Halakhah su Giosuè 2:1

The earliest authority to issue a permissive ruling with regard to a similar question is Maharam Schick, Even ha-Ezer, no. 53. The Gemara, Sanhedrin 45a and Sotah 8a, declares that sexual desires are aroused by vocal stimuli only when accompanied by visual perception. Rabbi Aryeh Yehudah ha-Kohen, Sha'arei Torah, VIII, no. 73 compares the female voice to the hair of a married woman and argues that just as there are no restrictions with regard to hair which has been severed from the body, so also there are no restrictions with regard to the disembodied voice. Although the argument may be apropos with regard to the question of "nakedness," the analogy does not serve to establish that the recorded voice is not sexually provocative. Tosafot, however, cites Megillah 15a which records that the mere mention of the name of Rahab—a courtesan of Scriptural fame (Joshua 2:1-22)—was sufficient to cause sexual arousal even in the absence of visual stimulation. Tosafot resolves the apparent contradiction between this statement and the statements found in Sanhedrin 45a and Sotah 8a by noting that the Gemara posits such arousal only in the case of a woman with whom the individual is already acquainted.³See Tosafot, Ta‘anit 5b, and cf., Maharsha, Megillah 15a. A similar distinction is explicitly made by the Gemara, Avodah Zarah 20b, in the discussion of an analagous halakhah. Accordingly, Teshuvot Bet She'arim, Oraḥ Hayyim, no. 33; Rabbi Yehudah Leib Zirelson, Teshuvot Ma'arkhei Lev, no. 5; and Rabbi Ze'ev Wolf Leiter, Teshuvot Bet David, no. 188, rule that listening to a female vocalist is forbidden only when the listener sees the singer as well, or, alternatively, when the listener is acquainted with the vocalist.⁴This is also the opinion of Imrei David, no. 85 and Rabbi Shalom Yosef Feigenbaum, Sha‘arei Torah, VII, no. 113, sec. 3.