האם דיני צניעות חלים גם על גברים?

00:01 This is Igris, and today we are going to discuss tznius, modesty for men in general, uh, and the Rebbe's position specifically on men wearing shorts. Uh, it is a timely discussion given that we're in the summer right now, and men do like to break out those shorts. It is also a discussion that is a long time coming because, uh, I'm asked very often, especially by seminary students, why it seems like the entire tznius discussion is always about women covering up and never about men. Uh, I wanted to give you a bit of a halakhic introduction before we start the letters and, um, mainly sichas, which we will see today, im yirtzeh Hashem. Uh, halakhically, it is abundantly clear that men need to be careful about tznius, about modesty. The Shulchan Aruch more or less opens up in Siman Beis with instructions on how to wake up telling men and women, of course, but our topic today is men, to get dressed under their sheets. The goal being that even in private, "V'nimtzeh k'shiyakum sheum chosa," that a man won't stand up from his bed unless he's dressed in an appropriate manner. The Magen Avraham there quotes the Gemara that says that talmidei chachamim used to wear a cloak that ensured that not even a few inches of their skin would be showing, and the only reason that we're not careful about that nowadays is that we all wear long pants. Of course, we do. So what are the odds of showing skin? Uh, the Mishnah

01:08 Berurah there elaborates that, uh... I-I wrote down some of the specific quotes for us. "Ve'adam tzarch li'snayg b'tznius u'bushut m'nei HaKadosh Baruch Hu." A man needs to act with tznius, with modesty before God. Uh, "Ve'afilu k'shu layla u'vechadere chadara, meloi malchah la'aretz k'voder ka'chashecha keder lefanav yisbarech." Even when it's nighttime, and he's in a, he's in a private room, uh, he needs to feel that way because isn't the entire land filled with God's glory, and dark and light are the same before Him. So even in private, the Shulchan Aruch, the Mishnah Berurah, other sources are very careful about our tznius. "Ve'chen tzarch li'zar tamid machmes tam zesh leib makam echrech, uh, milegalis basara efilim at kol ma she'dark eliyes mechuse bilgadam le'olam." A person needs to be careful, a man needs to be careful always for this reason, unless there is a pressing need, like bathing or using the bathroom, to never reveal the parts of their bodies that are normally covered even a little bit, even in private. Uh, lest there be any confusion, the Mishnah Berurah is kind enough to draw a line for men. Uh, the Mishnah Berurah says that men can expose their arms up to the elbow, so you can roll up your sleeves or wear shorter sleeves. You can show your neck up until right above your chest. I think he means like the collarbone. And, uh, men should never be barefoot, he says. Uh, socks ha- always because he says in his lands, the custom is to never

02:14 go barefoot even in the summer. I'm telling you this because the Ateret Zekenim says the same thing. Now, the implication of the way that they describe this is that it'll very much be dependent on local custom, but the idea that tznius would not apply to men somehow snuck into our society and needs to be uprooted immediately. The, uh, there's a whole opening section of Shulchan Aruch about how there are, are indeed laws of tznius for men. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Siman Gimel, which we'll see the Rebbe referred to in a bit and say that he wishes people knew and studied and reviewed, uh, says pretty much all of this and adds, "Ve'hatznei halecha sima lekacha," that going with modesty before Hashem is a very special thing that brings men to hach'naha, submission before God Almighty, implying or more saying outright that tznius is the sort of thing that either makes or breaks a man's yirat Shamayim and kabbalat ol. Uh, I know that people are always worried about how to instill our children with kabbalat ol, accepting the yoke of heaven, and perhaps worrying about how our boys dress as much as how our girls dress might be a good start. Uh, in any event, I will add some leniencies here. Rav Moshe Feinstein in Igris Moshe, Yoreh De'ah, Chelek Gimel, Siman sixty-eight, he makes it clear that a lot of the laws of tznius for men are not set in stone. They're dependent upon local custom. He agrees that it's very important, uh, to

03:17 be tznius. He says a lot of positive things about men who are strict in these areas, but he emphasizes that there's not one clear guideline for men, which would open the door to societies where shorts or other sorts of garments become prevalent for that to be the kind of thing that we could be involved in too. So in that light, I wanted to spend some time today exploring our Rebbe's shiur, what does tznius mean for men nowadays in the Rebbe's own words, uh, with a particular emphasis on how the Rebbe feels about men, and I would add boys in camp wearing shorts. There is a, uh, surprising lack of letters on this topic. I basically found none. I have one letter I'm showing you that I sort of shoehorned into this discussion. So forgive me today. Our, our Igris here today is more of a sicha shiur, but it certainly will reflect, im yirtzeh Hashem, the Rebbe's shiur on these matters. The letter that I want to show you in honor of it being officially an Igris shiur, although it has transitioned over time to becoming more and more of a shiur shiur, uh, a Rebbe's position, less than Rebbe's letters, we try to anchor in the letters. I have here a letter that is labeled just very... It's a fascinating letter, worth seeing in any case, labeled Yud Beis Shin Nun Zayin. It's from the year of Tav Shin Lamed Ches, and it is written to the members of the Vaad Mishmeres Hatznius in

