“To a woman when she is considered ritually impure, do not approach her.” (Vayikra 18:19)

According to the strict letter of the law, the only thing forbidden with a woman who is ritually impure is having relations. The above verse in the Torah though adds a stringency – do not even approach her, which extends the prohibition to include hugging and kissing. In Pirkei Avos 1:1 we learn “make a fence around the Torah.” This verse is an example of a fence made around a Torah law.

Why do we need fences?

A few weeks ago, there was a big rain storm on Friday night. On Shabbos morning, I was walking to shul with my son and said, “I wonder if the Eruv is still up?” It was up before Shabbos but since there were some heavy winds during the storm, I wondered if the strings that make up the Eruv broke. We happened to be walking near the eastern side of our Eruv and could see the strings were still up. My son therefore concluded that the entire Eruv was up. I told him that we only were looking at a small area of the Eruv and that it extended for over a mile to the west.

I then gave him a metaphor. Imagine going to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Although you cannot see it, there is a fence around the entire theme park. This is so no one gets in without paying. Now, let’s imagine that someone has the job to check the fence everyday to make sure there are no holes in it. The person walks to the fence near the main entrance and sees that it is up. He says to himself that the fence must be up all around and goes home.

Later in the day, Disney realizes there are a few hundred people who did not go through the turnstiles. Upon review, they see a hole in the fence in the back of the park where people are able to enter without paying. Of course, they quickly cover up the hole so no one else can get in through it.

Now let’s imagine they did not cover up the hole – they park would eventually go bankrupt. Thousands of people would get into Disney without paying. Disney would lose millions of dollars (if not more).

One small hole can do much damage. This is why Judaism has so many fences around our laws. They are stringencies to make sure our precious Torah and mitzvos are not affected by negative outside forces that are trying to make the Torah disappear.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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