Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Awesome Reasoning

R. Sheshet said: “A woman’s hair is erva*, as it is written (4:1) ‘Your hair resembles a herd of goats. . . .’” From Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought

Why is hair like "a herd of goats" considered attractive enough to tempt men to sin?


*Erva is a classification for body parts/hair that require covering because it/they are alluring

5 comments:

Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

i think the point is that it's used as a positive attracting alluring image in Shir Hashirim, a clearly passionate text.

Annie said...

Steg- I get textually why it works, I meant out of context, what is so attractive about a herd of goats? I am similarly perplexed by the comparison of breasts to "fawns."

BZ said...

Note that Rav Sheshet was blind.

(It has been suggested, as a corollary, that perhaps the rabbi who suggested that a woman's voice is erva was deaf.)

rokhl said...

wait- my hair is *like* a herd of goats or *contains* a herd of goats? I have large, curly jewish hair, and while I've gotten many compliments on it- it does contain multitudes. (Of goats?)

Anonymous said...

I believe in the Song of Songs the hair thing is lost on us. Have you ever seen a herd of goats streaming down a mountain? It's so sexy (well, to someone who finds that sexy...).

Should we also not wear red lipstick? Somewhere else it says that her lips are like 2 red chords. Hot.

The bible is so cool!