04:19 Ere-- in, uh, Ir HaKodesh Yerushalayim, Tevel Beis Yikarein. So Jerusalem apparently had a organization for watching over and for creating guidelines or maybe even enforcing modesty, and the Rebbe writes them a letter. And the Rebbe writes, "Shalom u'bracha. Measher ani kabatz michtavam mechafav Teves im hamatzov eides, eides be, beitzasam bekedosh m'negel eshetach Hatznius." Says, "I received your letter from the twenty-sixth day of Teves. I got the enclosed regarding your holy work, especially in the area of tznius." And the Rebbe writes, "Ye'udatzu shechavat Hashem beyadam, uh, yatzlich lechazek et Hatznius." May it be God's will that you will be strengthened in this, that you'll be able to, uh, that you'll, you'll be successful in strengthening the rules of tznius and the rules of modesty. "U'vefrat," specifically, "she'aduah ad kamei fligu chachmei muzal." It's known just how seriously our sages took this matter, midat Hatznius. "Ki esed meis and l'shmiras kol hamitzvos." Our sages regarded tznius, modesty, as the sort of thing that is the foundation of keeping all of the mitzvahs. "Ach amri yafi hi Hatznius sh'namar ve'hatznei halecha sima lekacha." They end up calling tznius very, very important. They quote the verse, "Ve'hatznei halecha sima lekacha," that you should go modesty-- modestly you should go with your God. "Af al pi sh'ein tachas yadi karnes miyukhadses zeh." The Rebbe says, "I don't have any specific funds set aside that I'm managing to take care of tznius issues." "Aval af al pi ma sh'nevar chaver ni l'chol asher yiru ach l'Hashem b'kudacha." But since the verse

05:34 does say, sort of in line with the verse, that, uh, "I am friends with everybody who fears you and anybody who keeps your laws," the Rebbe says, "I want to show you I'm a friend too." So I'm enclosing, "Yishtaku si pratiz samalis akapanim," at least a symbolic, uh, uh, donation to show that I'm a partner with you in this matter. So the Rebbe is ex- incredibly supportive of the idea of tznius. He says that he quotes tznius as being a foundation of shmir-- of keeping all mitzvahs. He says even though he doesn't have a fund set aside for it, he specifically wants to send money to them to show that he's participating. "Ve'chavel u'vracha." There is a very interesting PS here. In the PS, the Rebbe says... Remember, we've, we've learned before together that the, that the PS is where the action always is, right? This is just a really interesting PS. I never even thought about it. I'm making it a little bigger so you can see. Basically, the Rebbe's so into tznius, so these people write to the Rebbe and saying, "Why don't you make it your next mitzvah?" The Rebbe has all these missions that he instructs us to go out and actively pursue. Uh, the Rebbe is not afraid of doing some in-house things as mitzvot. Ta'aras mishpacha, family purity, is a mitzvah, so why not this? Why not this? So in-- the Rebbe says, uh, "At the end of your letter, you asked if I would announce, or you discussed

06:38 maybe that I should announce, a specific mitzvah, specific, uh, a specific activity, a mission, pe'ula, letiken gidrey ha-tznius, in order to strengthen or to fix the boundaries of modesty. Which will become one of the things we do. We put tefillin on people, we help them light Shabbos candles, and we tell them to dress more modestly. Hinen, the Rebbe says, The Rebbe says, "We really need to look into, uh, for many reasons, whether this makes sense to place upon young men and youn-young women." Not the laws of tznius, the mitzvot of tznius, and he says why. Generally speaking, a very large amount of the people involved in spreading the Rebbe's mitzvot are young men and women. Uh, and it's unclear to the Rebbe, the Rebbe doesn't say exactly why, but I have some guesses. It's unclear-- Rebbe says many reasons. It's unclear to the Rebbe, without further investigation I guess, whether it makes sense for us to tell young men and women that they should be the enforcers of tznius or the people spreading the message of tznius. Uh, that makes some sense to me. Uh, it just-- it, it could be an-- it could just be a tznius issue in and of itself that they're not great messengers for it. But in any event, the Rebbe says b'kamat hamim, I don't think I want to add it to the mitzvot because the Rebbe says that he is gearing mitzvot for something to be something that, uh, young people export, and this just doesn't really fit

