Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

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Modesty in private

10 January, 2018
Question:

What are the most stringent and the most lenient opinions regarding a woman covering her body in the privacy of her home, with no one around?

Please provide sources.


Answer:

On the one hand, Mishnah Challah 2:3 permits a woman to recite a blessing to perform a mitzvah naked, so long as her genitalia are covered (as by sitting).  On the other hand, the Talmud, Yoma 47a, suggests that a woman never exposing a single hair even within her own home is praiseworthy.

In practice, the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayyim 2:1-2 presents painstaking modesty in private as an ideal.  This is usually taken as pious custom and not as a binding obligation.

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