Greeting Rabbi
I have a general question on the Katla and any item like it. I wanted to know since a woman can not go into a reshut hayachid on shabbat, would the same halachah follow with the likes of scarfs and items like that? Iknow the katla is made of metal, but it went around the womans neck. So I was just wondering about neck garments for Shabbat.
Thank you
Nechemyah Davis, Riverside, USA
A pretty scarf (as opposed to a warm scarf for the winter) and neck jewelry would all probably fall under the category of decorative Tachshitim that Chazal forbade going into a Reshus ha'Rabim with because of the concern that they would be removed and shown off (Shalfa u'Machvi'a). The Shulchan Aruch (OC 303:18) says that today the Minhag is that women wear their jewelry even into a Reshus ha'Rabim. Three reasons are given there for the deviation from Chazal's original Gezeirah:
1) they won't listen to you if you tell them not to, so better they be Shogeg and not Meizid,
2) Today we don't have a proper Reshus ha'Rabim,
3) (Rema) jewelry is much more common today and there is no concern that they will be removed and shown off.
The Biur Halachah there (DH Ki b'Zeh) suggests that we not rely on the second and third Heterim, which means that l'Chatchilah we should still be Machmir like the original Gezeirah. The Shemiras Shabbos (I, 18:12) brings this opinion of the Biur Halachah (but only parenthetically).
Kol Tuv,
Yonasan Sigler
This is not a Psak Halachah