[Avodah] Shaking Hands

[Daniel Israel]

I know we've visited the sugya of a man shaking a woman's hand several 
times on this list.  I've been reviewing this in preparation for a shiur 
I'm giving, and I had some questions perhaps someone could shed light on.

1. It seems like the the major sources to be meikel are not from written 
psak.  I've heard it permitted in the name of many poskim from reliable 
sources, but is anyone aware of an actual t'shuva?  (I note an 
interesting piece in Hakira by RYYH.  He gives a very interesting 
discussion of the status of the issur, but simply presumes that 
according to those who don't hold it to be a d'orraissa it should be 
permitted to avoid embarrassment.  On this, see my next point.)

2. RMF writes that he hears the s'vara of not embarrassing, but he 
doesn't find it convincing.  Presumably that implies that he holds that 
the lav involved is d'rabbanan, otherwise he could simply argue that one 
lav doesn't override the other.  So is anyone aware what the s'varah is 
to reject the notion that not embarrassing wins out (written source 
preferred, but it doesn't have to be RMF).  The best I could come up 
with is that RMF feels that a refusal to shake hands due to the halachic 
issues intrinsically cannot create something that halachically 
constitutes embarrassment.

-- 
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu