[Avodah] Open Door Policy

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Harvey Benton _harveybenton at yahoo.com_ (mailto:harveybenton at yahoo.com) 


>>Sometimes  a married woman finds herself in a situation where she may need 
to be secluded  with a man who is not her husband.  For instance, if she 
visits a doctor or  dentist, or has a repairman over her house to fix something.... 
 <<
 


>>>>>
 
My understanding is that in her own home, there is no problem with the  
occasional man coming in as long as her husband is not out of town -- "ba'alah  
ba'ir" -- and could theoretically walk through the door at any moment (even  
though she knows he is at work -- but he could still come home unexpectedly, and  
he does have a key to his own house!).
 
At the doctor's office or dentist's office, it would be a rare office where  
the doctor and the patient were the only people present and there was no 
chance  of a nurse or receptionist coming through the door.  Nevertheless many  
doctors have a policy of explicitly asking a nurse to stay in the room with them  
when they are examining female patients, in order to protect themselves from  
wild accusations made by mentally unbalanced women.  Even though I am not  
mentally unbalanced and would not make wild accusations against my doctor, in  
the unusual case that he does not call in a nurse, I request that he do  so.  I 
simply feel more comfortable with another woman in the room.  I  have never 
known a doctor to hesitate or mind in the slightest when such a  request is 
made.
 
AFAIK halachically it is not necessary that another person be present in  the 
room, only that the door is unlocked and other people are nearby and could  
theoretically enter.
 
 
The case of a single, divorced or widowed woman, with no children at home,  
who needs a repairman -- that is more difficult.  I guess that leaving the  
front door open would help, or calling in a neighbor. 
 

--Toby  Katz
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