What is the Halachah about hearing multiple women singing, is it Kol Ishah or not? What if it is co-ed with a few women and a few men?
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1kol beisha erva. to see erva is allowed when there are multiple women?– koutyJan 4, 2017 at 19:49
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2@kouty It probably is fine if you can't tell what you are seeing. Imagine zooming in on one pixel of a photo of a naked women. Clearly that's not an issue. It's just a colored square. So too is noise which happens to contain some female voice noise.– Double AA ♦Jan 4, 2017 at 20:07
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@DoubleAA voices harmoniously arranged are equivalent to a non blurred picture... perhaps– koutyJan 4, 2017 at 20:58
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@kouty Perhaps.– Double AA ♦Jan 4, 2017 at 21:05
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1related: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/29378– msh210 ♦Jan 4, 2017 at 21:11
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1 Answer
A related post reports the “famous Teshuva of the Sridei Aish, Rabbi Yaakov Yechiel Weinberg, that permits one to hear kol isha (a women's singing voice) when there are other people singing.” It can be found in Seridei Esh 2:8.
This is referred to in the Hebrew Wikipedia article on קול באישה ערווה
That article further reports that when Rav Weinberg visited Germany he found men and women singing Shabbos Zemiros together. This was allowed to them by Rabbis E Hildesheimer and S R Hirsch. Rav Weinberg supported this teaching with the views of those Rishonim who held that there was only a prohibition when the man had intention to enjoy the voice of the woman. Additionally, singing together meant that the voice of one individual woman could not be distinguished.
Rav Weinberg decided that one could rely on the views of these German Rabbonim in order to develop love of Torah etc. in boys and girls and to guard against assimilation. Rav E I Waldenberg does not support the view of Rav Weinberg.
Wikiyeshiva does not mention Rav Weinberg. It says that there is no difference if one or more women sing together. There are those (Chasan Sofer) who are unsure whether men and women may sing together insofar as the man does not distinguish the voice of the woman (and so it should not be forbidden). But Wikiyeshiva says that most other poskim reject this view and hold that one may not hear the voices of men and women singing together.
Conclusion: There are some authorities that have allowed hearing multiple women singing and some others hold that it is forbidden. CYLOR.
answered Jan 4, 2017 at 19:59
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1Incidentally, while that is what is commonly attributed to R Weinberg and is the gist of his conclusion, a more nuanced read of the whole responsum IMHO does not paint his position in such a Bedieved light. He seems to think it's fine, but is hedging against the other opinions which he recognizes as legitimate too.– Double AA ♦Jan 4, 2017 at 20:04
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Sorry if I didn't understand exactly but is it possible that the male voices make a desherotisation. So when we have only women voices it is prohibited?– koutyJan 4, 2017 at 21:08
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1@kouty Yes. The only permission is for men and women signing together. Jan 4, 2017 at 21:18