How can this be? How can a man whose name you have never heard, who is unknown in his home town, even to neighbors on his street, surpass the world's greatest scholars in matters of halacha?
It can be precisely because I am not a great scholar. Rather, I am an average man. A significant portion of the purpose and rules of tznius are designed to protect the average man from sin. So if you want a guide for tznius, go to the average man and ask, "Does this attract your attention?" "Does it put inappropriate thoughts in your head?"
So I am here to tell you that shells and their accessories are a major problem. They put thoughts in the head. The idea behind the shell is to take an immodest garment like a "Pins And Needles Daisy Lace Peplum Tank Top" and pair it with an elastic, clingy, shiny, and tight fitting shell in the wild hope that somehow the product will be modest. One is reminded of the expression that two wrongs don't make a right. If you prefer mathematical equations: immodest plus immodest does not equal modest.
Shells are essentially leotards. Dancers wear them precisely because they show off the body and free the body for unrestricted movement. Shells are bathing suits. Bathers wear them because they show off the body and free the body for unrestricted movement. Is a Jewish man permitted to visit the beach? Can he go to Broadway to watch Cats or Chicago? Then why can he go to a chasunah, to a shul on Shabbos, to the streets of a frum community, or to anywhere that Jewish women prance about in their shells, their leotards, their bathing suits?
Shall we all move to Lakewood. No, because they wear shells in Lakewood. They wear shells everywhere. The Satan slipped this insanity called shells into every community that I have visited other than Monroe. Shall I become Satmar? Is that what I must do to be in a place where the average frum woman (there are proper individual women in every community) dresses like a bas Yisrael and doesn't fall to this folly they call the shell?
A decade ago, maintaining modesty was difficult. Now it's easy. Buy any kind of garment you want, mix it with a shell, and you are kosher. This sudden switch from challenging to easy should give us pause.
Consider an analogy. Keeping kosher can be highly challenging for people who work outside of Midtown Manhattan or Jewish Brooklyn. Even in NY metro areas such as Jersey City, there's no kosher food to be had and a person has to be careful to pack lunch or suffer. And what happens if you pack lunch but find that you have to work late? Potato chips for dinner?
What if I proposed to you a simple solution? Buy any food you want and wrap it in a kosher pita? Don't worry about the kashrus of the food. Just stick it in a pita. Suddenly, what was once difficult is now a breeze.
This obviously facetious suggestion is equivalent to the faulty logic behind shells as the panacea for modesty in women's clothing. Buy whatever you want as long as you pair it with a bathing suit. That essentially is what's going on today. Let's make it as easy as possible on the ladies as if easy creates kedushah and gets you into heaven. Are you really doing anyone any favors with such an approach?
Meanwhile, the men and the boys go from the goyish environments to the Jewish and still can't get a break, still can't open their eyes as they cross the intersections. We hear much about the dangers of the Internet. It's time for an asifa on shells even if it upsets some of the wives and daughters. It's not so hard to challenge and attack the goyish inventions. Can we challenge our own?
1 comment:
The pita analogy is fantastic. It would be great if it catches on and people start to get the picture as to the insidious nature of tight-fitting shells in our community.
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