Department of Social JusticSometimes, it ain't so pretty. I recall a halitza ceremony ceremony in Jerusalem about a decade ago attended by a hoard of on-lookers. Tractate Yevamot was being studied in a few major yeshivot in the area and people came for a kind of visual aid. It is unclear what the beit din was smoking when they offered a few invitations to Talmud scholars...
What sadness. You are right. This is not pretty.
ReplyDeleteIs this a picture of Cinderalla or of a Halitza? The woman is the one that's supposed to remove the shoe of the man at a Halitza ceremony, not vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThe beit din acted according to halacha in inviting a large crowd as stated in the Rem"a in Even Ha'ezer seder chalitza 169-13.
Yehuda, you are certainly a halakhic man! Regarding the picture, precisely. It is, I believe, a fascinating (obviously, blatantly non-halakhic) twist on the ritual. I suspect the artist intended to paint a cinderella-like scene as a way of interpreting those pesukim in Rut - which is a romance of sorts - in light of that western tale. In my opinion he (Akiva Katza) executed the work fantastically.
ReplyDeleteAs for the halacha, which is quite well established, to make the sure the halitza is public: I still believe that there is a dignified way of doing this. Show and tell of widow is not dignified. And I believe the treatment of widows is a supreme value. Wouldn't you agree?
I meant Avi Katz
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