Why Is There No Miami Girls Choir for a Wholesome TikTok Trend?
While TikTok trends are generally both eccentric and catchy, few are as wholesome (and perhaps as surprising) as the recent obsession on TikTok with the Miami Boys Choir, an Orthodox Jewish boys choir. As of this date, a clip of the band performing its song “Yerushalayim” (“Jerusalem” in Hebrew) in concert back in 2007 has been viewed over 10.7 million times. Whereas the choir previously had only niche fame in the Orthodox Jewish community, TikTok is now flooded with videos made by people of every religion, race, and ethnicity dueting with the choir, ranking the choir soloists, dancing along with the choir, remixing the song, and otherwise offering commentary. A Miami Boys Choir stan (zealous fan) account on Twitter documents various TikTok and other social media posts about the choir. The trend has been covered not only in the Jewish media but also in mainstream media like CNN, Time, and Newsweek.
The Miami Boys Choir was founded by Yerachmiel Begun in 1977 in Miami. The group sings Jewish-themed songs in both Hebrew and English. Many of the songs have lyrics from Jewish prayers or the Torah. Even though Begun moved the choir to New York a few years later, he kept its original name. Thirty-two albums later, the group is still going strong. Boys generally remain in the choir until age 14 or 15 when their voices change and get deeper. They are then replaced by younger boys. Begun’s son precipitated the Miami Boys Choir TikTok trend when he launched a TikTok account for the group and began posting archival concert videos there.
Unlike the original Korean K-pop, this new version of K-pop (“kosher pop”) has no girl groups. Why no Miami Girls Choir? Most strains of Orthodox Judaism prohibit men from listening to a women’s singing (called “kol isha” in Hebrew, meaning “voice of a woman”). (Other branches of Judaism, such as Conservative Judaism, reject any such prohibition.) Under the strictest understandings, boys above the age of nine and men cannot listen to the singing (whether individually or in a group, whether live or by recording) of women or girls above the age of eleven (though some authorities would include even girls above the age of three within the prohibition). In the Orthodox Jewish community, it would therefore be a less commercially viable option to have a Miami Girls Choir because only the female half of the community would generally consume this group’s music. So there is no Miami Girls Choir.
The prohibition of “kol isha” is grounded in the Talmud, which further situates it in the Tanakh (the Old Testament). The Talmud (Berakhot 24a) states that “A woman’s voice is considered nakedness, which derives from [Song of Songs 2:14], which states that ‘your voice is pleasant and your appearance is attractive.’” Rabbinic Torah commentators have explained that the Song of Songs indicates that a woman’s singing voice is attractive to a man and is therefore prohibited to him.
In recent years, a few Orthodox Jewish authorities have proclaimed that the “kol isha” prohibition ought to be softened substantially, if not abolished. For example, Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein explains that the prohibition ought to apply narrowly only to singing that “emphasizes the singer’s sensuality and femininity.” Talmud scholar Aharon Amit goes even further by drawing on historical and literary evidence to conclude that the statement in the Talmud was never intended to become an actual legal prohibition.
Extending beyond these religious critiques, there is reason to worry that prohibiting “kol isha” is damaging to the dignity of girls and women. For one thing, it suggests that the behavior of girls and women has to be constrained merely because of the effect it might have on men instead of merely having men control themselves. For another, a prohibition restricts those girls and women who love to sing from expressing themselves publicly. Additionally, girls and women should not see their voices as problematic.
Orthodox Jewish feminist Blu Greenberg notably stated, “Where there’s a rabbinic will, there’s a halakhic way.” The will to permit women’s voices to ring through schools, concert halls, synagogues, and Spotify indeed exists, situated in the reasonable lenient understandings of the “kol isha” prohibition and the importance of female dignity. By the time the next wholesome TikTok trend involving kosher pop music rolls around, hopefully it will feature the Miami Girls Choir.
