Sunday, January 15, 2012

Tropper Makes a Cameo in Sotah

A Guest Post by E. Fink

Remember Tropper? The rabbi who was trading conversions for "that which shall not be named"? In what might be the most ironic thing ever, he also wrote a book on the Laws of Yichud. Haha. Chortle. Chortle. We laughed about this way back when...

Anyway, I was reading Naomi Ragen's book, Sotah and I chanced upon this gem. A charedi man is attempting to seduce a charedi woman. They are both from Meah Shearim. He is "helping her" with the books in her mother's wool store. She is suspicious and mindful of the yichud issue so she asks him if they should leave the door open. He replies with some fancy pants piskei halacha that hold merely leaving the door unlocked in sufficient. The last source he quotes is Tropper.

Needless to say, things escalate and eventually more than the laws of yichud are violated

I actually laughed out loud when I read that. Sotah was written 18 years prior to Tropper's scandal. How appropriate was it for Mrs. Ragen to use his book as a fake "heter" for a charedi man to seduce a charedi woman?! Uncanny!

In another era, we would have called Mrs. Ragen a prophetess. Or maybe she just has ruach hakodesh...

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