Blogging the Omer, days 13 and 14: Hareidi rabbis apparently unable to differentiate "modest" from "invisible;" Methodists dump divestment.
Day 14, week two, day seven
Malchut of Gevurah
Good news or bad? Hard to say. Methodists overwhelmingly defeated measures calling for divestment from companies that allegedly enable Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
Divestment doesn’t strike me in this case as the most precise tool, especially given the supersessionist theology background grumbling that goes along with this movement, apparently. But OTOH, we don’t seem to hold the evangelicals to such a measurement when they say they will “support” Israel in any action they take.
SO when we have allies who disagree with Israel’s policies, what can they do to show it without being labelled as haters?
Well, There’s always J-street, now!
Day 13, week two, day six
Yesod of Gevurah
Ynet reports on the lastest mishegas:
Rabbi Shlomi Aviner has ruled that God disapproves of pants on women even when women are alone(!) Apparently the fact that God is not male and does not lust after women has been lost sight of somewhere. You should not even sleep in pajama pants since sleeping is a grand opportunity to show off your filthy, sinful bodies, ladies. Cover them up!!!
Aviner, Beit El’s rabbi and one of Religious Zionism’s most prominent leaders, was asked in a cellular Q&A session published in the “Small World” bulletin, “When a girl goes to relieve herself at night, is she allowed to say the ‘Asher Yatzar’ (‘he who formed’) prayer while wearing a short-sleeved shirt and trousers?”
The rabbi replied that it is permitted to say the prayer in such a case, but added that “in general, a woman must always wear modest clothes even when she is alone and in the dark, because the Holy one blessed be he is everywhere. And yes, trousers are a self-prohibition even when a woman is alone.”
However, Tsomet seems to have gotten the point that was made a few months ago when it came out that Hareidi women had begun taking upon themselves the modesty wrappings as seriously as Rabbi Aviner does and wrapping themselves in Burqas and more.
Rabbi Israel Rosen, head of the Tsomet Institute, has claimed an article published in synagogues over the weekend that “too much modesty leads women to the opposite direction, from abstinence to immorality.”
Rabbi Rosen also slammed the haredi norm to omit names of women from newspapers and from invitations, comparing it to the veil phenomenon in Muslim countries.
“For so-called modesty reasons, the woman is only presented as ‘his wife’, nameless, veiled, and my heart twitches,” he wrote in a weekly column published in synagogues over the weekend. “Is there no psychological connection between the hypocrisy of concealing the name and hiding the face under the ‘Taliban-style’ veil?”
You don’t think?
“a woman must always wear modest clothes even when she is alone and in the dark…And yes, trousers are a self-prohibition even when a woman is alone.”
I have been wondering about this for years, wondering when someone would finally stand up to this “lights out” insanity. A true bas yisroel will even learn to use the bathroom and perform tashmish ha’mitah while keeping her skirt below the knees.
And it is rabbis like this “Rabbi” Rosen who are personally responsible for the delay of Mashiach.
DK,
I think there is a few reasons as the why the Jewish Mashiach hasn’t arrived yet. I think it has to do alot with Israel’s unjust practices and I believe he will come when Israel acknowledges Palestinian sovereignty and provides them with compensation for 60 years of segregation, occupation, imprisonment and genocide.
The Mashiach may not have come because of the following too:
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Arabs – “It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them” and “The Lord…waste their seed and exterminate them.”
Rabbi Dov Lior – “a thousand Jewish lives aren’t worth a Jew’s finger nail”
Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu – said there is no Jewish teaching prohibiting the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians.
Shmuel Eliyahu, on Palestinian resistance – “We must kill 100 000, even a million, to make them stop resisting.”
David Ben Gurion – “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.”
Jews have to ask themselves, would the Mashiach want to come and rule a state that is so cruel? Would the Mashiach want to come and lead us when we’re doing to the Palestinians what we dont want done to ourselves? Or would the Mashiach want to come and lead a more just nation?
I wonder, if this whole tzneus thing will get to the point of wearing some sort of modesty outfit while bathing. I was all set on making aliyah to Israel until I heard of the insanity going on, condemning a noted rav on wearing a knitted kippa, women dressed like a pile of rags and those who beat women who board “their” bus. Now, I’ll stay here because I can attend shul without being condemed by some hareditic.
G-d most certainly would not send the Mosheach given these “rules” and who exclude those who don’t follow them blindly. To them, He would not be approprately dressed…
You know, I’d much rather zniut – since some are so bent on keeping it as an halakhic category – not be dependent on whether on not males are watching. In a twisted sort of way, I’m with Aviner on this one: if pants are evil, then they’re always evil.
The methodists may have gone belly up for now, but the great wide world of boycotts against the occupation is alive and well:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a9372/News/New_York.html
Protesting Leviev, From Here To Dubai
N.Y.-based Arab-Jewish group claims credit for UAE snub of diamond merchant; Leviev spokesman says stores will open under his name.