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Feb 17, 2016
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the following post has already been translated, so I am first posting the translation, and then the post..
Posted by an Israeli rabbi today:
One of my female students called me this morning and said "We have a family occasion soon and I wanted to ask you about the dress I would wear."
I already had my usual answer ready - I try not to answer women about questions connected to their dress, and it would be better for her to ask a female teacher. But only when she continued, I understood the spiritual power in her question.
"I decided that I wouldn't spend more than a certain sum on this dress, because I don't want an expensive showy dress. I find that immodest. The thing is, I found a seamstress who wants 800 shekels, which is much more than the sum I decided on. But she is having a financial crisis and her husband is sick, and I know the Rambam says the highest form of tzedakah is to give work to a poor person so they can support themselves."
What's more important - the modesty of an inexpensive dress, or the kindness in supporting the seamstress? Suddenly I understood what Chazal meant when they coined the phrase "modest and kind", literally speaking.
Then I thought of the modesty guidelines that were recently published, which only deal with sleeve and skirt length. And I was happy with our students who know that the Torah has much more to say about "dress halacha" than just the question of what is covered or uncovered.
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In the original he was far less dismissive of lengths and centimeters than the translation implies
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