[Avodah] Yichud and fostering

[Micha Berger]

RnCL ended her post with the following (which I forgot to address before
hitting send):
> And presumably if the child was placed with a non Jewish family there
> are all the issurim of allowing a chinuch aged child to eat treifus and
> violate shabbas ... as a kal v'chomer, it would seem surprising that a
> prevention of the violation of what must be at most a single d'rabbanan
> should be allowed to potentially cause the violation of many shabbasos
> and countless other d'orisas... .  And might there not also be some
> justification to say that this is a kind of a case of pidyon shevuim?

My wife asked the same R' Dovid Cohen but almost 20 years before that shiur
was taped about accepting phone calls on Shabbos. Siggy is part of a network
of people who find Jewish homes for Jewish children (mostly special needs).
RDC recommended she get a second line just for that purpose, and then accept
all calls to that line. When there is a tight timeline, phone calling to find
a home should start immediately not waiting for havdalah Finding a Jewish
family for a child before the state finds a non-Jewish one is an issue of
hatzalas nefashos. So, the comparison you make in the last line is in accord
with his pesaq, perhaps overly *weak* or perhaps we can't divorce the risk of
shemad from piqyon shevuyim.

BUT, that's adoption, not foster care. AND, it's about finding /any/ Jewish
home. Nidon didan is a home where there is no parent of the same gender as the
child. So, the heter isn't versus a non-Jewish home or one where kashrus and
Shabbos etc... aren't observed kehalakhah. It's versus the risk of not finding
an observant home with fewer yichud issues.

And yet again: If everyone reading RnCL's words would realize the severity of
the issue and therefore start seriously considering foster care, the agency
would have no problem saving this woman for placing girls. It's only because
there aren't enough foster parents among us rachmanim, bayshanim vegomelei
chasadim compared to the need that there was a she'eilah asked.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter