[Avodah] Glasses look to keep women out of sight

[Chana Luntz]

RRG writes:

>is the issue really one of pritzus that is "requiring" some people to wear
these glasses? if the people wearing these glasses are mostly located in mea
>Shearim (or maybe also RBS B), similar to the people wearing the burkas and
veils, isnt the level of pritzus fairly marginal in these areas?

Well I suspect what we have here is a disagreement about what constitutes
prizus, not dissimilar to the various disagreements we have about kashrus.  

In kashrus we have situations where there is what everybody agrees is m'ikar
hadin, and then there are situations where there are various shitos that
some holds are chumros and some hold are ikar hadin (eg not having chalav
hacompanies), and then it can get more and more extreme (with fewer and
fewer holding them as necessary).  At the very extreme you no doubt could
(at least in theory) find somebody who was only ever prepared to eat matza
(ie flour and water) from wheat that he harvested himself and ground
himself, and water that he boiled and then recondensed.  Somebody could
easily justify such behaviour by saying that with modern factory methods and
chemicals and technology, that is the only way today to be sure that
everything he eats is totally kosher - and that all the kulos in the
Shulchan Aruch were framed in a society where there were no chemicals and
modern technology. 

Now I have deliberately chosen an example here that I am sure everybody on
this list will regard as a bit nuts, not dissimilar to the burkas and veils
type position.  But there are people on this list who are not so far from
such a position, eg only food prepared in their own home, and not any
processed food, and the number that take this position goes up at pesach.

Similarly you might regard the level of pritzus to be found in Meah Sharim
etc to be fairly marginal, but that is dependent upon your definition of
pritzus.  I might well agree with you, but the reality is that the people
who are buying these glasses do not agree.  You may say they are like the
fellow who will only eat matzah and water, but you still end up with a
situation where people are claiming standards, which they are claiming are
based on halacha, and while we might disagree that indeed this is the
halacha, there is a question of what to do.

Now the biggest difference between questions of kashrus and questions of
pritzus is that, by and large, what people choose to eat or not eat does not
impact on others who hold differently.  That is not entirely true of course,
it may impact on relatives, or friends or workmates or congregants - and it
is in those types of situations that conflict often arises, and those of us
who hold that there are important halachic values in sholom bayis, darchei
shalom, and eiva and the like may be critical of those who insist on what we
regard as chumros in the face of such scenarios.  But by and large, if
somebody wants to go eating matzah and water, and spending time growing
their own wheat and boiling and condensing their own water, it does not
impact on the rest of us.

But that is not the same when it comes to what is defined as pritzus.  By
defining certain things as pritzus, that person is then usually attempting
to constrains the actions (usually) of women.  Somebody pointed to a sign
recently that I  believe has gone up in Meah Shearim which has modified the
old language asking women to refrain from dressing immodestly, or rather,
has added the words including those who dress in the "religious fashion" of
which the author of the sign clearly disapproves.  Here you very clearly
have a clash of religious standards.  If the women are religious, they
clearly do not think that the manner in which they are dressing is
inappropriate, while on the other hand the producer of the sign clearly
does.  The best solution, it seems to me, to this conflict of either
halachic standards, or halacha and chumra, depending on whose side you are
on, would seem to be these glasses.  The people who agree with the sign can
wear these glasses and avoid any problems with these (and any other) women.
The women can continue to dress in the way they hold to be halachically
appropriate.  That is why I said that I think these glasses are a good
solution for those who see the need for them.  It puts the man back into the
same situation as only eating matzah and water, and avoid issues of darchei
shalom and eivah and communal strife.  Ie just like the matzah and water,
those of us who think it is nutty can leave them to their nuttiness, and
those who hold that it is necessary can adopt the practice, without forcing
other people to live their lives according to values and halachic standards
which they hold are wrong.

>kol tuv
>Rafi Goldmeier

Regards

Chana