Monday, June 27, 2005

Blogging Shira Chadash II

(cont from below)

According to my friend, Shira Chadash also permits woman to daven for the amud. Not Shachris - because Shachris is an obligation for men, and a woman can't complete an obligation on behalf of a man unless she shares the obligation - but for Musaf and Kabbalat Shabbos, two prayers that, technically, are optional.

How does Shirah Chadasha escape the prohibition of kol isha? I don't know. (My friend says, that in a shul kol isha doesn't apply, but I have no source to support this claim.)

Though I suppose I could tolerate a shul that called women for aliyot if it was done with dignity and modesty (and I am not sure it CAN ever be done with dignity and modesty) when it comes to allowing a woman to serve as the shatz, the kol isha issue seems to me to be an insurmountable problem.

Sidenote Kabbalat Shabbat is the youngest of our prayers, having been invented less than 500 years ago, essentially to fill the time between Mincha and Maariv on Friday evenings.