Frume Sarah's World

But what if you decided to wear your bathing suit to shul tonight?  It’s also a congregational event, yet here…and now…we’d all consider such attire inappropriate—indeed, immodest.

Yesterday, I was at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles.  I had been invited to participate in a panel discussion in a class entitled Ordination Seminar.  These students will be ordained as rabbis by the President of the College, Rabbi David Ellenson, two days after he speaks here at shul this coming May.

After class, I attended the Thursday morning service at which Torah was read.  I especially loved the music, which was led by Julie Silver—a fabulous contemporary songwriter whom we have hosted at our shul.   When I saw the Second Year Education student approach the Bima to read Torah, I turned to the professor sitting next to me—Dr. Leah Hochman, last year’s CBT Scholar-in-Residence, and exclaimed, “I sure am glad she’s wearing a talis”!  The prayer shawl fortunately doubled as a cover up.  You see, the top she was wearing didn’t quite do that job!

Though tz’niut is discussed widely in Orthodox circles, modesty is a Jewish issue — not the purview of solely one group within the Jewish world.  I decided to discuss this tonight because there have been several disturbing news stories coming out of Israel in the past few weeks relating to this very topic.  In the town of Bet Shemesh, a group of Orthodox men spat at an eight year old girl whom they felt was dressed immodestly.  Their behavior is horrible…period.  However, if you were to see a photo of the little girl, you would be even more astounded.  The girl is Orthodox, too, and her dress was very modest…but not modest enough for these men.

We tend to use the word Orthodox to describe many different kinds of Jews.  Just as Jews in general do not all agree on…anything (you know—ten Jews…eleven opinions) the same can be said about  Orthodox Jews.  Indeed, there is a very wide divergence in views between Modern Orthodox Jews (sometimes called Centrist Orthodox) and Charedim (Ultra-Orthodox Jews-“Black hats”).

Here are some other disturbing stories recently in the news from Israel:  More and more public busses are making women sit in the back of the bus on routes that go through Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.  The Puah Institute, specializing in medical research on women’s health—and especially fertility—issues, recently held a conference, but wouldn’t allow female doctors to present papers or sit on panels.  A woman won an award for excellence in her scientific research, but she was not permitted on the stage to accept the award.  Instead, it had to be given to a man representing her!

This is not Judaism!  Certainly it isn’t Reform Judaism.  It isn’t Orthodox Judaism, either!  In a brilliant piece in today’s New York Times, Rabbi Dov Linzer, Dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah—a leading Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Seminary in New York—writes that the Talmud, which is the basis of Jewish Law, places the responsibility for controlling men’s licentious thought about women squarely on the men.  He argues that the Charedim are the ones who are hyper-sexualizing women.  In the Ultra-Orthodox world, in order to protect men from their sexual thoughts, women must remove their femininity from their public presence, ridding themselves of the smallest evidence of their own sexuality.

Rabbi Linzer concludes:  “Jewish tradition teaches men and women alike that they should be modest in their dress.  But modesty is not defined by, or even primarily about, how much of one’s body is covered.  It is about comportment and behavior.”

Lest you think that Rabbi Linzer’s is a voice in the wilderness, let me mention what was taught this week by Rabbi Marc D. Angel, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel/the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York, and past president of the Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America:  “Without discounting the reality of sexual attraction and the need for modesty, it is imperative that we recognize the legitimacy and necessity of proper interaction between males and females.  If men have a problem listening to a scientific paper presented by a female doctor, let those men leave the room—but the female doctor should not be prevented from sharing her knowledge with her colleagues.  If men feel they can’t control themselves if they sit next to a woman on a bus, let such men move to the back of the bus—not penalize the women passengers.

Tz’niut is certainly a matter of worthy of our attention.  So is the right of women and men to live in the 21^st century without the imposition of restrictions some might want to bring back from the middle ages!

As Reform Jews who have suffered from mischaracterization, let us be careful not to paint all Orthodox Jews with too broad a brush.  There surely are voices of reason among the Orthodox rabbinate who teach their people how to live observant Jewish lives in a fair and modern manner.