[Avodah] More on What Constitutes Chillul Hashem?

[Zev Sero]

Ben Waxman wrote:
> At the time of the Rambam, did the average person look down upon someone who
> walked around with stains on his clothes?

Presumably about as much as or more than they do today. Not little stains
that can result from the ordinary activities of the day, but the sort of
stains that indicates a problem.  You look at someone on the subway, and
certain kinds of stains on their clothes indicate that they're living
rough or have some mental problem, and you start to edge away in case
they start something.  Whereas when on a rainy day you see a bit of mud-
splatter on the bottom of someone's trousers, you think nothing of it.
But yes, 13th-century Arabs were known to be fairly fastidious with
their clothes.  Things like ripped denim, that we think nothing of any
more, would never be accepted then.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher