[Avodah] [Areivim] Kol B'Ishah and Halachic methodology

[Michael Kopinsky]

 On Jan 17, 2008 5:34 PM, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:

>  Doron Beckerman wrote:
> > A column from a Rabbi who teaches at  Machon Herzog, an adjunct of
> > Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush.
> > http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3495628,00.html
>
> > This seems to smack of C Hashkafah. (Never mind that he didn't quote
> > that Ritva in full, which would have clarified that there are limits to
> > what he is talking about).
>
> This article is an extract of the original, which is at
> http://www.kolech.org/show.asp?id=25318
> Before drawing conclusions about the author read what he actually wrote,
> not some ynet editor's extract, which does sound bad.  For one thing,
> the quote from the Ritva is cited at greater length, and in a footnote
> the author acknowledges an important caveat in the Ritva, none of which
> made it into the ynet extract.
>
This summer, in preparation for returning to secular college, I did quite a
comprehensive study of hilchos tznius.  My conclusions were similar to some
of his - that the halacha of "tzarich l'hisracheik min hanashim meod meod"
is based on a totally different societal basis, one where men and women by
default were entirely separate, and any contact between the sexes was
dangerous.  Nowadays, when society is in any case so mixed, I don't think
the halacha expects me (or wants me) to be anti-social and davka avoid
sitting at a table where a girl is sitting.  (More on that at another time,
maybe.)

I have not yet read the whole article, and am whether I am comfortable with
his extension of this idea to Kol B'Isha.

As for selectively quoting the Ritva, this is nothing new.  Many poskim
(Nosei keilim on Shulchan Aruch, Aruch Hashulchan (21:8 -
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/root/data/pdfs/SA2/aruchhashulchanoc6sa.pdf
 page 153-154), and others have all done that.  The fact that he included it
in a footnote puts him one step ahead of those poskim, in that regard.

KT,
Michael
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