by R. Gil Student

A yeshiva student complained in an online letter, reported in JTA, that checks for adherence to the school’s dress code are “predatory.” She may be right. Enforcement of any standard can be taken too far. Or she may be a teenager complaining that she is forced to follow rules rather than do what she wants. We cannot comment without knowing the specifics of this situation.

Naturally, some people are taking this story as a condemnation of Orthodoxy as a society that represses women with primitive dress codes. I’m not sure that is really what this story is about. I remember when I attended high school, the administration strictly enforced its rule that boys must wear shirts with collars. We were routinely checked and boys who did not have collars were punished with increasing severity. Some boys wore fake collars that they removed during the day. It was silly. Requiring a boy to wear a collar is probably less onerous than requiring a girl to wear a skirt rather than pants. But I think an argument can be made that requiring a boy to wear a tie, as at least one Modern Orthodox yeshiva does, is more oppressive than requiring a girl to wear a skirt below her knee. One local boys yeshiva recently instituted a strict white-button-down-shirt policy, to the great consternation of parents and students. I have not seen any media outcry about the oppression of boys. But that is beside the point.

Schools have a right to establish dress codes that set a specific desired atmosphere. And if the administration and faculty fail to enforce a rule, they make a mockery of themselves and the school’s rules. The extent of their enforcement depends on many factors, including the rebelliousness of the students. A school administration has to carefully balance student freedom with school rules. Overemphasis on either side leads to an unproductive school environment. I don’t expect teenagers to understand that. They want freedom and the ability to express themselves in any way they choose, at any time they desire. But I expect adults to understand.

This is even more important because we are dealing with a rule based on religious requirements. If there was a problem in the school of students bringing ham sandwiches for lunch and eating them in front of all the other yeshiva students, a flagrant religious violation, the administration would be justified in checking students’ lunches or otherwise ensuring that this does not occur. But these adult critics presumably do not consider dressing according to halakhah to be a “real” religious issue. Regardless, a school has every right to define and enforce a dress code. Adults who join with the children in complaining are acting, well, childish. It’s sad to see our communal discussion descend to this level. The way to avoid harping over a dress code is to follow it. That makes life much easier and the school environment less oppressive.

That said, I am further pained that discussion of tzeni’us, roughly translated as modesty, revolves around female dress codes. It should not be that way. Shulchan Arukh has a section called “the laws of tzeni’us” and it does not include dress codes. In fact, women’s dress codes are not directly discussed anywhere in Shulchan Arukh, only indirectly (primarily in Orach Chaim 75 and Even Ha-Ezer 21), probably because local customs were historically stricter than halakhah. (A reader skeptical of the dress codes can find a helpful review of the primary sources in R. Elyakim Ellinson’s Hatznei’a Lekhes.)

Hilkhos Tzeni’us in Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chaim 240-241) contains two chapters, one on a married couple’s proper behavior in the bedroom and the other an admonition against urinating naked. The former is much discussed by later authorities, with wide ranging opinions, but these are usually communicated privately. (For an accessible discussion in English, see R. David M. Feldman, Birth Control in Jewish Law, ch. 5.)

R. Yitzchak of Corbeil is unique among Medieval codifiers in including a separate mitzvah for tzeni’us. He counts as the 57th mitzvah: “To be modest, as it says (Deut. 23:15) ‘And your camp shall be holy.” Within the obligations of tzeni’us he includes baring oneself as little as possible in the bathroom, covering one’s excrement and being modest while engaging in marital relations (which he leaves undefined). He continues that tzeni’us is particularly important during prayer and Torah study. By this he means avoiding urine and excrement, which in the days before plumbing required effort. It still does today when dealing with passed gas or children who are not yet toilet trained. It is also relevant when walking down the street and discussing Torah in a city that can be littered with animal droppings. While the Semak does not mention this, there is similarly a problem of studying Torah in sight of improperly dressed people. (Note that Shulchan Arukh includes these laws in various places.)

What do these rules tell us about tzeni’us? God comes down to us and dwells in our midst, so to speak (see the beginning of Deut. 23:15 and Chinukh 543). But He avoids a place where people refuse to act refined, where nakedness, excrement and impurity abound. In this sense, cleanliness does, indeed, lead to godliness (see Avodah Zarah 20b).

The reason why nakedness is bad leads us to the character trait of tzeni’us, which is distinct from the halakhic obligation. The prophet Micha (6:8) teaches that God wants to us to “walk humbly (hatznei’a lekhes) with your God.” Commentators such as Radak and Metzudas David explain this to mean worshipping God privately, emphasizing the internal over the external. Sha’arei Teshuvah (1:25) and Orechos Tzadikim (Anavah) use the concept to describe humility and a lack of desire for personal honor. These are all true, and there is much more to the character trait of tzeni’us. God desires Jews who are humble and maintain their own privacy, including physical privacy. We must cover our bodies appropriately and use them privately, especially–but not only–during prayer and Torah study, which constitute important parts of the yeshiva school day.

Most importantly, tzeni’us is not just for women. Tzeni’us is an obligation and a value for all Jews. Making it primarily about required skirt and sleeve lengths, a sad reality of our time, is a perversion of the concept. It is sad that people have such difficulty with the basics of covering themselves that they miss the larger message.

Undoubtedly, this is due to the permissive society in which we live. We have to teach our children that Judaism is a counter-culture, a tradition with its own values and emphases. Following the latest fashions when they contradict halakhah is a subversion of the basic idea of Judaism in the modern world, submission to God’s commandments in order to elevate ourselves.