With all due respect to my elders.....
In this talk [at the very beginning], the speaker rages against the practice of magazines that are written for a religious audiences to refrain from printing pictures of women. He often forcefully asserts that it is AGAINST THE TORAH!!! They MUST print pictures of women.
Aha!:-)
My question. Where? Where does it say that men should see pictures of women? Not in the Chumash or Navi or Mishna or Gemara or ANY JEWISH SOURCE. Since there is absolutely no source in our literature - he found a different source. Drumroll.... MEFURASH in the blog "Times of Israel". Yes, that anti-religious blog [trust me - they wouldn't print my writings. Too Jewish]. A woman [who wears a sheitel, so she must be right. My wife also wears a sheitel and I try to make her feel that she is always right....] writes an article stating that in her educated opinion, pictures of women MUST be shown.
כבודה במקומה מונח. But what about the TORAH? What about our tradition?
Why do we have mechitzos in shul?? So that men should look at women? What does the gemara's question ולאיסתכולי מי שרי - is it permitted to look [at a woman - Avoda Zara 20], mean?? There is a sefer called תורת ההסתכלות and many others that discuss this issue from a halachic perspective. There is not ONE OPINION ANYWHERE [except on the Internet:-)] that promotes the notion of men looking at women [unless necessary].
There are tzadikim who never look at צורת אשה [Rav Kook is one prominent example]. I am not on that level. Either, probably, are you [if you are I would like to give you a kvitel to daven for me]. But IDEALLY, the less we see, the better. If we attracted by a picture of a woman, then we are treading on forbidden soil. If we claim that we are never attracted by the picture of any women - then we are either lying or homosexual.
So if pictures are shown it is not the end of the world - but a mitzva it is not. It irks me that the source that a Rav brings for his questionable assertion is a blogger who brings ZERO PROOF for her claims. We can be "normal", live our lives, interact with others, even of the opposite gender etc. etc. But we cannot sanctify what is unholy.
This is the LAST WEEK of the auspicious time of Shovevim. We can fix our own blemishes and those of others.
