SJ:
“There is little that justifies this kind of insanity.”
See, us crazy ultra-Orthodox Jews believe in this thing called “halacha”, which we follow no matter what. However, there are other streams of so-called-Judaism may deviate from the halacha if they deside it looks “insane”; try Reform.
“I don’t buy Kanievsky’s psak at all, it’s stringent for the sake of being stringent.”
Mods, don’t you think that accusing “Kanievsky” of completely making up halachos is well over the line of an acceptable comment?
pou_bear:
“DaasYochid – I said turned off. The issur of creating a chillul Hashem is not only amongst non-Jews , its amongst your fellow brethren as well. The reason why I am saying this is because many times we have to do things that non-jews think are completely absurd and look down at us for(i.e.bris mila, davening in public)”
So according to your definition of Chillul Hashem (which I’d love to see a source for, by the way), why isn’t bris mila and davening indeed a Chillul Hashem?
“but in this case , it goes both ways and is obviously not halacha.”
Says you. Apparently, R’ Elyashiv disagrees.
yytz:
“I’m sure there are Jews who are very close to accepting the truth of Orthodoxy and becoming complete ba’alei teshuvah, who see something like this (or some other ultra-machmir practice), and get turned off for good.”
First of all, basing your opinion entirely on something that you merely assume is true does not make for a very convincing argument. (The same goes for your previous statement “I find it hard to believe no major poskim would find grounds for leniency”.)
Secondly, we do not believe in whitewashing Judaism for the sake of PR. Our job is to keep the Halacha as best as we can, not to change it to make it palatable to the world.
michaelw:
“I have no doubt that this individual was doing what he was told was right. That said, I’m an observant person and seeing this makes me question whether I should be less observant. Honestly. There is no way that Hashem intends us to wrap ourselves in plastic bags when we travel on airplanes.”
If you’ll excuse me for being so blunt, when did Hashem tell you exactly what He does and doesn’t want?
“Aside from causing us to be the object of ridicule amongst the nations to whom we are meant to be light”
Would you similarly advocate that we drop our objections to homosexuality, abortion, etc. due to the nations’ ridicule?
zdad:
“So why is it a problem in Israel , but not a problem at LaGaurdia Airport, Plenty of Charedim use LaGauadia Airport (It might be a problem at JFK too, but im not sure) .”
According to this shita, it very well might be. However, Chareidim are not made in molds and are not necessarily in lockstep on every issue; some follow other shittos.