Reply To: A mitzvah for an aveira? or at someone else’s expense?

If a man in the business world or anywhere, for that matter extends his hand to me (as did my daughter’s surgeon, recently), you had best believe I will not embarrass him by a) refusing to shake hands and b) attempting to explain to him al regel achas why we don’t shake hands. Most people (and especially if they are Jewish, but not affiliated) DO take offense, or think you are an oddball or feel you are holier than thou when you do that. At the very least, they are made to feel mighty awkward, and THAT is never good for business. There is a direct prohibition in the Torah against embarrassing someone, but there is no direct prohibition in the Torah against shaking hands with a person of the OS.