[Avodah] Women and Tefillin

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:

> In any case, I assumed we were talking about wearing her tzitzis
> out, or wearing a tallis. Undergarments are explicitly excluded
> from keli gever.

Much of the recent discussion here has mentioned that Beged Isha and Keli Gever go beyond actual clothing, but are still relevant specifically to things done for appearance. For example, RMB wrote:

> Simlas ishah can be violated by dying one's hair, plucking, etc.. It
> is not an issur cheftzah. Wearing tzitzis, when such is only done by
> men, could well be a violation of keli gever.

So far, all of the examples given have to do with appearance. Plucking hairs is not clothing, but is it an appearance-related thing which only women do. A weapon is not clothing, but if a woman wears it, she looks more manly. Underwear, and shaving certain body parts, should not be seen by the public, but they do change one's appearance, albeit invisibly.

An exception to all this is use of a mirror. It does not apply to us in our society, but once there were societies where men simply did not look in a mirror without a practical purpose. Mechaber and Rama (YD 156:2) both agree that in such a society, looking in a mirror by a man would constitute Lo Yilbash Gever.

At first thought, I was going to concede that this is still an appearance-related act. After all, personal grooming is much easier with a mirror, and I can easily imagine a man telling his friend (in another century), "Wow, you look nice today. Did you use a mirror?"

But then I reviewed the exceptions listed by the Rama. He specifically allows using a mirror to clean a stain from one's face, or to remove a feather from one's head. This leads me to suspect that (in those societies where men don't use a mirror) the issur is purely against the mere looking in the mirror itself, even if he is not doing this to improve his appearance.

If so, then perhaps we have evidence here that Kli Gever and Beged Isha are independent of clothing and appearance, but are defined in terms of "That's something that your gender simply doesn't do."

Or maybe I've misunderstood the halachos of the mirror.

Akiva Miller

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