25 October 2008

Kol 'Ishah & Women's Krias haTorah II: Rav Henkin's Take

While going through stuff for another posting on the topic of aliyot for women, I found that Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin wrote "[o]ne may indeed ask, why should reading the Torah be different with regard to kol b'ishah ervah than reading the Megillah?"
In my first posting on this particular topic, I wrote
the reason that the Sages that were quoted in the beraisa (on Megillah 23a) did not mention the woman's voice issue is because it had not yet come about. The kevod zibbur issue was brought up by tannaim, the woman's voice issue came about at the beginning of the amoraic period, derived by Shmuel....
Nevertheless, Rabbi Henkin's suggestion to the aforementioned question is that he thinks
the Megillah reading is different because of the special affection people have for it, as stated in Megillah 21b regarding two or more people reading the Megillah in unison, something not permitted in other readings....
He adds that since "Purim is a time of feasting and drinking, which lead to impropriety", then "a woman reading the Megillah for men would presumably not do so in the synagogue but at home, where there are fewer restraints...."
I have no particular critics or criticisms, just presenting it here, as I found another person asking the same question, albeit with a different answer.

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