Halachic Talking Part III

ii. Speaker not Halachic Talking

The first halachic authority to significantly argue that any form of a microphone is not considered halachically attributed to the person who made the original sound is Rabbi Aurbach[1]. To make his case, he used Rabbi Halpern’s exception as the rule. The opposing view assumed that shofar has some special status such that kol haavara would render the sound ineffective for fulfilling the mitzva. Therefore, by necessity they introduced definitions such as a “weak sound” or a “mixed sound” to explain what exactly is not allowed by shofar. Rabbi Auerbach analyzed kol haavara physically. Sound attributed to a person by halacha requires that the sound waves emitted from the obligated man are the same sound waves that are received by the ear of the person trying to fulfill their obligation. When a shofar is blown in a pit, such as in the classic example of kol haavara, the sound waves that are heard are also produced by the sound bouncing off the wall of the pit. It is then without question that sound waves which are picked up by a microphone, transformed into electrical signal and then converted back to sound waves by the speaker are not attributed to the person who originally emitted them.

Rabbi Auerbach precisely defined which sound waves produced by a person are considered when discussing halachic sound. Sound is specifically that which is produced by air vibration through the vocal cords. Therefore, if someone was able to produce the appropriate sound by pressing a button it would not qualify as halachic sound. While this argument is biologically sound, Rabbi Auerbach does not offer any source to this definition. It is not unfathomable to imagine that a person who cannot speak can have technological replacements that allow him to produce sound. According to Rabbi Auerbach’s definition the exact nature of the device would determine if the sound it produces would qualify halachically. Such that, if the device was able to interpret the neurological stimulus of what a person wants to say and then produce sound through its own speaker system, it would not be considered halachic sound. However, if the pathology rendering the person incapable of speech was limited to the vocal cords, a device that simply replaced the function of the vocal cords might be considered halachic sound.

Rabbi Stern[2] has a couple of simanim analyzing the use of tape recorders and the like in halacha. The most significant consequence of his analysis is that while he maintained that hearing through a speaker does not constitute halachic hearing, for technical reasons, he regarded the sound produced by a microphone as synonymous with the human voice. For example, he argued that it is prohibited to record verses with Hashem’s name not because playing them in a dirty area is prohibited but because the person who hears them in the dirty area would unintentionally think about Torah in a place that it is forbidden. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also prohibited listening to recorded music of women singing as he maintained that the spirit of the prohibition of kol isha can be violated by a recorded sound. Rabbi Stern added the fascinating comment that while he believed both are prohibited he maintained that live music (even over a radio) is more inappropriate than recorded music as the woman is currently singing.

The consequences of Rabbi Stern’s position is at odds with opinions on both side of the spectrum. On the one hand, Rabbi Yosef[3] quoting Rabbis Eliashiv and Soloveichik assumed that as they agree with Rabbi Auerbach’s presentation, the voice produced by a speaker is not a human voice and therefore there is not prohibition of kol isha. On the other, Rabbi Karilitz assumed that recorded sound is not considered human voice and therefore there would be no prohibition of kol isha with recorded music. Rabbi Karilitz would agree with Rabbi Stern in opposition to Rabbi Yosef, that live music does have a prohibition of kol isha but for very different reasons. According to Rabbi Karilitz live music is considered halachic sound and therefore it is synonymous with listening to a woman singing without use of a speaker. Rabbi Stern would agree there is a prohibition of kol isha because he understood the prohibition globally as a way to prevent inappropriate behavior between the sexes.

[1] מנחת שלמה סימן ט

[2] שו”ת באר משה קונטרס עלעקריק סימנים קח-קיא

[3] יביע אומר או”ח ט, קח אות מג