Originally published 2/12/08, 3:57 PM, Eastern Daylight Time. The link no longer works.
The past week was filled with comments in the National Post (a newspaper that serves all of Canada) regarding an incident where an Orthodox rabbi did not shake hands with a female deputy mayor. Columnists in the paper found the rabbi's behaviour to be disrespectful, while many responded to these critiques with the defense that the rabbi meant no disrespect and was simply following his religious principles which should be, at least, understood in light of our concept of freedom of religion.
In following this case, two issues interested me. One was the need for individuals to learn how to relate with differing, and even conflicting, value systems. One can disagree but one still has to know the specifics of another's behaviour and what is its true message. A secular person may still find difficulties with the gender distinctions of Orthodoxy specifically, as in this case, with men not shaking hands with women, but it should still not be interpreted pursuant to the secular person's value constructs. Why a secular person may not shake hands with a person of another gender has nothing to do with why an Orthodox person may not. To live in a society of individuals with differing value systems means to understand the frame of reference of the other and know the message of a specific behaviour pursuant to this frame of reference, not the interpretor's frame of reference.
This leads me to a second issue that drew my attention. I direct you to
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/02/10/barbara-kay-responds-to-her-pro-hasidic-critics.aspx
which is a comment from one of columnists who critiqued the rabbi for not shaking hands. To defend herself she argued that, of course, it would be wrong to be upset by an Orthodox person simply following his/her religion -- but in this case the rabbi was not simply doing this. The columnist quotes a source that states that according to Halacha there is not problem with people of different genders shaking hands. That, in truth, may be a legitimate halachic position but prohibiting this shaking of hands is also a legitimate halachic position. Of course, the columnist is not knowledgeable of differences in Halacha -- but that is also a necessary knowledge for one who wishes to deal with differing value systems. How can one understand Orthodoxy without a knowledge of machloket, disagreement? To critique the rabbi for adopting a specific halachic opinion by stating that it is not a halachic opinion is absurd -- but this columnist does not know this for the columnist does not really understand Orthodoxy. This is a powerful caveat. Even when you think you understand the other, maybe you should still recognize that you do not.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
1 comment:
Having e-conversed with her, I think what she meant was that since there is a valid halachic opinion permitting the shaking of hands under certain circumstances, the Chabadiniks should have recognized the situation they were in and relied on that lenient opinon to avoid ruffling feathers. It is true however that she doesn't understand concepts like global approaches and the folliwng of systems in halachah. She just figures that since there's a lenient opinion out there, everyone should follow it when necessary.
Post a Comment