Q&A: Is One Required to Avoid Physical Contact with a Sister?
Is One Required to Avoid Physical Contact with a Sister?
Question
Is there a distinction between shaking hands and hugging?
Answer
In my opinion, one does not need to avoid it. There is no difference, although a hug is usually interpreted differently from a handshake (but I don’t think there is any need to be concerned about that).
Discussion on Answer
I don’t know what you mean by “sources.” Contemporary halakhic decisors? Look it up yourself. What I wrote is based on reasoning: physical contact of this kind does not involve sexual affection and is not interpreted that way. This is a reasonable and accepted norm.
Additions such as “it is preferable to refrain” indicate that there is no actual prohibition here, and the question is one of policy and not really one of Jewish law. But as I said, I am not concerned here with what this or that halakhic decisor says, nor with his recommendations.
Can the Rabbi point to sources that permit touching one’s sister? All the sources I know add things like “it is preferable to refrain,” “better to be stringent,” “the custom is not to,” and so on (or perhaps the Rabbi’s sources and mine are the same sources, and the Rabbi simply does not take these unclear additions into account).