07:48 the bill. Anyway, the Rebbe says, The Rebbe says, "I would much rather have organizations of Rabbonim being the people who are me-- spreading the message of tznius, not my, not my young soldiers." The Rebbe says, "This is gonna work a lot better if Rabbonim are the ones who are in ch-- in charge of strengthening tznius and enforcing tznius." So we get from this letter that the Rebbe is very dedicated to the idea of tznius, wants to participate in efforts to strengthen tznius, wants Rabbonim to get involved in this on the front lines, but does not wanna make it one of his mitzvot, specifically because young people drive mitzvot forward. And for whatever reason, he says b'kamat hamim. For several reasons, he doesn't think necessarily it's a good idea for young people to be the voices for modesty. Having been yetzaim, by learned our letter-- by learning our letter together, I want to turn us over to some sichas. Uh, this is printed in Likutei Sichos. This is very edited. Uh, very edited by the Rebbe. This is in Likutei Sichos volume thirteen, baMidbar. If I move this around, I can see what page. Page ninety-three. And the Rebbe, uh, inserts in very strange form, I haven't seen this in many places, maybe not at all, um, that the Rebbe inserts a footnote and makes the footnote bold. The footnote, according to the Rebbe, was supposed to be bold so that everybody would see it. At the bottom of this page, we have a bold footnote

08:59 that says, Here is a place for us to emphasize. About something that is timely. There are people who, uh, are lenient about many aspects of modesty, tznius, when it comes to the summer months. Especially when they are found in their temporary dwelling place outside of the city. You know, the bungalow colonies or the country. And some of them say, That is, I'll sin and I'll return, which is a proverb that means I will s-- sort of proverbially, I will sin and then I'll do teshuvah. The Rebbe twists this and says their plan is to sin while they're out there, and when they return to the city, that's when they're gonna do teshuvah. Um, The Rebbe says, "I want you to know that this applies to the behavior of men also." And specifically to women, of course. Because every single woman is called the foundation of the home. The Rebbe says it could go on longer. And now is not the place. So we have here one of the first very strong, at least the first one I noticed, very strong references to tznius where the Rebbe includes men and says in bold letters that in the summer months, tznius should not flag, and although women certainly are the focus of tznius, of modesty, because they are the Akeret Habayit, and they set the tone for the home, the tznius of men matters. The Rebbe says here that this is not the place for him to go on at length about it, but I would like

10:15 to show you the places where he did find time to go at, uh, length about it, 'cause I have some sichas here that really go on. Some long, and they're, they're fun. Every page of them is fun. In one sicha, the Rebbe at the end of it says, "Just to let you know, although we were having fun here, I was not joking." So the sichas have sort of a fun tone to them. They're lighter than a lot of usual sichas, but they pack the same punch as any. So we're gonna look at a couple sichas together. I wanna start you off, uh, actually forward in time, then we're gonna go back in time just for the structure, and that is that this is a sicha from Yud Beis Tammuz of Tov Shin Lamed. Yud Beis Tammuz of Tov Shin Lamed. It is in Toras Menachem, volume sixty-one. It is on page seventy-eight, and we're gonna jump around a little. The Rebbe writes, "The Torah never will be changed out." "The Torah will never be switched out. The rules don't change." You can only change something in the Torah if the Torah itself said that it said that this is an area that is subject to future changes, to updates. So don't plan on updating the Torah. Why is the Rebbe talking about this? He says, One of the things that the Torah guarantees us, it will never be updating or changing. There's the idea that Bilaam looks out at the Jewish people's tents and can

11:23 tell from a distance that we have goodly tents, Jacob. Good dwelling places, Israel. And so on also the reward that comes from arranging your home and arranging, as the Rebbe explains elsewhere in the sica-- on the sicha, your level of tznius, which is one of the ideas of these good tents, arranging it properly, the reward that comes from that also will not be changed. The blessings that are mentioned afterwards in that parsha That is that even when a non-Jew can see that you're fit for blessing because you're dressing and acting that way, by living a life that is modest, you will, first of all, be commanded to do that forever, and second of all, get rewarded for that forever. We're gonna jump all the way to the part we need a couple pages later in entry lamed heh. And the Rebbe writes, the Rebbe says, As we've discussed many times That, uh, the tznius applies to men. Men are as obligated in it n-no less than women. That's his language, no less than women. Men are no less obligated in tznius than women. To the contrary, if you look at the laws of tznius that are found in the beginning of the code of Jewish law, generally speaking, they're talking about things that apply to both men and women or apply specifically to men. Later on, the code of Jewish law gets into details about women's modesty. when it's talking about whether you can say Shema or whether you can pray in front of a

