Q&A: Laundry During the Nine Days
Laundry During the Nine Days
Question
According to the Rabbi, is it permissible nowadays to wash clothes during the Nine Days?
After all, the main reason for the decree is that it distracts a person from mourning. Nowadays that reason seems almost laughable, and ostensibly it is very reasonable that this was the definition of the decree: laundering that leads to distraction. And even if we say that this is only the reason, and when the reason lapses the decree itself does not lapse, perhaps one can still say that the entire enactment was stated regarding washing in a river, as people used to do in the past, whereas today the word has been distorted, but this is not the same act.
And even if you would say that it is forbidden, ostensibly one should completely permit the prohibition against wearing freshly laundered clothes during the Nine Days, since nowadays it makes no sense at all, and only turns the matter into a joke and a farce.
Awaiting an answer…
Answer
It seems that the distraction being discussed here is not because of the labor involved in the task. It seems to me that the intention is that when a person wears clean clothes, it looks as though he is not in mourning. Alternatively, when he does not wear clean clothes, that reminds him more forcefully of the mourning. Therefore, in my opinion, the fundamental prohibition is wearing freshly laundered clothes, and the prohibition on laundering is derived from that, not the other way around.
Discussion on Answer
The custom is not to, but perhaps that is only because of the principle of making no distinctions.
I did not understand why a shirt nowadays is like underwear of the past. Once there is something unpleasant involved, then as is well known, human dignity is of great importance.
I assume that for undergarments such as socks and the like, the Rabbi permits washing them.
So I am asking whether a shirt nowadays is not more similar to socks than to a shirt of the past.
That is, not wearing clean clothes is not only passive, reminding him that he is in mourning. It is actively very unpleasant. Like socks.