Are white skirts not tzanuah?

Which, according to R' Akiva Eiger's Hava Amina, makes a fascinating Chiluk between single and married women repeating Bentsching on Yom Tov is they forget Ya'aleh V'yavo.

Explanation please, or at least a hebrewbooks link? I don’t have a copy at home, and getting hold of one presents an… issue.

I was too busy to respond when this thread was active. But here is my response.

Unlike most laws, tznius is not a set of rules; the spirit is actually what counts. And tznius cannot be broken down to a set of hard and fast rules either.

Are tight clothes tznius? Depends how tight.

Are bright clothes tznius? Depends how bright.

But even more importantly, it depends how bright AND tight.

See what I mean? Tight is a factor, and bright is a factor. The same tightness that is tznius in purple might not be tznius in yellow, and the same yellow might be tznius if looser but not tighter.

There are a million factors that go into it, and most of them cannot be dropped into little binary yes and no checkboxes.

In my opinion, white is less tznius than other colors, when combined with some other factors. I think that often a skirt that is tznius in brown is not tznius in white. But that doesn’t mean that “white skirt=non-tznius.”

The answer is fairly obvious. I was too busy to respond seriously.

Just found it – Hashmatos Siman 1

(If you dudes let, here’s a link! http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=1161&st=&pgnum=395)

To Slominer….

Slow news day and maybe the mishpacha is up in Monticello and you have time on your hands. A kalah can wear ANY color to her chassanah, although the minhag is obviously white (but some could argue that has become derech hagoyim so she could wear any other color, albeit tzanuah, and be OK). I’ve been at several frum weddings where chashuvah rabbonim were mesader kiddushin but where the kalah wore other light pastel colors.

I think white is a sign purity like it says אם יהי’ חטאיכם כשנים כשלג ילבינו if your sin will be seen red, I will make them white.

Slominer

I’m sure ANY color is ok…I’m only saying that at the chassanahs I’ve been to, where the bride wore a gown in anything other than white, it was a lighter pastel color. I’ve never seen purple or red for the kallah.

As to “minhag”, I’m using the term somewhat colloquially…its become a custom in both Jewish and non-Jewish weddings for a variety of reasons (no just the “sign of purity” etc.) not clear whether yidden or goyim started it first but I suspect its simply been woven into Western culture without regard to any considerations of halacha. Most kallahs fret about whether the gown is sufficiently tzinuyah, not whether the shade or white or slightly “off-white” satisfies some unrwitten minhag.

If we were doing something first, I don’t think it can “become derech hagoyim.”