12:50 woman who is immodestly dressed. in the section that deals with women's laws and marriage laws. But in the section of the Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law that talks about daily life, the laws of tznius there are very much geared toward either gender neutral or men. Uh, that is that they certainly would apply to men no less than women. The Rebbe continues, . We see practically, for whatever reason, there's a long sentence. So the Rebbe says, "We see for whatever reason, maybe it's because women are associated with beauty and therefore tznius needs to be stronger by them, or maybe it's because they are the ones who are supposed to be holding up tznius among the entire Jewish people, uh, to make sure that even when a non-Jew sees a Jewish home, that even without entering, they will immediately see that this is a Jewish home, that this is a place that is worthy of saying, 'How good are your tents, Jacob?'" For whatever reason, says the Rebbe, that tends to be, tends to be dependent upon women are sort of the most important players when it comes to making sure that the men, the women, and the children are modest. But that doesn't mean that their modesty rules are more strict or more important. It just means that modesty for the entire family and modesty for the entire Jewish people turns on the decisions that women make, and therefore, we've been emphasizing for a long time women's tznius. The Rebbe here explains sort of

14:16 in, uh, in, I guess, implicitly explains the answer to a often asked question, "Why do we focus so much on women's modesty and so little on men's modesty?" The Rebbe says, "Because at the end of the day, men's and women's modesty is very much dependent on how women choose to, uh, comport themselves. They are the ones who are running the show and establishing what our tents look like." But that is not, God forbid to say, that male tznius does not matter as much as female tznius. Men dressing modestly matters just as much and as clear from the code of Jewish law. The Rebbe says that we see in the Mechilta, . The Mechilta points out that when God tells us how to address the Jewish people, tells Moshe how to address the Jewish people, he says, "Talk to the women first, and afterwards say it over to the men." That is, the women are sometimes told things first because they set the stage for how men act. That is even in the Mateh, since Yaakov, because we have Beis Yaakov. Yaakov is normally, uh, something that corresponds to the women, and Bene Yisrael is something that normally corresponds to the men. So even in the line, , the Rebbe sort of makes a drash, and his drash goes like this: If we have a , if the women are careful about tznius, then the men will be too. So the Rebbe here is making a very important point. We emphasize tznius for women because they

15:36 set the stage for tznius for the Jewish people, not because their tznius is more important or because men's tznius doesn't exist. We care so much about men's tznius that we start with women's tznius in the hope that women being modest will influence men to be modest. But the idea absolutely is, as the Rebbe makes very clear here, that the modesty rules for men are no less than they are for women. Another section I want to show you is from the year Tushin Kuf Gimel. That would be nineteen sixty-three. Please feel free to correct me. You know how I do these. Uh, we are on page-- This is, uh, volume seven-- this volume thirty-seven of Terias Menachem. You'll find this on page one0two. I think it's actually on page seventy-seven, and there's a mis-- Yeah, it's page seventy-seven. And seventy-seven, one0two. What's a couple, what's a couple numbers between friends? It's on page seventy-seven. We're in entry dalet. The Rebbe says, . I want to point out something that is practically applicable. The way people do things is . In the summer, they are free from school. The kids are out of school. is in the country, so people go off to the country. They go to Monsey, right? They go to where we live. No, they go further. I don't know. Fresh air. They go to a place that has nice fresh air. They're able to cast off the yoke of all of the troubles, uh, of the year. So it's a place where they

16:50 go to relax. However, to our great pain, some people use this for the opposite purpose. They don't use this to relax from the world. the country, instead of casting off the yoke of society and casting off the yoke of their job and their pressures, they go to the country to cast off the yoke of the code of Jewish law. the yoke of the kingship of heaven, and obviously that's not a good thing. They do not act the way that they act by the eastern wall of seven-seventy. That's normally where rabbis sit. As Hazal say, if somebody wants to do a sin, they should go to a place where no one recognizes them. So the Rebbe's saying some people go to the country to be their worst selves, not to be their best selves. The Rebbe says we have a situation going with garments, and the Rebbe says, "I'm not saying that they're wearing wool and linen mixed together," God forbid, "My concern is that people are not dressing modestly when they are in the country, uh, during the summertime specifically." And as we'll see in a moment, the Rebbe is going to say that his main concern in this particular section is that men are not dressing appropriately in the country. The Rebbe says Meaning then, . This is not just a problem for women who are called by the Talmud, people who have, I don't know how to say this nicely, light minds, uh, which means that their focus is easily shifted. But I'm

18:18 seeing this by men too, who the Talmud claims are supposed to have very focused minds. You know, people who are-- They're supposed to be-- They're supposed to have a fixed way of doing things. So, uh, the Rebbe says, "Women," the Talmud says, "sometimes they don't have such a fixed way of doing things." The Talmud tells us that men are supposed to, and I'm seeing this by men too, so I don't know what to tell you. Even you have some men who are wearing a, uh, nice long beard. But when they go to the country, they get a libushin, but they are not careful about modesty when it comes to their clothes in the country in the summertime. What do they do? They shorten their garments from up to down. They say, "I don't count as a Talmud Chakam that the Code of Jewish Law says must cover themselves all the way down to the heel." And from the heel, they end up going up to the knee. And then they end up going up to the thigh, and their clothes get shorter and shorter. The men, the men. He's talking about men, I must remind you. We're not talking about skirt lengths here. We're talking about pant lengths and shorts lengths. The opposite of that which is explicitly in Ketzot Hachol, which thank God we saw together before we started. Regarding the sections of the body that must be covered. I don't know if any of you have seen yet that footnote I highlighted at

