Reply To: Making Stuff Up and Sources

The Kitzur is giving an example, not the only example and not the minimum example. No one holds someones hand in public for non-affectionate reasons.

There is a boy in my shul with Down’s Syndrome. He’s 12 years old. For some reason that I can’t fathom, he’s taken a liking to me. He always requests to hold my hand in the street — and I let him. And I can guarantee you — no one thinks that it’s because it’s an act of chibah.

It is clearly assur and a very serious aveira.

It’s obviously not so clear if the Mechaber of the SA didn’t mention it and the Rema only mentioned it off-topically (in a chapter that wasn’t even discussing spousal relationships at all) in an offhand manner as a “yesh omrim.”

The Wolf