Going too far

Not too long ago, I saw Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar attend an official ceremony in Jerusalem that featured a female singer. Yet he did not leave the site when she started singing, even though according to Orthodox Judaism men are generally not allowed to hear women sing.

As we can assume with certainty that the rabbi is familiar with this decree, and as we are completely certain that he is not en route to abandoning his religious beliefs, it’s clear that his decision to remain in the ceremony was made on the basis of a quick Jewish law decision: The honorable rabbi decided not to insult the female singer and the event’s organizers.

He probably told himself that in a Jewish State that is home to so many seculars, religious Jews must pay a certain price in order to maintain peace at home. Therefore, he looked down to the ground until the young lady finished singing, thereby coming up with an appropriate compromise between his obligations to the Torah and the constraints imposed by the setting.

The ultra-Orthodox camp that insists on gender-segregated buses can also look down to the ground and resolve this issue, but it wishes to do something else; that is, to take over the country. With great chutzpa it attempts to force its odd travel habits upon anyone who uses public transportation.

As opposed to the above-mentioned case involving Rabbi Amar, there is no Jewish law dilemma here, because there is no ban on traveling in gender-mixed buses; this is merely a private caprice. The notion of segregation is a wild extension of Talmudic regulations that borders on the absurd. Our sages recommended that a woman cover her head, not that she wear a Taliban-style veil. As they were familiar with the spirit of men, they ordered segregated swimming, but refrained from demanding two separate oceans.

Even in the ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood, men and women still share the public space, and so it is unclear where the initiative for gender segregation on buses emerged from.

Senior rabbis and other righteous individuals have been traveling for ages now in shared buses and gender-mixed trains. Did they too commit a sin? The leading Hassidic rabbis have been traveling on airplanes that carry both men and women without thinking twice. Did any of them ever demand a segregated route from New York to Jerusalem?

Next week, the transportation minister is supposed to rule on the fate of the segregated bus routes in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. Let’s hope that he will not allow their continued operation. And if the above-mentioned haredi camp rejects the ruling, they can just walk everywhere. It’s hard to believe they’ll be able to find segregated sidewalks.