19:28 the bottom, but I love it. On the footnote thirty-nine, you saw it? The Rebbe says in footnote thirty-nine, "Kilash Namedina," in the language of our country, this would be shorts. Shorts. That is short pants. And the Rebbe continues, "Short B'seichavadas." People wearing shorts, it shows that they are short on intellect and on intellect and, uh, and logic. They're short on, they're short on their minds, right? Their brains are short. Their minds are short. It's a footnote. So, uh, fun footnote. Yeah. See what happens when you don't read the footnotes? You miss gems. Somebody who wears shorts is short on brain. You heard it first here. Okay, continues. We'll move on. And it is understood. It's understood that when men act like this, they're wearing shorts. They go not just to the ankle, but to the knee, and not just to the knee, to the thigh. They're going up higher and higher. the women too. The wife of a Talmud Chakam is considered like a Talmud Chakam, and that means women tend to follow what their husbands do. They learn a kava chemer about themselves. They learn a logical argument about themselves. If my husband isn't careful how he dresses, why in the world would I be? And you end up having women who are not dressed appropriately either. Which here, the Rebbe's putting a lot of the blame on lowered-- on lowering standards of tznius among women on the fact that their husbands are not acting appropriately. Which I believe in some cultures we would

20:41 call a progressive statement. The reason why women are not modest is because the men started it. From garments, it goes into other things. It ends up impacting how they act the entire year. So the Rebbe is very concerned about men not dressing appropriately and pointing out specifically that he is not comfortable with shorts even nowadays, especially nowadays, uh, specifically he calls out shorts. I have one more fantast-- I really have two more fantastic sikhas i wanna show you. All of them kind of have this tone of the Rebbe sort of half... I, I don't know how to say it exactly. Peretz and I were discussing exactly how to phrase this. The Rebbe is absolutely ridiculing going to the country. He's not forbidding it. He's sort of making fun of it, but not in a funny way. Uh, it's, it's interesting to try to, to try to read some of these letters about going to the country. I might do a whole igrash here, maybe even this week, on the Rebbe's letters about going to the country in general, where the tone is very hard to read. Um, he's definitely having fun in that the sikhas are lighter, uh, and he's definitely poking fun actively. I mean, the Rebbe makes some jokes in these sikhas, but he keeps on emphasizing how serious he finds this and how upsetting this is and how much this ruins people's lives. So, uh, it's, it's, it's a strange tone. It's very difficult to figure out where exactly... I wish I'd

21:51 been in the room. It's hard to hear the tone in some of the sentences. Anyway, uh, this is from Yud Beis Tammuz, Taf Shin Chaf Dalet. I probably could hear the tone for that. This one would be recorded somewhere. Anyway, you will find this in Terias Menachem on, uh, volume mem, that's volume forty. You'll find it on page two-eighteen. We're gonna start at two-seventeen. And the Rebbe says, let me get into some details with you. There are some people who, since they're taking a break from the work of the body, that is their jobs, they want to also take a break, God forbid, from being careful about Torah and mitzvahs. The Bayis, in his house, he's very careful to eat only glatt kosher meat. Cholov Yisrael, he's very careful to only eat Cholov Yisrael dairy. Pas Yisrael, he's careful about his bread. But then it comes time for a vacation. There he has to get on-- he has to travel in a trailer. He has to travel in a, I think he means like a camper van, right? Who knows where he's gonna end up on this road trip. Because of the commandment to take care of your body. Now he says, "Because I have to take care of my body, I can't not have dairy. That could be dangerous. I better not. Be careful about Cholov Yisrael. I'll have some, uh, OUD milk." "And that's because I need to keep the commandment," this person will say, "of keeping my body healthy." The Rebbe says,

23:14 "It would seem that he did actually have a choice." "He could have stayed in his house." "There he could have taken even better care of his body." He wouldn't have even had the pressure of travel. So if he really wants to take care of his body, he could have just stayed home. But his claim is, "When you go to a city, you have to keep its customs." And the Rebbe says, this person says, "That since I live in a city where the custom is that everybody starting Fourth of July journeys to the country, I have to do it as well." You can tell the Rebbe's not happy with that argument. We're going to jump down over here, and he says, The Yitzharah tells him, "Sure, you're found in your house, at home." "There you have to wear a tie." "You have to wear a, a starched, uh, stiff necked collars." "You have to choose between two pairs of shoes." "You have to make sure they match your socks. When you're at home, you gotta be put together." "Bungalow. When you find yourself out there in a bungalow, though," "you certainly aren't gonna wear a tie out there." "You don't really need a hat on top of your yarmulke." "You don't need shoes at all." "Maybe you ought to remove the yarmulke too." "And what do you really need a tallis koton for?" The tzitztzit people wear. "You certainly don't need one of wool." "Maybe you can just have a simple one made of cotton or

