Halachic Multiculturalism in the IDF: Rulings of Official Religious Authorities in Israel Concerning ‘‘Women’s Singing’’

In the summer of 2011, a number of soldiers walked out of an auditorium in which a musical performance was taking place. The men, cadets in an officer’s course, explained that they walked out of the performance because there were female vocalists, and the halacha prohibits men from listening to females sing.

As a result of this incident, representatives of the army chief rabbinate as well as the Matka’l, or Israeli General Staff, convened to discuss and ultimately publish new guidelines addressing the participation of religious soldiers in military ceremonies featuring female vocalists. These new guidelines were in turn criticized by a group of army chaplains united under the name ‘‘Keren Lahav—for the strengthening of Judaism in the IDF.’’ The group published a joint document in which they stated that the army’s decisions had undermined the trust of religious soldiers in the system. They claimed that the new guidelines—which were approved by the IDF’s Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz—demonstrated Peretz’s ignorance of the inner workings of the army system. One criticism against Rabbi Peretz was that he had not risen to his position from within the military but rather was an outside candidate placed directly at the top of the pyramid.

Three board members of Keren Lahav—Rabbi Colonel Yosef Harel, Lieutenant Colonels Pini Izak, and Avshalom Katzir—sent a letter to the Chief Rabbis of Israel, the Israeli defense minister, and to the IDF Chief of Staff suggesting a new approach to the future selection of the next Chief Rabbi.¹ Since these rabbis based their claims on the precedent established by the first Chief Rabbi of the military rabbinate, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, a discussion ensued about the merit of his true legacy. Rabbi Major General Mordechai Piron, who succeeded Rabbi Goren in the position of Chief Rabbi, as well as Rabbi Menachem Hacohen, who served for many years as Rabbi Goren’s personal assistant, co-authored a letter sent to the chief of staff in which they claimed that Rabbi Goren had never objected to female singing in the presence of male soldiers. According to Rabbis Piron and Haohen, Rabbi Goren had never seen this phenomenon as violating the army’s adherence to halachic requirements.²

The events led to a discussion of the IDF Chief Rabbi’s authority as a halachic decisor within the army. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Rosh Yeshiva in Har Brakha, caustically noted that the Chief Rabbi is not a halachic decisor but rather merely a ‘‘religious consultant to the Chief of Staff.’’³ This position was summarily rejected by Rabbi Yisrael Rozen, the head of the Tzomet institute for the solution of halachic problems related to technological advancements. Rabbi Rozen then accused Melamed of threatening the continued existence of the army as a unified hierarchical organization.⁴

Two competing evaluations of this affair can be raised in the context of what Yoran Peri has called the religionization of Israeli society, which he defines as the ‘‘process in which there is a strengthening of religious elements in society.’’⁵ Shlomo Fischer wrote that this event clearly demonstrates religionization,⁶ whereas Asher Cohen and Bernard Susser did not consider this event to be of such importance. They mentioned that out of ninety religious cadets present at the performance, only nine chose to leave, and some of those who left later expressed regret. This event, they say, is less momentous than it was made out to be in the press.⁷

In this article, I wish to discuss the event from a halachic perspective and to focus on two different halachic rulings issued by official religious authorities. The first ruling was issued by the Chief Rabbi of Israel at the time, Rabbi Yonah Metzger, and the other by Rabbi Eyal Krim, the head of the Halacha Department of the Army Rabbinate.⁸

It is a well-known fact that halacha is a multifaceted system, containing various options. The Decisor’s assessment of reality and his general worldview play a significant role in shaping his halachic deliberations and...