[Avodah] More on Married Women Should Not Wear Wigs

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 08:19:42AM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> I thought shoulder height/was/  to block the view, but in any case...
>
> By definition a shoulder-high mechitza can be seen over!  RMF permits it
> because the purpose is not to prevent the men from seeing the women, but
> rather to prevent them from mingling....

It depends what you aren't supposed to be looking at. At shoulder height,
the mechitzah reduces the people on the other side to floating heads. And
so I misunderstood RMF as not being choleiq by defining the point as
preventing mingling as much as blocking the view of torsi. But analyzing
my error any further is pointless.

> You seem to be under the impression that RMF is a machmir on mechitza,
> rather than the meikil that he is known to be..

No, I'm using him as a foil against RYBS, who is yet more meiqil.

My point, to pull the conversation back to it (for the 2nd time)
isn't machmir vs meiqil, but pasqening based on letter of the law
(RYBS) vs requiring one ALSO fulfil the intent (RMF). Belaboring my
misunderstanding (already conceded, also twice) of RMF's intent distracts
from the original conversation.

According to RYBS, who says that the taqanah is a mechitzah of the usual
dinim, so that one can use lavud to construct a 10 tefach high plane
and still be yotzei, why not say the parallel -- that a woman can be
yotzeit with a human hair sheitl that looks real? And more to the point,
the majority who are choleqim, wouldn't the same approach to halakhah
require disallowing such sheitlach?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "As long as the candle is still burning,
micha at aishdas.org        it is still possible to accomplish and to
http://www.aishdas.org   mend."
Fax: (270) 514-1507          - Anonymous shoemaker to R' Yisrael Salanter