[Avodah] Tzeni'us and gender roles

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 11:50:03AM +0100, Chana Luntz wrote:
: Let us just think for a moment about what it means to be either a litigant
: or a witness in any court system...
: The whole exercise is, has to be, one of public humilation...
: And take what perhaps seems like a more innocuous form of witnessing - eg
: being the eidim at a wedding.  Well that is all fine and good if everything
: goes well.  But if there is a serious problem with the marriage, then there
: could well be, many years down the track, a serious push to pasul you the
: eid....

If you make the argument that we must be holding by a different
definition of tzeni'us because our behavior doesn't fit the literal
translation, then why not here too?

It is considered a kibud to be an eid at a wedding. I assume because it
implies that the person is clearly one "everybody" would accept eidus
from. But also because we realize that few people are really embarassed
by being singled out for positive attention.

The seifa you are willing to use as a raayah that tzeni'us is
misunderstood. (Although I don't see how your later definition (b)
ended up differing from my take on RHS.) So why not use the reisha to
prove that women also shouldn't be concerned about the long-shot of
humiliation at a messy get case?

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Never must we think that the Jewish element
micha at aishdas.org        in us could exist without the human element
http://www.aishdas.org   or vice versa.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                     - Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch