A Woman Who Fears Hashem Is Praised
13. Another takana of Chazal is that when a woman adorns herself with her silver and gold jewelry, she should not put on everything she has at once; each time she should leave one piece off to remember the Churban (שו''ע סי' תק''ס ס''ב, מג''א סק''ו מ''ב סק''ח). It seems this takana was instituted for the woman herself, not for others, as others do not know which pieces she refrained from wearing. The intention is that the woman herself should always remember the Churban by not wearing all her jewelry at once.
14. Shabbos, Yom Tov. Some poskim hold a woman must also leave something off on Shabbos and Yom Tov, as doing so is not so noticeable (יעב''ץ מו''ק, שער הציון סקי''ג). Others hold women’s jewelry does not require a noticeable lack to remember the Churban on Shabbos, similar to the halacha about leaving out a dish (above, 9) (ברכי יוסף סק''ה).
15. Today. The poskim (ביאור הלכה שם) are puzzled as to the reason women are not careful about this today. Some poskim explain that in our generations, the manner of wearing jewelry is different than it used to be. Today, women do not typically wear all their jewelry at once; there are always many pieces in the jewelry box that are not worn at any given moment because they do not all go well together [e.g., one does not wear diamonds with pearls, etc.]. Therefore, the takana to leave something off is automatically fulfilled, even without specific intention (וכפי שביאר הגרח''ק).
16. However, to arouse the heart, it is nonetheless appropriate and correct to attempt to fulfill this takana in a l’chatchila, intentional way. The proper way for a woman to do this today is as follows: when choosing to wear a particular type or set of jewelry, she should leave off one item from that type or set that she wants to wear at that time. As explained above (13), the main idea of this takana was entrusted to the woman herself, to arouse in her heart the memory of the Churban. When she knowingly and intentionally leaves off some jewelry for this purpose, she fulfills Chazal’s takana properly, even though it is not noticeable to other people. By doing this, she deserves praise, as the posuk says, “שקר החן והבל היופי, אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל” (משלי ל''א, ל').
