[Avodah] Rav Shimon Schwab on how Jewish women should dress

[Ilana Sober Elzufon]

RYL citing RSS: In general, from Yeshayahu's rebuke of Jewish women's
flaunting of their clothing, jewelry, and beauty enhancements, it is quite
clear that such mode of behavior is highly unbecoming a Jewish woman...

Yishayahu also criticized korbanot - lamah li rov zivcheichem...mi bikeish
zot miyedchem r'mos chatzerai (1:11-12). He wasn't ch"v advocating that we
abolish korbanot, or claiming that avodat beit hamikdash is fundamentally
non-Jewish. He was saying that our distance from ratzon H' in other areas
was so great that it removed any value from the avodah, so that it became
repulsive. However, when we are keeping the rest of the Torah properly,
korbanot are certainly beloved by H'.

Similarly - because the behaviour of b'not Yisrael is so inappropriate, they
will be stripped of their adornments - adornments which would be perfectly
appropriate were they to behave in accordance with the Torah.

I will also note that women and girls often dress attractively in public
with a female audience in mind. There are certain elements of women's attire
that are conceived mainly to be attractive to men, and we know that a woman
should be pleasing to her husband, and to potential husbands if she is
single. However, many elements of women's clothes are totally lost on men -
other women will admire an interesting colour combination or detail of
styling to which men outside the fashion business would be oblivious. My
daughters spend plenty of time and effort choosing clothing and jewelry and
doing their hair in preparation for events at which no males will be
present.

- Ilana
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