious female singing? The answer lies in a broader trend that is basically at one with the essence of the halakha itself.

As is well known, the root word of halakha is “walking” (la’lekhet). Not by accident is this term used for what might be thought of as immutable: Jewish religious law. But in fact, the halakha has always undergone change. In many (perhaps most) cases, the change has been to add more prohibitions through what is called “fencing” – keeping the adherent as far away as possible from........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)