Igros Moshe (E.H. 04:032.9):Shaking hands with women as greeting. It is obviously prohibited as I have written previously (O.C. 113) because of concerns for sexual arousal and pleasure. However I wrote (E.H. 56) that if you see religious Jews who are lenient to judge them favorably and assume that they are relying on the absence of sexual arousal and pleasure but I also wrote there that it is difficult to rely on this. I don’t see any inconsistency between prohibiting shaking hands but permitting riding on buses (E.H. 2:14) since there is no affection involved there for almost everyone.
Rav Yehuda Henkin, zt"l, in Bnei Banim, brings a teshuva in this and talks about common practice, as in shaking hands in a standard fashion is a sterile method of greeting that no one puts any actual thought into which should make it permissible where necessary.
ReplyDeleteNow, Europeans who insist on kissing on both cheeks, that's another shailoh.
Haha
DeleteEven lips with some bohemians
Your 2nd comment about normal lust has been removed
DeleteBut it's probably safe to write it again as our blogmaster is likely asleep this time of night.