24:42 whatever that is, uh, that is more summery." "You know, it wouldn't be so bad if I lost the tallis koton entirely." "Maybe I'm gonna walk around just with shorts like the Kohanim did." "Shorts that do not cover very much." "I'll just wear shorts, and the rest of my body will remain completely open, which very much means I'll wear shorts and nothing else." This is the Rebbe talking through what a person might think, right? They get out to the country, they go, "I don't need a tie. I also don't need my-- I also don't need my tzitztzit. I also don't need my shirt. Really, I need shorts. My shorts can be pretty short." When you tell this person, "Hey, wait a minute. It says in the code of Jewish law you are not allowed to do this," he claims back, is my vacation. means that you cast off the yoke of the country. So I can also cast off the yoke of heaven. And then the Yetzer Hara introduces a completely new way of thinking. the laws of modesty, he will end up claiming. The Yetzer Hara will then come to you and say, the evil inclination will whisper in your ear that the laws of modesty, they apply only to women and girls. When it comes to men, when it comes to their sons, you don't have to worry about . You don't have to worry about modesty. The Yetzer Hara will say this even though this is the opposite of the code of Jewish

26:02 law. The laws of modesty are explained at its very beginning. the laws of waking up in the morning. And there is no indication there that there is any difference between men and women. But he will go on to claim, the evil inclination will go on to claim, this has been the custom for many years. Don't bring new customs here. We've always had the custom to wear shorts. This is how my brother acted. These are my friends act. People do this. It's, it's, it's the done thing. You don't know. You're reading an old book. You don't know what's done. I can't separate from the congregation, dot, dot, dot. The Rebbe continues. So here is the time and place to emphasize once again. The Rebbe says there is a code of Jewish law. It was published many years ago. Immediately in its very beginning. When it talks about a Jew waking up, immediately when he wakes up from his sleep, the Rama writes, copies it over into his code of Jewish law. You should be very careful to think through all of his things that he's doing. Because a person wouldn't act the same way alone in their house as they would if they were sitting in front of a king. Certainly, you should act a little bit differently given that you, you know, you have to, you have to instill upon your heart the idea that the great king, the king of all kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, whose entire land, the entire land

27:33 is filled with His glory, He's standing there and He's watching you, so obviously you have to dress appropriately. And therefore, the laws of modesty. The Moshe, for example, the same way they are at full force in the wintertime, they apply just as strongly in the middle of Tammuz. Doesn't matter what month, summer, winter, you have to keep the laws. This also applies to all of the Hiddurim, uh, call them stringencies, call them ways of making mitzvahs beautiful. All of the extras that you do during the winter you have to be even more careful about them in the summer. And the Rebbe goes on to explain the reason why is because you have even more time in the summer, so why not be more careful? And the Rebbe has a fun note here I wanted to tell you, which is it's true that watching over your physical health is a mitzvah. But we do not find in any place that you have to be in taking care of your body, that you have to do it more than the minimum. You're supposed to take care of your body, what doctors say to do. To go above and beyond in this area, you know, certain mitzvahs, there's an idea of Hiddur, right? you should get the nicest you can find. The Rebbe's saying here, "I don't see anywhere the idea that you should get the healthiest body you can have. You're supposed to stay healthy, and that's it. You're not supposed to be in health." Certainly, I

28:48 don't see anywhere that people should be going above and beyond, above and beyond in their physical health. We're supposed to be healthy. That's not the same thing as going above and beyond. And then the Rebbe continues, I'm not coming here just to make Drashahs. This is not a Drashah. I'm not saying this because I had to say a joke. And therefore, I brought up the subject of modesty. I'm speaking about something that has practical importance. This is what I was mentioning to you guys before. Um, it's, it's clear that the Rebbe's saying things that are funny, but he keeps on bringing it back and going, "I'm, I'm, I'm being funny, but you know, here's the right way to put it." The Rebbe's being funny, but he is not joking. There's a big difference between being funny and joking. He says, "I spoke to you about this last year." We just saw that a moment ago, and it did help when it came to one or two people. A handful of people did change their behaviors. It's possible that this year I'll talk about it again, and now more than two or three people will take it on, uh, and start caring about start caring about modesty for men as well. Specifically certainly when people here are going to pass along what they heard here in seven seventy. Of course, after checking and looking into the code of Jewish law in the section that I have indicated, when they have affirmed that indeed it is the

