Thursday, July 03, 2008

Interesting Wording

Recently, the Rabbinical Committee of Transportation (whoever they are) distributed a brochure in the Bais Ya'akov system advising girls to ride in the back of the bus (as is done on mehadrin buses) so that riding can be done in a "halachic" manner.

Of course, the interesting thing about all this is that it has nothing to do with halacha. There is no halacha anywhere in Shulchan Aruch or anywhere else that says that men and women cannot sit together when riding in public transportation. Were it so, then thousands (millions, maybe?) of Jews would be violating halacha every time they boarded the New York City subway system or rode on a city bus.

Call it a chumra. Heck, call it a hiddur if you like. But don't suggest that thousands and thousands of people who are shomrei Torah U'Mitzvos are violating halacha every day by suggesting that complete segregation is the only "halachic" way to ride the bus.

The Wolf

9 comments:

ProfK said...

"But don't suggest that thousands and thousands of people who are shomrei Torah U'Mitzvos are violating halacha every day by suggesting that complete segregation is the only "halachic" way to ride the bus." Gee Wolf, why isn't this just a logical "halachic" progression for these people? They already have separate shopping hours in grocery stores for men and women because who knows what would happen if a man and a woman were to find themselves in public in the frozen food aisle.And sitting next to each other in full view of an entire busload of people? Why how shocking! It might lead to mixed grocery shopping!

Anonymous said...

...Wonder what Rosa Parks would say

Lion of Zion said...

of course i agree with your sentiments, but i just wanted to note that we shouldn't be surprised that the shulhan arukh does not have a siman dealing with mass public transportation

Pesky Settler said...

You might want to take into account that this IS Ynet, notoriously anti-Haredi and the wording of the original Hebrew brochure isn't quite as strongly worded with things like "halacha'.

SuperRaizy said...

"the Rabbinical Committee of Transportation (whoever they are)"-
You kind of just glossed over that, Wolf, but I think that it's an important point. What on earth is a Rabbinical Committee of Transportation? Who are its members? Who appointed them? What exactly do they hold authority over?
It's gotten to the point where anyone can hang up a flyer declaring that "the Rabbis" have decided this or that, and people will obey the "decree" without question. I'll bet if you and I print out a flyer in Yiddish saying that "the Rabbis" have decreed that tomatoes are no longer kosher, lots of people will stop eating tomatoes and will threaten to burn down the stores of Jews who do sell tomatoes.

Anonymous said...

No wonder there's a "Shidduch Crisis"!!! How would you like to be out on a date and lose your prospective shidduch when forced to sit on the other side of a crowded bus? Its also pretty hard to hold a (potentially private) conversation in that manner.

Unknown said...

As usual-right on the money.
And now some of the girls will feel guilty and the others will feel 'this must be a joke.'

bluke said...

Take a look at this. What airline should you fly on?

According to the ועד לעניני תחבורה the main criteria for picking an airline is whether or not the flight has movies shown.

Zev Stern said...

These idiots outdo themselves in craziness every day. Now, girls in back of the bus. Wait, we're not in our own little world. Rowdy young men, some Jewish and some not, regularly sit in back of the bus. And stand, and yell, and make lewd comments and grope any girl they can get their hands on. Young Jewish yeshiva boys (one hesitates to call them men) are afraid to go to the back of the bus to protect their women. And if they did, that defeats the purpose of de facto segregation anyway. But then who said these people had any brains?