Modesty and halachah: a response to Rabbi Dov Linzer's article

While I have great respect for Rabbi Linzer and agree 100% with the sentiment of his editorial, it smacks of apologetics, in two flavors.

The first kind of apologetics is to downplay the multiple Talmudic references to women *as* sexual objects. The other is to maintain that the position which places the onus on men to control their erotic impulse is *the* true halachic position. The second kind of apologetics is dependent on the Orthodox myth that ideology and philosophy don't affect one's approach to halachah at all. In other words, Rabbi Linzer tries to say here that what the Ultra-Orthodox are doing is not true halachah – his is. But this claim is misguided, because there is no halachic "view from nowhere," a pure halachah apart from worldview.

There is certainly a halachic way to say that tzinus means barricading women in their homes, given the proper poskim. But that's not my halacha (or the halacha of liberal Jews), 'cause it's immoral.