30:07 law that a, that a man has to take care of his a man has to be careful about modesty, and that those laws that applied in the times of the Rama apply just as much nowadays, whether you're in a big city or a small city. And even if you are alone in a field, the laws of modesty for men apply. Then words that emerge from the heart shall enter the other person's heart. And they will do their job. that you have a summer that is kosher and is clean in and spirituality and that will cause it to also be so in physicality. That is, it will increase your health of your soul and the health of your body. Throughout the time that you are free, throughout the time of vacation, when you have less concerns about your job, you will be able to collect some strength to learn Torah better and keep mitzvahs better, and therefore, using that when you return to your house, you'll increase in your times of learning the revealed and hidden dimensions of the Torah, and in doing mitzvahs with even more zeal, with joy and with a good heart. So the Rebbe does turn this around at the end and say, "If you do your summers right, head off to the country, relax, and be strong in your and that will strengthen your and you will come back to the city even stronger when it comes to Torah and mitzvahs." But when it comes to the part that we are

31:24 here for, which is male modesty, the Rebbe could not be stronger about this. The last thing I want to show you, I'm going to show you in English. And the reason why I'm going to show it to you in English is because the only version of it... Th-this is one of the, uh, sichas that they haven't gone through a second time, and the version that I have in Eitz HaChochma is all, is all blotchy, and I can barely read it. So, uh, this one I'm showing you in English. Rav Bron was kind enough to translate it and put it in the back of his pamphlet, where he has a whole bunch of things about, uh, the Rebbe's opinion on how to handle the summer months. This is a sicha from Shabbos Parshas Terumah of Tishrei Mem Alef. That would be 1981. It is unedited so far, and I want to just read it to you. I checked, the translation's good. The Rebbe says, "There are matters that we need to address that relate specifically to the summer months. True, there is still quite some time until the summer begins, but now is the time to call attention to these issues, particularly as some people tend to begin their summers even before being directed by their calendars. The main issue we need to address at present is that of tznius, modesty. This is not a burning issue in the winter season because people are garbed appropriately regardless. If any part of the body is uncovered, it

32:24 is affected by the rain, the cold, the frost, et cetera. In the summer, by contrast, this definitely becomes an issue." The Rebbe continues, "In truth, tznius needs to be reinforced during the winter months as well, for tznius applies even within one's home. This is the fa-- there is the famous case of Kimchis, the mother of Rebbe Yishmael, who proclaimed, 'In all my life, the rafters of my house have not seen my locks of hair.' Wooden rafters are merely derivatives of the vegetable kingdom that have now become inanimate objects. Nevertheless, Kimchis made certain that even the rafters of her home would not see the hair of her head. In the home, there is no rain, frost, and the like, therefore must-- one must be carefully re-- m- one must be careful regarding tznius regardless of the seasons. Nevertheless, nothing can compare to the summer vacation season when people are outdoors and there is a strong need to encourage tznius." I know you don't see where this is going yet. Just wait, it gets, it gets, it gets real exciting. "There is a misconception," the Rebbe continues. "There is a misconception that tznius applies only to women, for all the glory of a woman is within, and not to men. In truth, it applied to men as well, set forth in Shulchan Aruch." Excuse me. "Applied to men as well as set forth in Shulchan Aruch. The need to reinforce men's tznius is acute in the summer months. The summer months, and one of the Shpitz Chabad..."

33:33 Excuse me, I want to say that again. "The summer arrives, and one of the Shpitz Chabad," those who consider themselves the Chabad elite, he put in quotes, "travels to a bungalow colony and dresses himself exactly the way the Kohanim used to dress, and this is written in the Torah, so he also wants to dress the same way. It seems, and this is a way to judge him positively, that he has no idea that there is a law in Shulchan Aruch regarding men's tznius. He claims this is precisely how the Kohanim would dress. However, the Kohanim wore other clothing as well, which covered all parts of the body, but he's wearing only pants from the hips until the end of the thighs." Those would be shorts, right? "Whereas below the thighs, the knees, nothing at all, and above the thighs, also nothing." This implies to me he's talking about somebody wearing nothing but shorts, but I can't tell for sure. Anyway, the Rebbe says, "Some people, the Shpitz Chabad, people who consider themselves Chabad elite, they travel to the country, and they're walking around in shorts. They're claiming that it's like the Kohanim used to dress, but the Kohanim wore other clothes, and he's just in shorts." The Rebbe continues, "Furthermore, the Kohanim did not pride themselves with this. He, however, displays himself with pride. He's proud of this. A photo was even sent to me showing someone who was dressed this way." The Rebbe continues, "All right, you wish to go around like that, but

