Israel’s chief rabbi has ventured into the divisive question of gender segregation, saying such practices, adopted by some devout Jews, are not required by Jewish law.
Rabbi Shlomo Amar spoke on Monday after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was quoted by Israeli media as expressing shock over segregated buses and other practices adopted by ultra-Orthodox religious activists.
In a radio interview, Rabbi Amar criticized these relatively new and controversial practices. He says people do these things for their own sake, but “it’s not Jewish law.”
In recent months, radical activists have also cowed advertisers into removing images of women from billboards, shunted women onto separate sidewalks and walked out of military events were women were singing.
(Source: ABC News)
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8 Responses
The implication in the above article is that Kol Isha [women singing] – what the Gemara refers to as on par with exposing normally covered parts of the body – is also “not Jewish Law.” I somehow doubt that this is what Rav Amar meant. Either he should clarify himself, or YWN should be careful as to what it publishes!
“radical activists”?????
Religious soldiers walking out to avoid the Aveira of Kol Isha are “radical activists”?
YWN: Please reread this article!! While bussing might be a “choice” kol isha is b’feirush in halacha!! And the segregated sidewalk thing was definitely done for the right reasons, and it was a one time thing (if this is referring to the Succos incident)
Aparently Hillary Clinton had no problem with “womens rights” when she activley solicited the Skverer Rebbe and his community for votes during her senate campaign. Somehow I doubt that any of the Chasidim shook her hand.
One must ditinguish between the “Chareidi” bus lines which are a new “frumkeit” invention and the Frum soldiers who are makpid on the halacha of kol isha. The soldiers deserve our support.
It’s not a law, but rather strong custom that clashes with the those of the goyim (including Jewish “wannabee goyim”). For example, if they also told the female soldiers to do a strip tease as a part of the ceremony, they would also have left, but most western cultures would be more sympathetic (we have a broader definition of immodesty – they object to bare breasts in public, but not to singing even though it would be quite easy to show that men tend to be attracted to a woman’s voice just as most men are in western cultures are attracted to seeing the normally covered parts being uncovered).
If they were objecting to non-gender specific, multi-user bathrooms on public transit, we would also object, but many goyim would also. Their culture also demands a high degree of gender-specific privacy in the wash rooms, but unlike us, they don’t mind having opposite-sex strangers jostling against their bodies.
In all fairness, we seems to be very prudish, overdressed and “standoffish”. It’s a cultural matter. There are some cultures that are radically more open on such matters as the westerners, and some that are radically more conservative than our’s.
The bottom line is the secular Israelis are making a point that they don’t want to tolerate us. They are making it clear they do NOT want frum Jews in the army. They set up a special unit for what they hoped would be “off the derekh” hareidim who could be eased into secular society, and saw it taken over by frum nationalists. Just as in the past, they want to establish rules to isolate and marginalize us, to guarantee that a frum Jew who partipates in mainstream society has to give up yiddishkeit to do so. As the goyim would say, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.
Rav Amar only spoke about separation on busses. By calling them “mehadrin busses” their proponents are admitting that it is not the halacha.
The last is apparently a verbatim quote from ABC news put in to distort the situation and cause hatred. Doesn’t TYW have a delete button?
#5, the purpose of the Nahal Haredi is to provide an alternative for boys who are not slated for a life as rabbanim or ramim. The idea is to bring them into the general job market without sacrificing their religious principles (as is the case in Chutz LaAretzwhere the vast majority of Haredi men work in regular jobs).
#6 – The army’s purpose in Nahal Hareidi was to get them out of yeshiva and into a secular environment with the hope that it would serve as a “half way” house on the road to enlightenment. It apparently failed miserably from their perspective, and don’t be surprised if their are more and more calls from hilonim to get rid of the unit (which there are, though obvioulsy not in frum newspapers).
The comparison that Clinton made to Rosa Parks is based on her ignorance. Chareidi women are not forced to sit in the back of buses. They do so voluntarily. And before she criticizes Israel domestic policy, she should have a look at segregation on buses in the US. Isn’t the MOnsey bus segregated as well?