Re: Haaretz doing its usual stuff (Re: What's the story with the Christian tourists?)

On Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:00:43 +0000 (UTC), "Steve Goldfarb"
<slg@xxxxxxxxx> said:

In <e82mqq$bh9$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> yzk <yaaqovk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

What most probably happened is that those tourists entered Mea She'arim to see
the quaint neighborhood, and it IS that, while dressed in a way the local
residents consider immodest (and there are large signs prominently displayed, in
Hebrew and English, urging visitors to not enter the neighborhood in immodest
dress), and that provoked the alleged attack.

This is unusual in that the more vocal residents of Mea She'arim usually reserve
their displeasure for JEWISH non-observers.

Is there a halachic prohibition on physically attacking people? I know
there's a prohibition on "murdering" which is a defined term, but is there
any problem with just hauling off and slugging someone in the face?

AFAIK, there is. It's forbidden to strike another Jew, except in
self-defense. Not sure about non-Jews, though. I don't recall anything
about this in any halakhic literature I've read; I suspect this is
because it hasn't been much of a problem. Most Jews probably were
reluctant to strike a member of the host nation.

If there is a prohibition on physical violence, what are the conditions?
I presume that, like in the case of murder, you may use physical force to
"defend yourself" (also a defined term) as well as, possible, to "defend
others" (another defined term)

But if a woman is wearing a short skirt on the street, is it permissible /
required / prohibited to punch her out?

I suspect that it's prohibited, because of the likely negative
outcomes if for no other reason. However, there's a story in the
Gemara (Brakhot 20a, in the context of kiddush HaShem) about R' Ada b.
Ahava, who ripped an unsuitable garment off a woman (whom he assumed
to be Jewish).

If you remember, some time ago there was a mini-furor (reported here)
regarding an Israeli rabbi, R' Abergil, who supposedly paskened that
husbands should not permit their wives to wear red (based on one of
the understandings of the gemara above), and rip such garments off if
necessary. It turned out that he had specifically forbidden such
action.

Yisroel "Godwrestler Warriorson" Markov - Boston, MA Member
www.reason.com -- for unbiased analysis of the world DNRC
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