Igros Moshe (EH IV #100) Question There are people who make sure that their wives and daughters do not walk without stockings on their feet, but no one makes sure that the stockings are in such a way that it does not show the flesh. Why should seeing the flesh through stockings be permitted? We hold that all the flesh of the leg below the knee is considered nakedness. Why should it make a difference seeing it directly or through transparent stockings? We hold that nakedness in a transparent container is prohibited. Obviously if you hold like the Mishna Berura (75:02) that this area is not consider nakedness then there is no need to wear stockings at all? Answer In fact the concern in wearing stockings is for extra care because of modesty as the halacha is that the leg until the knee is not considered nakedness and the reason wearing transparent stockings is considered modesty is because in reality the threads of the stockings, even sheer ones, do not actually allow one to see the actual flesh of the leg. The proof is that when the stockings are colored white or black, one does not see the flesh of the leg. Thus it is only because the stocking are flesh colored it appears like you are seeing the flesh.Thus when wearing sheer stockings the leg is in fact covered and despite what seems to the on looker to be the leg is not the actual leg at all. So even in a situation of halachic nakedness it still would be considered covered . However then it would be prohibited because of arousing licentious thoughts. Thus with children for which there is no hirhur, even for areas considered nakedness in adults it would be sufficient.
So chareidi men are a bunch of Talibanesque paedophiles who can't control themselves and women and little girls have to bear the brunt of this?
ReplyDeleteI did a stint at an Agudah summer camp and once saw one of the rebbeim take his little girls down to the lake. I mean little, like 4 and 2 years old but both worse their black stocking as they ran through the water.
And I don't know who's sicker - the father who thinks that his daughters' feet will turn some guy on or the guy who gets turned on?
Why do you use the Taleban as a bad example? They are probably closer to the Bavli society in which the Gemara was developed, than Western Europe and America are.
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