[Avodah] tznius

[Ilana Sober]

To respond to the responses to my post connecting the proliferation of
mass-produced non-tzanua clothing with the ethical problems of mass-produced
clothing in general:

1) I admit - I just buy regular clothes and other products manufactured in
developing countries with no unions, labour standards, etc. I think this
dulls my sensitivity somewhat - I don't really like to think about the
tremendous disparity between my life and those of the people who manufacture
my innumerable material belongings. And a sensitivity dulled to tzedek, and
to the suffering of human beings created b'tzelem Elokim, is perhaps more
easily dulled in other respects as well (e.g., tznius).

2) I will not get into a discussion about whether, given all the givens, the
people who make our clothes are a lot better off than they would be if they
were unemployed, or worked in coal mines, or were sold into brothels, or
whatever. Indeed they are - but they are also quite a bit worse off than I
am, and that should matter to me. I am not under the illusion that I can
rectify the large-scale injustices of the global economy just by buying
union. I am not even so certain that we can, short of mashiach, eliminate
poverty and inequity. But just because there is no alternative to suffering
does not mean we should view it indifferently. Remember the story with Rebbi
(I think) who was punished for his insensitivity to the calf that was being
led to slaughter? I don't think that story is meant to teach us to be
vegetarians, but to develop the middah of sensitivity.

3) I am not positing a direct cause/effect. I am just pointing out that
mass-produced clothing creates real difficulties in our observance of tznius
and that perhaps it is not coincidental that mass-produced clothing also
creates difficulties in another area of avodat H' - sensitivity to the
suffering of others.

- Ilana
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