Q&A: A Woman’s Voice Is Pleasant
A Woman’s Voice Is Pleasant
Question
It is written in Niddah 31b:
"Why is a woman’s voice pleasant, while a man’s voice is not pleasant? This one comes from the place from which he was created, and that one comes from the place from which she was created," etc.
1. Is a woman’s voice objectively more pleasant? Seemingly, musical pleasantness is subjective and context-dependent, and a man’s voice can also be pleasant, just from different aspects. A real-life example of this, it seems to me quite simply, is that the number of female singers does not appear to be greater than the number of male singers, because beauty is in the ear of the listener.
2. If the Sages determine this as a factual reality, then if in theory we prove that they were mistaken about reality, along with the explanation that this is likely why they forbade hearing a woman’s voice, is there then no basis for the prohibition on hearing a woman’s voice? Or are we still bound by the prohibition they established?
As an aside, there is also a manuscript version: "Why is a man’s voice thick," etc. In your opinion, is that version more plausible?
Answer
- Apparently, in the world of the Sages, that is how things appeared to them.
- If the original determination is based on a clear mistake, it is void.
Maybe. In my view, both this and that stem from faulty information.
Discussion on Answer
I was referring to the explanation, not the claim itself. They did not have the relevant information needed to explain such phenomena.
The claim that a man’s voice is thick is clearer; indeed, as a rule women’s voices are higher than men’s voices. Why do you think that this claim too stems from faulty information?