Comments on: Wearing Red Herrings

By: Eliezer

Eliezer — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 22:50:00 +0000

I don’t know why we need to be coy about our disapproval of red clothing for women. The New York Times Magazine of March 22, 1998, in an article (that I cut out) by Mary Tannen, stated:
“After World War I, when women seized the right to wear makeup, they chose red, dabbing it on with the fervor of converts. Once the mark of women who sold their bodies, red was taken over by those powerful enough to advertise their sexuality and still own it.”
And if it says so in the Times, mei’si’ach lefi tumo, that’s the way it is.

By: chanoch

chanoch — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 04:29:35 +0000

How to explain it? Simple… Judaism requires modest dress such as clothes that don’t call attention to the wearer. In ancient times, the only two available *bright* dyes were purple/blue (such as indigo and techeiles) which were expensive and associated with royalty, and red, a bright die available to common people). Red clothes might be expected to draw an inappropriate amount of attention and so were to be avoided. The halacha today is more often applied to any unusually bright clothes than specifically to red, although some poskim do think that red particularly draws the eye, even today, more than any color.

By: Bnei Levi

Bnei Levi — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 01:35:34 +0000

Can you post the original teshuva?