The Magical Ingredient

[debka_notion]

I think I've found the magical ingredient for generating tons of comments on LJ, at least among my friend- circle, and it is very simple-

Talk about head-covering and/or ritual-wear and gender.

I guess people with those interests tend to congregate.

I think other halakhic concerns might get close- so, here's one I need to do some research into- what has the status of a shoe, and the acceptability going barefoot during (davening on) Yom Kippur.

Comments

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

*congregates*

On head-covering: I can't persuade my boss it's anything but a rudeness on my part to wear headcoverings indoors at work, so I do it at home/shul and pick my battles.

On shoes on YK: I borrowed my wife's straw sandals with ribbon ties. I wouldn't ordinarily call them shoes... does that count? :)

[hotshot2000.livejournal.com]

"On head-covering: I can't persuade my boss it's anything but a rudeness on my part to wear headcoverings indoors at work, so I do it at home/shul and pick my battles."

Isn't it illegal for his private opinion on the matter to have any effect on how you're treated in the workplace? Smells like a freedom of religious expression lawsuit waiting to happen!

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

It comes under the same heading as cleavage. Social norms in some places dictate that you uncover when indoors. You ought to appreciate that :P

[hotshot2000.livejournal.com]

Not in America, and not legally. And yes, I appreciate social practices, in the context of the large matrix of values -- and there's no value in enforcing such a petty social form on other cultures and people who already embody what that form is supposed to indicate. To put it simply, I find strange_selkie's boss's attitude highly offensive and, yes, immoral.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

enforcing such a petty social form on other cultures

To her boss, perhaps it is no more offensive and immoral that insisting that male employees wear ties.

[hotshot2000.livejournal.com]

It sounded like strange_selkie tried to explain the significance of it and the boss still insisted on his norm. (If that's not the case, nevermind.)

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Meh. I'm not shomer anything else, so like I said, I pick my battles. And when I cover at work because I'm working a half day and then going to shul, for example, and someone 'You can take your hat off, we're inside', I just smile a cute smile.

I work in Virginia, and my entire professional life there could be a an extended civil rights battle, if I wanted to make it so. But I like my job, and Hashem doesn't care.

[hotshot2000.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing you like your job, because the whole situation sounds like it stinks. I just have a big issue with people like your boss who are so identity-threatened that they have to put their preference for contingent forms of social practices over an appreciation for the unique ways other culturse express the same values they're trying to express. (Yes, yes, I see the potential internal contradiction, but I think it's resolvable.)

You're right that the social practice of covering one's head isn't necessarily the highest value in the world, but I'd like to think that Hashem cares ddeply about your boss enforcing his pettiness on you.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Funny- I grew up with the etiquette that it is generally (i.e. outside of houses of worship) rude to wear hats indoors, but having switched into this atmosphere that is so predominated by Jews, I haven't thought that way in ages. Interesting that your boss feels so strongly about it. Is it a much stronger thing, culturally, where you are?

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think VA counts as the south, and it's definitely a southern thing. We live tangentially close to the black hatters here in MD, so I don't think about it other times, but it just doesn't serve anything to tick my boss off over a beret.