Issues relating to male-female interactions dramatically affect outreach in so many ways. Among the questions we will explore are:

  • Can a man recite a blessing, make Kiddush, or teach Torah in front of a woman who is dressed inappropriately?
  • Can a man be present when his female Shabbos guest is singing?
  • What is permissible in terms of co-ed classes, seminars, and Israel trips?
  • Is one required to provide a female Shabbos guest with appropriate clothing if she shows up inappropriately dressed?
  • What are the laws of mixed seating at a Torah lecture or a Shabbos meal?
  • What are the laws of men hearing women sing when a mixed group sings at a Shabbaton?
  • What are the rules of yichud (inter-gender seclusion) when counseling a female, bearing in mind that the privacy requirements of counseling usually require a closed door.
  • Since kiruv is all about warmth and relationships, may a married man be warm and charming or joke around if doing so is considered necessary for kiruv.

It must be noted that this is an area particularly subject to sociological factors and hence the halachic ruling will surely differ from place to place and from situation to situation. The laws relating to the intermingling of the genders, as they appear in the Shulchan Aruch and classical sources, are quite stringent, and for good reason.

Please click here to continue reading Chapter XI: Male – Female Interactions.

Please click here to purchase a copy of the Laws of Outreach.

 

Please refer to the archives below for the previously published chapters of the Laws of Outreach:

Preface to The Laws of Outreach

Chapter I: The Mitzvos of Kiruv

Chapter II: Kiruv as a Rescue Mission

Chapter III: Categories of Transgressors and Our Obligations Toward Them

Chapter IV:  Contemporary Non-Observant Jews

Chapter V: Halachic Applications of Tinokos Shenishbu in our Time

Chapter VI: Lifnei Iver

Chapter VII: Invitations for Shabbos

Chapter VIII: Kiruv Through Food

Chapter IX: Marriage

Chapter X: Teaching Torah

 

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OlamiResources.com is honored to present free to the Olami Community and beyond, Rabbi Avraham Edelstein’s new landmark sefer, The Laws of Outreach. We are featuring the sefer to the readership of OlamiResources.com in downloadable installments over the next few months. We are greatly appreciative that Rabbi Edelstein has kindly offered to share this important publication, including extensive Hebrew footnotes, with rabbis, educators and mekarvim worldwide. Please click here to purchase a copy of the Laws of Outreach.

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