Jewish burkas

[magid]

Yesterday I saw an article in the Telegraph about rabbis (specifically, the Eida Chareidis) banning wearing the burka for Jewish women, which has become the custom of some number of chareidi women in Beit Shemesh and environs, though they are calling it a sal, not a burka. (More articles, in the Times and Arutz Sheva). And all I could do was laugh in astonishment.

I can't count the number of times I've read missives from extremely right-wing sources (all starting "Daughters of Israel") about how Jewish women need to dress more conservatively, not only to keep men from inappropriate desire ('cause it's all about women putting themselves in smaller and smaller boxes,not about men learning to refrain), but also because the world will somehow be lead closer to a perfect world (but never seem to have the same kind of missives about, say, good business practices, or treating each other well).

And so these women have totally internalized this need to cover themselves from any eyes but those of their family, which one might see as the ultimate following of the tzniut dicta. But the Eida Chareidis is not happy. One article cites Chevy Weiss, a liaison between the religious community in Beit Shemesh and its leadership, as saying that part of Jewish religious teaching states that a woman should not draw unnecessary attention to herself — a rule that some rabbis feel the sal breaches. In another, a member of the Eida Chareidis, Shlomo Pappenheim, is quoted as saying “There is a real danger that by exaggerating, you are doing the opposite of what is intended [resulting in] severe transgressions in sexual matters.”

Which I might buy from some people, but not from the people who are constantly building fences around fences around fences: this is exactly that sort of situation, and this is the first time I've heard of them rejecting an extra fence. How much of this opinion is really about women choosing a garment that gets them mistaken for religious Arabs? A fair bit, if the stories in the articles are true. (I have to wonder how this would have played out had the garment in question had been more of a nun's habit, especially now that it is not common for nuns to wear the habit anymore.) And how much is about women deciding something for themselves, rather than exactly and only what their rabbis say? Getting, perhaps, uppity? (I know that wearing the burka in other communities may or may not be the women's choice.)

I will be fascinated to see how this plays out.

Comments

[sethg]

part of Jewish religious teaching states that a woman should not draw unnecessary attention to herself

When I was learning in Israel, a rabbi told me that in some charedi communities there were serious debates over whether it is tzenu‘a for a girl to wear sneakers to school. So the issue of “if you wear something that other women in the community don’t wear, you are immodest regardless of how little skin is being exposed” does not just apply to garments associated with Arabs.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Related to this, there's a serious discussion to be had as to whether a modern Orthodox woman working in a secular workplace should cover her hair at work, as a (non-shaitel) hair covering can call undue attention to her.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

This.

But I think magid has a good point (which I myself have made in the past regarding this issue, hence it's a good one! ;) ) that part of the issue here is women taking their religious observances into their own hands, rather than having a (male) rabbi dictate it to them.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

(I think it's pronounced "shal")

[magid.livejournal.com]

It may be; I was just using the word the article used.

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

"Which I might buy from some people, but not from the people who are constantly building fences around fences around fences: this is exactly that sort of situation, and this is the first time I've heard of them rejecting an extra fence."

Isn't it good to know there is a limit. Isn't it better to encourage them to see the folly of this reasoning rather than encourage them further along that path.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think I would be more inclined to accept it, that there might be absolutes beyond which we don't build fences, if it weren't a situation where it was women taking on a strict interpretation about something that has mostly been an issue of women's dress, not men's, despite there being laws on the books about both.