Reply To: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 3:8

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daniela
Participant

Of course we know why she is asking you. She did not ask you why some details of a neurosurgery are not performed in a different way, nor did she ask you about altering the definition for a topological manifold, because (1) she is well aware she does not master either topic and would make a fool of herself (and a secular teacher would *not* react nicely – which I do not advocate, I am merely stating a fact) and (2) this is not the whole story, as she has understood all there is to understand: a woman should not pass between two men and a man should not pass between two women. She is not asking you a halachic question (such as how distant may two woman be, to be permissible for man to walk between them), she is asking you why the Torah counterposes two women and two pigs. There is no answer to that which will satisfy her. It is my opinion that the more you try to answer, the more you will fuel her misplaced feelings of being demeaned. I actually wonder if it is the quote who bothers her, or viceversa if she is bothered and seeks quotes to rationalize why she is bothered. Are you bothered by this quote? I am not. If there’s a large sign at the border “animals and diamonds must be declared at customs” I think everyone, even a fool, will figure out the obvious, the animals are subject to health checks, the diamonds to taxation. No one will think we are entering a country that does not value diamonds! Most important, someone who is bothered by this quote is likely to be bothered by plenty of other quotes in the Torah. In such a situation I think only extreme honesty and sincerity on both sides can help.