Letter to the editor

To the Editor:

Rabbi Avi Billet’s column of October 12, 2012, “The Crouching Sin,” is one of the most courageous and meaningful columns I have seen in a long time. This extension of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein’s interpretation of the Cain and Abel story, and his application to the “external” idolatry we now worship, whether the black hat –black suit uniform, the elimination of women (and even young girls) in photographs, the obsession with lettuce, broccoli and strawberries, and so on, has become an absurd reflection of our Orthodox practice. The soul is lost to the details – and we all know that “the devil is in the details” to quote a common proverb, and the devil is “crouching” to ensnare us.

I am reminded that when my sister’s (A”H) son was to be married, the mechutanim refused to place her name on the wedding invitation, as its insertion would reflect a lack of modesty (“Tzinius”). She was adamant and two sets of invitations were printed: the groom’s invitation with her name, the bride’s without her name. As luck would have it, the bride’s family ran out of invitations and it had to violate the modesty rule by “borrowing” a number of the forbidden invitations. This attitude is not only avodah zara but sheer, unfounded, “shtus.”

My hat is off to Rabbi Billet – but I kept my yarmulke.

SIMON B. GLUCK