I’d like to share how our commitment to kedusha specifically, our practice of not shaking hands with members of the opposite gender resulted in a true Kiddush Hashem.
About twenty years ago, we found ourselves in a specialized hospital in Nashua, New Hampshire, where our seventeen-year-old son was scheduled for surgery. When we met the doctor for the first time, he extended his hand toward me.
I politely explained that among religious Jews, we do not shake hands with people of the opposite gender. My husband and son then shook his hand warmly.
After we discussed the details of the surgery, the surgeon asked if we could speak for a few minutes about this custom. I explained the basics of our boundaries in kedusha: how we study separately, maintain modest interactions, and avoid unnecessary closeness between men and women outside immediate family. He was deeply impressed and remarked that everyone should really live this way that such a moral life is the most beautiful, and that we cannot even imagine how many problems we avoid by upholding these values.
The next day, the surgery went smoothly. During the following days in the hospital, the staff treated us with exceptional respect. They provided us with an extra room so we could be together comfortably and repeatedly referred to us as “the holy people.”
Reprinted from the Parshas Balak 5785 email of Rabbi Shraga Freedman. Excerpted from the Doeihu Daily Halacha – Doeihu.org
