(c) Apr 18 2001 RashiYomi Inc. MY COLLECTED & INDEXED MAIL JEWISH POSTINGS-Ver #1
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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@saber.towson.edu>
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 20:30:18 -0500 (EST)
Subject: RE: Negiah

I seem to have been misquoted in my posting on negiah.  Allow me to
clarify

Gitelle Rapoport v30n43 cites me as stating
	<even the Rambam would agree that Leviticus 18:6 explicitly
classifies Negiah as a Biblical prohibition.> She then asks why
Negiah=handshakes is Biblical?

But this is cutting my citation in the middle of a sentence. The whole
citation reads
>eg Rambam who holds that kissing and hugging is Biblically prohibited
>(because of Lev 18:6). For even the Rambam would agree thatLev 18:6
>explicitly classifies Negiah as a Biblical prohibition whose goal is to
>prevent other Biblical prohibitions--ie Negiah is a Biblical'fence'.)

Gitelles comments about touching being a sign of reassurance were
answered in a later issue by other posters.

Joseph Gretz (v30n42) takes me to task for assuming that Chazal or the
Torah made the fence of Negiah to prevent going further. Joseph points
out that a 'fence' simply means that we are SOMETIMES worried about
further activity.

I agree with Joseph's comment. My point was that the fence of Negiah is
NOT only to sometimes prevent IMMEDIATE further behavior but rather the
fence of negiah was also to prevent LONG TERM further behavior. In other
words when we talk about negiah the emphasis should not only be about
what might happen today but what might happen several years down the
road

Russell Hendel; Math;Towson; RHendel@Towson.Edu
Moderator Rashi Is Simple; http://www.shamash.org/rashi/