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Sign visible at the front of all Egged Bus Company Busses.
Translation:All passengers are permitted to sit in all places that they
choose. With the exception of places designated spots for people with
disabilities. Discrimination and harassment of passengers in this regard is
illegal and will incur a fine.
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So I wanted to visit my friend in a
Hariedi neighborhood in the north of Jerusalem. It takes two buses and about two hours to get from where I live to to my friends. After the first leg of the journey, I alighted, at the stop in a mixed neighborhood.
After about a fifteen minute wait, the bus pulled up and opened the back door, an anomaly, usually buses open from the front door only. It's a security precaution, so the driver can see who comes on and off. I shrugged it off, figuring it had to do with the fact the bus was exceptionally overcrowded. It had been a long time since I saw my friends and I dressed especially for the occasion. Despite the oppressive heat of the day, I took special care to cover my collar bone, elbows, and knees. My friends are pretty open minded, so I did not wear stockings or closed toed shoes, though that is considered standard dress in the neighborhood. I wore a long sleeve green gingham shirt, unbuttoned over a pink and purple striped tank top, a knee length denim skirt, blue fingernail polish, sparkly pink toenail polish sandals and two perky pigtails bouncy, on either side of my head.
I walked to the front of my bus, not to make a political statement, but rather to pay my ticket. Because while sitting at the back of the bus might be a rabbinical decree from the
Gedoley Ha Dor , G-d Himself said not to steal. Even from The Egged Bus Company.
As I approached the front of the bus several women handed me their electronic bus cards to swipe by the driver. I wondered why they felt it acceptable for me to journey into only-man's-land but not them. But I decided better not to ask. The bus turned and swerved and snaked through the city. I made my way through the men's half of the bus like a technicolor anachronism in a black and white film.
Like a butterfly flitting among a forest of bearded trees I made my way to the driver. All the men reeled back from me as I extended my arm to the card reader.
Afraid of violating shomer negiyah the halachic principle that men should avoid touching women outside their nuclear family, they parted like I was Charlton Heston, and they the Red Sea. I put in my card and the card of my fellow female passengers. I felt simultaneously like a slut and a martyr. It's rather a weird thing for a Jewish girl to relate so closely to Mary Magdalene, but I at that moment I did.
I made my way to the back of the bus. But, the vehicle was overcrowded so I grabbed a bright yellow pole in the first available spot. In the men's half. I stood, undulating with the bumps and turns of the road. Again, completely covered from collarbone to knee, I suddenly felt that my bus pole had transformed into a stripper pole. I tried to put the thought outside my mind. It's all in my head. Right? It's all in my mind. Those women in the back in their black and brown ponchos aren't staring at me. Right? I'm not a whore for standing where there's space? I'm not a slut for wearing green. And purple. And pink. And denim. Right?
I closed my eyes and tried to put it outside of my mind. stand on a bus. I bent my knees and steadied myself balancing with the bumps.I feel like this is what it would be like to surf. So I leaned up up against the pole and imagine the sea.
Voices leak into my reverie.
The Jewish people will never be the same. It's such a shame. The worst thing to happen to the Jews. What will the future hold for us?
"What? Really?" I thought. "I'm not... I'm not a bad person. It's just colors. Seriously. The Jewish People have survived much worse than stripes and plaid. "
A pressure behind my eyes began to grow and a small voice began to scream within me: '
I'm a good girl, I am'
Then a great bearded figure behind me said:
The Gadol ha Dor. Rav Elyashiv. Died.
O.
Um...
Does that mean now I can stay at the front of the bus?
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Definitions:
Charedi / Hariedi/ Haredi - Super Ultra Orthodox Jews in Israel. literally from the Hebrew word to tremble.
Gadol Ha Dor - literally Great One of the Generation. Refers to the Rabbis that issue decrees and are highest up on the rabbinical hierarchy.
Gedolei Ha Dor - Plural or
Gadol Ha Dor. See above.
Halacha / Halachic - Jewish Law.
Shomer Negiyah - Prohibition against touching members of the opposite sex outside one's nuclear family.
