Q&A: Seclusion?
Seclusion?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
With God’s help, I and a few male and female friends will be staying this Sabbath with a female friend. During the Sabbath itself, of course, we’ll be sleeping in separate houses (there is supposed to be an available house in the community for the Sabbath). For the preparations before the Sabbath, it’s likely that I’ll need to arrive on Thursday evening and help with them. Her family will be at home then, and also on Friday morning (besides, by that stage we’ll already be going outside, and other people will arrive). I should note that this is a woman who is a Torah scholar and God-fearing, and also that my home is very far from the community and I have nowhere else to sleep if I arrive there in the evening.
Is there any prohibition here, or concern, of seclusion? Is this problematic on some other grounds, or perhaps for reasons that aren’t halakhic? And is there a way to solve it? (For example, if another person joins.)
Thank you very much in advance
Answer
I don’t understand the description. There’s a whole group, so where is the seclusion here? Especially since her family is also there. I didn’t understand the question.
Discussion on Answer
It’s hard to argue with feelings. I don’t see any problem with it. Certainly not a halakhic one.
The whole group is only arriving on Friday. Obviously it won’t be just the two of us alone, but still there’s a feeling that it isn’t modest, and I wanted to ask whether that is grounded in Jewish law in any way.