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]

Going from top to bottom, eh?

Regarding the shoe thing, there's a great summary in one of those halakha summary books in Hebrew; I forget the reference, but someone (else) who's taken Nati Helfgot's Orah Hayyim shiur at YCT might know it. (Maybe it's the Piskei Teshuvot?) I remember that there were three different purposes, but the only one I remember is that you should be able to feel the ground through the shoes. Barefoot ought to be permissible, since it's pretty much what the Mishna/Tosefta were imagining, since the latter talks about the case of cloth slippers as a middle case.

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

the acceptability going barefoot during (davening on) Yom Kippur.

What's the problem with that? The mishno forbids נעילת הסנדל. The gemoro presents the whole "non-leather shoes" thing as a loophole that Rovo used to use so that he wouldn't have to hurt his feet. If anything, going barefoot should be much better.

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

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.

OK, you're talking about hatam_soferet's latest post.

I found the first paragraph of hir post-- about the proper tune for פסוקי דזמרא on YK-- to be far more interesting than the second paragraph. I was disappointed that nobody else seemed to care. I kept looking back to see whether there were any new comments on that first paragraph, yet there were not.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

I didn't think it was that worthy ot tons of comments - I just felt like blowing off a bit of steam at tallis-lady.

I had a pair of shoes stashed under my chair for wearing during the Standing 18 and whilst reading Torah, and collected many, many weird looks the rest of the time. Hur.

[ryuutchi.livejournal.com]

Anything theoretical that's race, religion, or gender-related tends to bring my flist out in drove, my flist is diverse in a really weird way.

[jonahrank.livejournal.com]

I pride myself on tending not to respond to those as much.

Drat, I just did.

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of going barefoot in shul - adds to the spiritual communion with our natural selves (and therefore with Hashem, in whose image we are made) or something to that effect.

Probably not as easy on the feet as might be imagined, however.

[sen-ichi-rei.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. I think I was the one who started the whole headcovering discussion. I didn't realize what discussion it generated! I was out all day in xkcd-land!

[sen-ichi-rei.livejournal.com]

And I would have said the magical ingredient is Trevor! Everyone loves magical Trevor!

[ploni-bat-ploni.livejournal.com]

LOL!

That *is* the magic ingredient, although Niddah tends to do the trick also! :-)

But yeah, we congregate... so what? :-) We need a space to vent! :-)

[theshrewd.livejournal.com]

On a related note, I was told that I need to use a "hair restraint" at work, and a scarf was recommended as one option, but I feel wierd about that idea because I work at BU Hillel... and am not Jewish...