[Avodah] Tzeni'us and gender roles

[Meir Shinnar]

>
> And last, I still don't see how you provide any proof that the word
> "tzeni'us" means something other than "acting betzin'ah", that
> vehatznieah lekhes isn't dachui by the need to have leaders. You  
> aren't
> even arguing hutrah, you are telling me to follow a different and
> unprovided definition of the word without a source behind the claim
> that RHS -- or actually RYBS, since he discussed it in Nefesh haRav  
> (pg
> 281) -- got it wrong by translating the word literally. Tzin'ah is the
> antonym of parhesia, no?
I looked up in Nefesh Harav, and he actually says something quite  
different, and even a ra'aya lisgtor.  He argues that tzeniut means  
that it is incumbent upon everyone, including gdole yisrael and those  
involved in the public arena, to keep their private lives private -  
this was in the context of commenting on the appropriateness of  
biographies, and arguing that we learn from hashem about being hidden  
- and that his father, in spite of being involved publicly, remained a  
private person.  This is actually proof that RYBS did not hold that  
there was an issur of zniut of being involved in the public sphere,  
that somehow was being nidche - in talking about the issue of zniut,  
he does not at all say that there was any issue in being in the public  
sphere - rather, that while in the public sphere, keep your private  
side private - a very differen t issue.

Meir Shiinar
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