[Avodah] Handshaking

[Esther and Aryeh Frimer]

In a 1914 responsum, R. Salomon Carlebach (Rabbi of Lübeck, Germany) maintained that refraining from handshaking with women is merely a laudable stringency, which can be set aside by kevod ha-beriyot; see: R. Solomon Carlebach “Mareh Mekomot leIssur Peri’at Rosh beIsha veDinei Pe’ah Nochrit,” leDavid Tsvi (Berlin, 5674), pp. 218-219. This seems to have been the general position and practice of the German Orthodox Rabbinate at that time; see discussion in: Isaac Jacob Fuchs, Halikhot Bat Yisrael, Chap. 7, no. 14, note 29; R. Samuel Jacob haLevi Haber, Et Tsenu'im Hokhma, II (Karnei Shomron, 5767), sec. 14, p. 298-305. Similar positions are attributed to: R. Chaim Belin, Resp. Nishmat Hayyim, sec. 135, no. 6; R. Elimelekh Bar Shaul, in a letter cited by R. Samuel Katz, Kedoshim Tihiyu (Jerusalem: 5740) p. 227; R. Moshe Feinstein, cited by R. Zvi Lampel in consultation with R. Reuven Feinstein – available online at http://tinyurl.com/mpwf66; R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik cited by R. Gil Student, available online at: http://tinyurl.com/n9eun3; R. Yaakov Kaminetzky, Titen Emet leYaakov al haTur veShulkhan Arukh, p. 405, n. 4; R. Nathan Bulman, cited by his daughter Toby Katz  – available online at http://tinyurl.com/mpwf66. See also the related comments of; R. Yehuda Herzl Henkin, haMa'ayan, 18:4 (Tammuz 5738), pp. 78-95, at p. 90 – reprinted in Resp. Bnai Vanim, I, sec. 37; R. Yehuda Henkin, "Is Handshaking a Torah Violation," Hakirah – The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, vol. 4 (Winter 2007), pp. 115-120, at p. 119 – reprinted in R. Yehuda Henkin, Understanding Tzniut (Jerusalem: Urim, 2008), Chap. 4, pp. 95-100; R. Yehuda Henkin, "Letters to Editor: Handshaking," Hakirah – The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, vol. 5 (Fall 2007), pp. 20-23; R. Asher Benzion Buchman, "Letters to Editor: Handshaking," Hakirah – The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, vol. 5 (Fall 2007), pp. 23-27; R. Elyakim Getsel Ellinson, Hatsne'a Lekhet – haIsha veHamitsvot, Sefer Sheni (Jerusalem: Histadrut haTsiyonit haOlamit: 5741), Chap. 2, no. 12, notes 96-97. 
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