Here's a proposal for the Knesset: Female Knesset members should ascend the podium one by one in alphabetical order and start singing. Television cameras would then capture ultra-Orthodox representatives jumping out of their seats, as if bitten by snakes, and running out of the auditorium. God forbid they should sin by listening to women's singing. There would be no better method for alerting the public -- particularly level-headed religious people -- to the insanity gripping their rabbis. It is inconceivable that a rabbi like Eli Sadan, head of the pre-military yeshiva academy in the settlement of Eli, would discourage his students from listening to a lecture at the Knesset because the speaker was female. It's even harder to wrap one's head around his subsequent explanation that, had he known the age of the woman in question, Knesset Research and Information Center Director Dr. Shirley Avrami, he would have allowed his students to listen to her. But he would not let them listen to a younger woman. Where is all this leading? Will we see a boycott of female university professors unless they've passed a certain age, say 50 or 60? For the record, no one is trying to interfere with the lifestyle in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood or the narrow streets of Bnei Brak. In addition, the ultra-Orthodox have every right to try to extend their influence. Let them move into the upscale, secular Tel Aviv neighborhood of Ramat Aviv. Time will tell whose lifestyle will influence whom. Whatever the outcome, it should be accepted in a spirit of mutual respect. Get the Israel Hayom newsletter sent to your mailbox! But I wonder what is going through the minds of my settler brothers and sisters? What kinds of men and women do they hope to raise and educate in the first quarter of the 21st century? A 16-year-old boy who is forbidden from listening to a woman singing or even lecturing may end up ridden with shame and angst and paying frequent visits to a psychiatrist's office. He could also find himself at a police station, after he acts violently against women in reaction to the puritanical education he received from his rabbi. The world that confronts him when he leaves the insulated yeshiva may be threatening to the point of paralysis. I would never entrust, or should I say, abandon, a teenage grandson to the tutelage of a rabbi who forbids him from listening to a young woman lecture for fear it would be detrimental; lest he be thrown into life too innocent or too depraved. Both types of handicap are inflicted on youth by their elders, doing them great harm. I'm not saying young people should be educated for license, promiscuity and debauchery. I am talking about the joyful upbringing that people like the late MKs Zevulun Hammer, Zevulun Orlev (New National Religious Party) and Hanan Porat and former General Elazar Stern enjoyed in the (mixed-gender) Bnei Akiva movement. I am nostalgic for the days when a woman was elected to represent the National Religious Party in the Knesset. But if the average national religious family wants to raise ascetics, who don't just abstain from wine, it is their right. There is no law forbidding it, just good advice and friendly suggestions against it. As long as these restrictions are in the spirit of what religious people like to say about women: "The honor of a king's daughter lies within." As long as they implement their ideas inside their homes and clearly defined neighborhoods -- go ahead, if you must. But imposing your mores on the public at large is unacceptable.
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