Rabbi Aaron Schechter, Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshivas Rabbenu Chaim Berlin, has called for a boycott of a wig shop …a small business that caters to the Frum community in his neighborhood. What is it that he thinks is worthy of taking away a man’s Parnassa? It is a photo display of women wearing Shaitels ‘with the point being that it should attract a persons attention and look.’ He calls those photos Pritzus.
As reported on the Yeshiva World blog:
When approached nicely by the Yungerleit to remove the photos, the owner answered that “this is not Bnei Brak”.
I haven’t seen the pictures. But I have been told that they’re just photos of women’s faces wearing the product which I’m sure are made to look attractive. No one is going to buy a Shaitel if it makes them look ugly.
These photos apparently are not much different than the ads one finds in the Jewish Press every week. Except that they are obviously of better quality than is possible in a newspaper ad.
If this is truly the case, then Rabbi Schechter’s response is incorrect, in my view. It is in fact not that much different than what is going on in Bnei Brak. Rabbi Schechter wants to raise the level of Kedusha. I understand that perfectly well. And that is his right. Perhaps it is even his duty.
But calling for a boycott is not the way to do it. Because what he ends up doing is marginalizing the members of that community… at virtual ‘gunpoint’. He is telling them that their level of Tznius observance is not good enough and that innocuous photos are tantamount to Pritzus… promiscuity!
It is true that in this great country of ours, boycotts are an effective and legal means of achieving our goals. If there is no violence then there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. And I am 100% certain that there will be no violence in this boycott at all. If there were, Rabbi Schechter would be the first one to condemn it and call off the boycott.
But that isn’t the point. Nor is the point: ‘It’s just a photo. Big deal. Take it down and make Rabbi Schechter happy.’ The issue here is forcing one’s own standards which go beyond basic Halacha upon a Hashkaficly pluralistic community.
Rabbi Schechter has a ‘bully pulpit’. He commands enormous respect and loyalty from all his Talmidim… the students he has had over many decades. And his stature in the Torah world goes well beyond the Flatbush location of his Yeshiva. He is in fact a senior and long time member if the Agudah Moetzes. His proclamations therefore carry a lot of weight. So when he calls for a boycott, it will likely be very effective and force the wig shop into submission. It is highly unlikely that those who object to these kinds of standards will be able to overcome it - if they dare - by crossing the ‘picket line’ and shopping there.
So in the end this is nothing more than imposing one’s Tznius standards on others. It is not a Halachic issue. It is a Hashkafic issue. …to ‘raise’ the level of Kedusha in the neighborhood of his Yeshiva. A neighborhood that has a multi Hashkafic population.
Again this all assumes the pictures do not violate Halacha and expose parts of the female anatomy that are considered Erva… nakedness. If it does, than I support his right to call for a boycott and would ask people to honor it. But if as I suspect these are not in any way indecent photos, then the store owner is correct. Flatbush is indeed not Bnei Brak.
There is, however a disturbing component added into the mix here. Rabbi Schechter stated the following in his letter calling for the boycott:
I don’t want to further delve into this mans other excuses, and answers which were all filled with Chutzpah.
I don’t know what the shop owner’s ‘excuses and answers’ were, although it would be nice to know. But if he displayed Chutzpah to a group of young married Yeshiva men who were politely making a request, then he was wrong in doing so. There is never any excuse to act that way towards anyone, let alone those who dedicate their lives to learning Torah. Especially if they came in and made a polite request of a spiritual nature. This was clearly wrong and a condemnable Chilul HaShem.
But that is not the reason for the boycott. It is because in Rabbi Schechter’s view, those photos are Pritzus that should be removed. And based on what people who have seen them have told me they are not.
Brisk Yeshiva has a health food store right in its building. It has been there since the very beginning of their relocation over a decade ago. There is small photo of a woman on display in the window advertising what a healthy diet does for one’s body. It has been there for years. It is not pornographic in any way but would probably not get past the censors in the Jewish Press.
The Roshei Yeshiva in Brisk never protested them. They just ignored them. I think that’s what Rabbi Schechter should have done.
