Sneakers on Tisha B'Av: When Spirit and Letter Collide

The wider world of conventional Judaism is going in fits and star air jordans online.s toward a renegotiation of the terms of halakhic observance. At question is the need for social change in the comprehension and use of the legal logic of the sages of old. In the past several years, voices from within the Orthodox fold have raised a formidable challenge to certain recognized norms of Jewish life and law, notably seeing the possibilities of female religious direction. Though not as emotionally charged, you can find lots of other stages of striking dissonance between codified law and modern reality that dot the landscape of Jewish observance. One that's caused something of a stir lately is the prohibition on legumes and rice for Ashkenazi Jews on Passover, a rule that everyone appears to know and bemoan as an artifact of early-modern grain storage techniques. Another, which appears to have escaped popular examination thus far, is the injunction against wearing leather shoes on the fast days of Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur---though the reason for the difference in essential interest shouldn't be difficult to get. Rabbinic law in the Talmud delineates five prohibitions that apply equally on Tisha B'Av, the day of biggest disaster, and Yom Kippur, the day of gravest repentance. These are: eating/drinking, married relations, applying make-up, bathing, and wearing leather shoes. The aim will be to create an encounter of uneasy abstinence, in one case as an indicator of mourning, as well as in the other as a way of self-purification. And yet for the observant Jew living in the age of Nike, the prohibition against leather shoes has just meant that twice per year, annually, on the two most serious days of the year, we were allowed to wear our most comfortable shoes to synagogue. True, not everyone came in gel-soled basketball shoes. Many preferred for awesome rubber flip-flops with socks, or the omnipresent white Keds. It isn't as though the irony of the scenario is absolutely lost on modern Jews. I recall my primary school teachers taking the time to explain the reasoning behind the prohibition as that leather shoes were once the most comfy type of footwear, back when these rules were first being written. Implied in the inclusion of this clarifying detail was an acknowledgment that we're now living in the absolute reverse situation: that at this point ever, the leather shoe epitomizes podiatric discomfort. Conventional halakha, as it frequently does, stands securely planted in an older order of things, in this case collapsing upon itself in a way that precludes any of its original meaningfulness. The prohibition against leather shoes is actually a prohibition against comfort---rather than stemming from some rite issue with leather itself---is illustrated meticulously by Dr. Ari Zivotofsky of Bar-Ilan University in an article featured in Jewish Actionmagazine in 2011. Zivotofsky cites a wealth of legal writin air jordan 6 black white.s starting with the Talmud that address the difficulty of what type of shoe must be worn on T nike air jordans 3 for sale.sha B'Av and Yom Kippur. The masters of the Talmud variously sported shoes of bamboo, reeds or palm branches, or wrapped straightforward pieces of cloth around their feet. Maimonides advised that whatever shoes are chosen should be flimsy enough to ensure the wearer feels almost barefooted as they walk. In a similar vein, the Ba'al HaMaor, a contemporary of Maimonides, comprises within the group of prohibition any shoe that's especially protective of the feet. Although many Jewish communities continue to "sidestep" the sneaker contradiction, some current authorities have issued opinions intended to save the spirit of the law. Zivotofsky notes the opinion of Rabbi Yaakov Ariel of Ramat Gan, Israel, who adds to the prohibited list any non-leather shoe that one would commonly pick to wear day in and day out for their relaxation, i.e. sneakers and other leisure footwear. Other legalists like Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch uphold the "protectiveness" approach, enlarging the prohibition to any substance construction that functions along with leather. On the other side, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach manages to solve the problem more leniently, claiming that all modern individuals fall under the Talmudic class of istinis, about meaning "persnickety." In Rabbi Auerbach's perspective, given our very low allowance for physical suffering, banning cozy non-leather shoes on Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur would be tantamount to unnecessary harshness. Wishing all a mindful and purposeful fast this Tisha B'Av, and remember: do not judge another man's shoes until you have walked a mile in them.