Barak: Don't abstain from women's singing
Defense minister tells military conversion court trainees they have his approval 'to listen to women when they sing nicely.' Aide to Rabbi Elyashiv: Since when is Barak a rabbinical authority?
According to Barak, "Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in one of his rulings, allowed men to continue listening to a transistor, even if Ninet or Miri Mesika (female Israeli singers) are singing."
Last weekend, on Simchat Torah Eve, Minister Barak and trainees of the Nativ conversion course were guests on Army Radio show "Kola Shel Ima" (mother's voice). One of the troops told the minister that he had chosen the issue of "modesty" for one of the papers he was asked to prepare, but was surprised by the prohibition to watch a woman singing.
"Don’t be too strict about that," Barak replied. "You have the defense minister's approval to listen to women when they sing nicely."
The minister explained that "there is really ' Kol Beisha Erva' (meaning a woman's voice induces desire) and other interesting rulings," but claimed that Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, allows it.
"You can listen to it and it will be all right," Barak concluded. "You don't have to abstain too much from everything. After all, we have to live."
It should be noted that Rabbi Yosef's ruling refers to listening to a woman's voice on the radio or a CD, and not to a live performance.
'A clear Jewish law'
Rabbi Nachum Eisenstein, chairman of the Rabbinical Committee on Conversion Affairs, who is considered a confidant of prominent Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, slammed the defense minister, saying that his remarks proved once again that the conversion procedure as part of military service "is worth nothing" and must be canceled.
According to Eisenstein, "Barak wants to be the landlord, and therefore the religious judges in charge of conversions in the army are not independent. The goal in establishing Nativ was to bypass all other settings and convert people who have been rejected by the most lenient judges of the conversion system."
Eisenstein added that the minister's remarks to the converting soldiers were "serious remarks because they damage the rabbi's authority to convert in accordance with Jewish Law.
"Barak may want to be a rabbinical religious authority, but he is very far from being one. This is a clear law in Shulchan Aruch (the Jewish code of laws), and even the most lenient people involved in conversion in the army say it is forbidden."
He went on to say that "the defense minister must apologize to the rabbis for hurting the Halacha (Jewish Law) and for seeking to intervene in things that are not under his authority. This is a very serious matter."
