[Avodah] fashion models and opera singers

[Chana Luntz]

RTK wrote:

> In a message dated 5/2/2007, chana at kolsassoon.org.uk writes:
> >>Note that this issue comes up in a whole myriad of contexts - your
> husband may well face it, at least indirectly, if he sells 
> CDs and such to not such religious Jews - how does he know 
> they won't play them on shabbas?<< [--RCL]
> >>>>>

...
   A CD can certainly be played on weekdays, thus my 
> husband has no obligation to make sure that his customers do 
> in fact play CDs only on weekdays. 

A CD certainly can be played on weekdays.  However, if we assume that it
is normal for the owner of a CD to play it at least seven times, then,
statistically, one would expect that any person who paid no attention to
the days of the week is highly likely to play it on shabbas at least
once.  (In reality the statistical probability may well be higher, as
during the week people are busy with work and school, so that the time
for recreational activities such as CD playing is more likely to be at
weekends).  I agree that your husband has no idea which of his customers
will pay the CD on weekdays and which on shabbas, but if you argue that
the issur of lifnei iver is to help a person to commit an averah, then,
for the one that did play it on shabbas, that would seem to be what he
would end up doing.  The case of cheese blintzes and chopped liver is
slightly less analogous, as I don't think that it would be statistically
likely that anybody would eat them together (it would become analogous
if they were two items that non frum people generally put together).  On
the other hand, the case of the opera singer seems more like the case of
your husband (if you assume that a non Jew may hear a woman singing and
a Jew may not, which is of course an assumption, as I suspect there are
opinions that go against both of these).  It is quite possible that on
any given night, the entire audience is not Jewish.  It may be
statistically unlikely (depending on the demographics of the town), and
over time it may be completely statistically unlikely that she will
never sing to a Jew, but as she does not vet the audience, her knowledge
base is more comparable to your husband's - who also does not know that
an issur will be committed with the CD he sold.  This is unlike the
lawyer case where, because the lawyer meets his clients as individuals,
he is likely to know that the particular client in question is Jewish
and violating halacha.  That is why the lawyer case seems the strongest
of them all from a purely lifnei iver viewpoint.

> --Toby Katz
> =============

Shabbat Shalom (and very close to it, I had really better get of the
computer and go do some last minute things and light - it is always
weird to think that you are probably still miles away from shabbas yet)

Chana