34:35 why do you need someone to take a picture of you in such a situ- in such a situation? So that it should remain an eternal souvenir, so that your grandchildren can see how you are dressed in pants from the hips until the end of the thighs. He made such a publicity of himself that a picture even made its way to me." So the Rebbe says, the Rebbe, across his holy desk, received a picture of a Hasid of some reputation wearing shorts and possibly nothing but shorts. The Rebbe continues, "It is not that someone decided to inform on him. Quite the opposite. He wished to show how the mitzvahs were being kept there behidder. Mezuzahs on each doorway, men and women separately, as is truly appropriate for those who are, in fact, Shpitz Chabad, Chabad elite. I took a look at the pictures, and I noticed that so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, from the Shpitz Chabad, sits the way I just described, and I have no doubt at all that it is indeed him." The Rebbe goes, "I know who this is. I know what he was trying to show me. He wasn't trying to hide it. No one's tattling on him. People don't even know this is a problem. People are so unconcerned about men's tznius that they are sending pictures of themselves in shorts to the Rebbe without any concern. That's how he dressed under the open skies. Naturally, it was not where women were present. He would never dress that way in a

35:36 place where women were to be found. Certainly would not dress that way if his own wife was present, because the balabusta would give it to him with a plate over his head." The Rebbe says his wife would be furious if he dressed like this around women, but he's just around men, so he thought it was okay. The Rebbe continues, "When he's not at home, however, he dresses this way simply because he's unaware that tznius applies to men as well. There are indeed specific halachas regarding tznius conduct, such as not to expose more than a basic minimum, even in the bathroom, and how to conduct oneself before and afterwards. In his case, however, much more than that was exposed, because the height of a human is approximately three amos, which is about six feet, while the distance from the hips until the end of the thighs is barely one ama, like a foot and a half to two feet. So two entire amos remained exposed. So two full amos remained exposed. Something like four feet of him remained exposed. It is obvious from the picture," the Rebbe continues, "that the photographer did not catch him by surprise. He knew the picture was being taken. He appeared to derive pleasure from that fact. It was therefore done willingly, as per the Al Chet confession prayer, for the sin with which we sinned before you willingly. Not merely willingly, but with pleasure." The Rebbe concludes, "All of the above is a parenthetical note regarding men, but my main

36:41 point of caution due, due, due to the approaching summer is regarding women. This coincides with an overarching theme of tznius. Men and women are to remain separate." And then the Rebbe devotes the remainder of the sicha to tznius. So we've seen today one letter and a bunch of sichas that I really do think paint a, a very, to at least to me, a very cohesive picture. I don't think we can really have any doubt about the Rebbe's position on tznius for men. We started by looking at a letter where the Rebbe very strongly encouraged Avadat Tznius in Yerushalayim, uh, to continue their work, and he participated in funding it. Feels very strongly that this is an important thing. He says it won't be a good mitzvah. His main concern seems to be that young people are the usual messengers for mitzvot, and it's not appropriate to have younger people pushing these ideas. It should be in the realm of big rabbanim. But at the same time, the Rebbe's support for tznius is through the roof. Very, very significant. We saw a footnote that the Rebbe had put into Likutei Sichos in bold to emphasize that tznius, modesty, applies to men and women equally. We then saw a bunch of sichas discussing the incredible value of tznius. We saw a sicha that told us that we start discussing tznius with women, uh, but only, but only because they set the tone for their entire homes, and that at the end of the day, it matters just

37:44 as much for men. We saw a lengthy sicha where the Rebbe spoke about men's tznius during the summer. Two of them, really. Really, three of them. Three lengthy sichas where the Rebbe spoke about tznius during the summer months specifically, about men specifically, pointing us in the direction of the Shulchan Aruch, telling us to read the Code of Jewish Law and come to the only logical conclusion, which is that men need to be as careful as about their tznius, about their modesty, as women. Uh, so in answer to the question that I get so often from the seminary students, "Why do we not talk about men's tznius?" There is not a good reason that we don't. We absolutely should, and today we did. A-and finally, in response to our final question, uh, what does the Rebbe think about shorts? Which sort of guided my at least research for this discussion. I think it is very safe to say the Rebbe really, really, really d- does not like shorts. Uh, men should not be wearing shorts. Uh, the Rebbe does not differentiate between men who are around men only or whether men are around women. He doesn't differentiate between the city and the country. He even says that if you are in a field all by yourself, he doesn't want you wearing shorts. So men, please stop wearing shorts. Uh, that is without a doubt the Rebbe says that he does not want shorts. As for the rest of the laws of tznius, the Rebbe is very

38:44 clear. The laws of tznius apply as strongly to men as they do to women. Uh, the only reason that... Th-there are practical reasons why we emphasize women's tznius, but those practical reasons have nothing to do with the implication, uh, of, of, uh, of importance. The importance of tznius for men is just as much as it is for women, and the blessings that come from being careful about tznius applies to men equally to women as well. So I'm wishing everybody, therefore, a tznius summer. And, uh, if you want, we can have a party where everybody burns their shorts. We'll, uh, we'll make a bonfire out front, and we can, uh, we can burn all the pairs of shorts. Thank you all very much.