Posted by fschmidt on URL: http://mikraite.155.s1.nabble.com/Dress-Modestly-tp12.html
Serious Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all require modesty. Yet there is virtually no mention of modesty in the Old Testament. What should we make of this?
One should start by understanding what modesty is. The Wikipedia article on modesty is quite good. Dictionary definitions include "freedom from conceit or vanity" and "propriety in dress, speech, or conduct". But I will use a simple definition: "not showing off".
The tenth commandment is:
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Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
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Exodus 20:17
Now consider this situation. A poor person and rich person are neighbors. The rich person isn't modest, he shows off his wealth. He has fancy picnics outside in plain view of his neighbor who barely has enough to eat. In this situation, it would take superhuman strength for the poor neighbor not to covet the belongings of the rich neighbor. Who is to blame, the poor neighbor or the rich neighbor? You may say, well the tenth commandment lays the blame on the poor neighbor. But then I would ask why is it that God specifies punishments for all of the other commandments except the tenth commandment? Why does God condemn people at various times in the Old Testament for violating all of the other commandments except the tenth? I argue that God includes the tenth commandment because He doesn't want coveting to occur, but God doesn't specify where the blame should fall because who is to blame depends on the situation. Some people are naturally too jealous of their neighbors, in which case they are to blame. And some people are too immodest in which case I believe common sense dictates that the immodest people are to blame, not the ones doing the coveting.
Immodesty is inconsiderate. The immodest person shows off because of vanity, to feed his ego. And he does this at the expense of others who lack what he has. Immodesty generally comes in two varieties, economic and sexual. These are the two things people naturally desire. So immodesty generally means showing off wealth or showing off sex appeal. Why wasn't this issue specifically addressed in the Old Testament? My guess is that it simply wasn't much of an issue at that time. Society wasn't as well ordered and regulated as now. Someone who showed off his wealth greatly increased his chances of being robbed. And a woman who showed off her body greatly increased her chances of being raped. This provided a natural disincentive to be immodest. So there was little need for God to give commandments on this issue at that time. Immodesty typically becomes a serious problem in a well ordered empire. If one looks at art in history, one can see this pattern where obvious immodesty in art generally occurs after a culture has peaked, when moral discipline is breaking down but law enforcement prevents the "natural disincentive".
I see nothing wrong with wealth or sex appeal as long as these things aren't shown off. Wealth is an enabler that can allow you to do more, including live more comfortably. There is nothing wrong with that. And sex appeal will make your spouse happy. Keeping your body attractive has the added benefit of encouraging you to be healthy. But again, neither of these things should be shown off to the public.
We live in selfish inconsiderate times. The modern attitude is for each person to selfishly do whatever he or she wants without the least consideration for its effect on others. So unsurprisingly, modesty has gone out of fashion. But religion is about morality, not fashion.
Standards of modesty vary. Mikraites have less strict standards than Orthodox Judaism. The Mikraite standard is that one should be covered from the bottom of the collar bone to the top of the knees in loose fitting clothing. The back and shoulders should also be covered. One also shouldn't wear extravagant jewelry which shows off wealth.