Tablet Magazine is an online magazine geared toward modern Jews that runs the gamut from news and politics, to art and culture, observance, and overall Judaism. Recently, the article Tights Squeeze: How Much Modesty Will Ever Be Enough for Orthodox Girls from author Avital Chizhik made its way into the observance section of the daily magazine, and it is a positively stellar read. Written with sincerity and unabashed candor, Chizhik was unafraid at parlaying the highly internal and devastatingly external conflicts that exist in today's Modern Orthodox world, especially for that of a young Modern Orthodox girl.
There is this "Keeping Up With The Joneses" mentality the young Yeshiva girls have adopted, where one "mitzvah" leads to another until you are suddenly Charedi, and subject to the whim of every Talmud scholar who you will maybe date and then support for the rest of your life. Not that this is a wrong way of living by any means, but the pressure to top your fellow Jewess in her mitzvah count is becoming ridiculous, and quite honestly, the idea of a mitzvah has been taken completely out of context; if wearing tights is a mitzvah, I'm a perpetual sinner once that mercury hits 70 degrees.
Chizhik's article bares an honesty many are not willing to expose at the risk of being deemed too modern for this highly "schticky" world-- because let's face it, this is all schtick at the end of the day, something this blog is ardently opposed to. Yes, I wear only skirts and wear longer sleeves, but that's a personal choice. I have said it before, and I'll say it again: Modesty is a guideline by which to live your life, not a mandate. If you choose to cover your elbows, cover your knees, and heck, wear tights, then power to ya sister. But if you don't, that's fine too. Honestly.
Follow me on Twitter @AronHakodeshJWG
Read Avital Chizhik's article here:
There is this "Keeping Up With The Joneses" mentality the young Yeshiva girls have adopted, where one "mitzvah" leads to another until you are suddenly Charedi, and subject to the whim of every Talmud scholar who you will maybe date and then support for the rest of your life. Not that this is a wrong way of living by any means, but the pressure to top your fellow Jewess in her mitzvah count is becoming ridiculous, and quite honestly, the idea of a mitzvah has been taken completely out of context; if wearing tights is a mitzvah, I'm a perpetual sinner once that mercury hits 70 degrees.
Chizhik's article bares an honesty many are not willing to expose at the risk of being deemed too modern for this highly "schticky" world-- because let's face it, this is all schtick at the end of the day, something this blog is ardently opposed to. Yes, I wear only skirts and wear longer sleeves, but that's a personal choice. I have said it before, and I'll say it again: Modesty is a guideline by which to live your life, not a mandate. If you choose to cover your elbows, cover your knees, and heck, wear tights, then power to ya sister. But if you don't, that's fine too. Honestly.
Follow me on Twitter @AronHakodeshJWG
Read Avital Chizhik's article here:
Follow me on Twitter @AronHakodeshJWG
I'm not sure you're right:
ReplyDeleteIf you choose to cover your elbows, cover your knees, and heck, wear tights, then power to ya sister. But if you don't, that's fine too. Honestly.
There are certain clear-cut halachos in Shulchan Aruch. How is that "not a mandate?"
Clear-cut is a pretty strong term. Clear-cut it is not. There's the Torah first and foremost, and then there is the shulchan aruch. Rabbis were more than happy to freely "interpret" their ideas of modesty, so to say that it's "clear-cut" is a bit extreme. The only mandate here is the Torah. Interpretation seems to be the "clear-cut" you are referring to, and that would be the guideline I refer to.
DeleteThat's not to say that I am not an advocate of covering up. Clearly, I am, as that is the whole point of my blog. But it really is ok if someone else's interpretation of the halachot of modesty is different from my own.
DeleteGood answer, Debbie! I always find it interesting when people make comments under the "Anonymous" moniker.
DeleteI have a whole post moldering on this.
ReplyDeleteI hate the word "tznius." It has been completely misused over the past few years, to the point that no one knows what it really means.
Just because I decide a certain length is proper for me doesn't mean if someone is wearing something shorter makes them irreligious.
"Modesty," in the end, is relative.