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May a woman (or a man) wear immodest clothing over an artificial part of her body?

(Lets assume that beged ish is not a consideration)

i.e. if she has artifical legs, may she wear short shorts?

Possible considerations include whether it's considered wearing.

msh210
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Clint Eastwood
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    Do the artificial body parts look like forbidden things? Pictures or pixels resembling naked people aren't good even though they aren't naked people. – Double AA Mar 04 '14 at 04:51
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    I assume the man wouldn't have to consider beged ish issues. – Double AA Mar 04 '14 at 05:40
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    If your question is "is it considered wearing" then why not include beged ish ? if you are asking about modesty then you should edit your question to reflect that. – eramm Mar 04 '14 at 11:27
  • Why should the artificial limb be considered a separate part of the person while they are wearing it? It does the same job as the limb that it is replacing, and will draw the eye the same way. בראיה בעלמא קני בבא מציאה – Nathan Jul 27 '16 at 16:59
  • Why is an artificial limb considered ervah? She's not leaving the shok and pritzus raglayim uncovered because she doesn't have a shok or raglayim. – DonielF Aug 05 '16 at 21:20
  • I've heard of an argument in favor of use of wigs, that hiding the woman's natural hair is more for the sake of the woman - that she should be aware of the importance of personal modesty, of kol kvuda etc, that she should be humble, etc. Possibly, the same could be said in this case - tzniyut isn't just for the men's sake but also inherently important for the women's sake. – Harel13 Jun 03 '20 at 08:32
  • If it's real legs like @DoubleAA pointed out then seems to be a maris ayn case (kyadua b'poskim). If metal looking legs then what's the problem? She doesn't have a mitzvah to cover her legs (Bc the mitzvah is on her not her artificial legs that aren't her). Also it's not erva. So what's the problem? – TwoOs Sep 18 '20 at 05:20
  • what about ma'aras ayin? – Bayla G Nov 22 '20 at 08:42
  • halacha doesn't make exceptions based on individuals. when there is a rule in halacha it doesn't change for the individual. for example unless done in a very specific way which is discussed in shulchan aruch making dairy bread is forbidden. This is still the case even for someone who is vegetarian. You might think for a vegetarian there is no risk of him making a mistake and eating it with meat b/c he doesn't eat meat. The answer is that the halacha doesn't change for this individual and remains the same. Additionally, in regards to this specific example it's not just about the legs themselves – Dude Aug 31 '22 at 16:30
  • I think it is ok to wear shorts since they don't have legs in this case, sadly. – Shmuel Dec 25 '22 at 17:28

3 Answers3

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It depends whether the artificial limb is recognized as such. If it is, then there should not really be an issue. If not, it would be Mar'is Ayin.

S Yoshor
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    Welcome to MiYodeya and thanks for this first answer. Since MY is different from other sites you might be used to, see here for a guide which might help understand the site. See in particular the importance of sourcing your answers. Great to have you learn with us! – mbloch Nov 01 '22 at 03:55
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Keep in mind that there are three issues here. In terms of the responsibility of the women to cover her Erva until the Shok, that would obviously not apply here where it is not a real leg and thus not an erva. However, there may be an issue of Maris Ayin if it looks real. Additionally, one must also keep in mind that there is an issue of Lifnei Iver Lo Sitain Michshol to cause someone else (here a male) to have forbidden/lustful thoughts. Accordingly, if the prosthetic is realistic it is reasonable to expect it to cause sinful thoughts just as it is an issue for someone to wear obscene images on their cloths.

Ephraim Berger
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http://koltorah.org/ravj/13-17%20Emotional%20Homicide%20-%20Part%201.htm

If wearing a short skirt will cause others to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, to see a pair of metal legs, then it would seemingly be forbidden to intentionally put those people in that situation.

If the communal standard in that place is that women wear a certain length of skirt, then wearing a short one would violate "al tifrosh" (Pirkei Avot, 2:5) even if it didn't violate tznius.

Oholiav
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  • Your statements may make good sense (though arguably the communal standard is to cover parts of the body and not to wear a length of skirt -- after all, who measure in inches? People measure to a body part, which is irrelevant here -- but whatever), but the links you included seem AFAICT to have nothing at all to do with what you wrote. – msh210 Mar 04 '14 at 14:15
  • @msh210 Thank you. The first link is a full treatment of the concept of embarrassment in halacha. If a woman in an observant community chooses to show off her metal legs (instead of wearing a normal length skirt that covers them), it can make others feel embarrassed / uncomfortable, which is itself a prohibition. I removed the second link, and simply added the citation in Pirkei Avot, which was my original intention. Many Beis Yaakov schools measure skirts in inches. In a "BY" type community, it would be "al tifrosh". – Oholiav Mar 04 '14 at 14:23
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  • So if my face is disfigured, I must not go out in public so other people don't have the tzar of having to look at me?

    • However 2. If the skirt length is mandated not due to tznius but due to custom, then I could understand why al tifrosh would be a consideration.

    – Clint Eastwood Mar 04 '14 at 15:03
  • @ClintEastwood No; but going out of ones way to show that off (i.e. everyone is wearing a ski mask, and the person with a disfigured face intentionally doesn't), that could be a problem. – Oholiav Mar 04 '14 at 15:11
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    Lets say this woman was a regular wearer of short shorts and then lost her legs in an accident. The shorts are not a new phenomena meant to show off the metal legs. – Clint Eastwood Mar 04 '14 at 15:12
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    AFAIK girls' schools that measure in inches measure in "inches below the knee", which is irrelevant here (as there's no knee). But I may well be wrong. – msh210 Mar 04 '14 at 15:36