04-20-2013, 03:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-20-2013, 03:29 AM by Director Michael.)
The quoted teaching is only recommending that a Gentile man should take some extra precautions in his interactions with a woman who is actually forbidden to him for sexual relations, by the Torah Law of the Noahide Code. Primarily this applies between a man and a woman who is married to another man, and any woman who was ever married to his father.
It can also apply for the close relatives who are forbidden as incest, namely one's mother and maternal (i.e. full or half-) sister. But most people naturally distance themselves very far from a desire for incest, so extra precautions with those persons, beyond the social norm, are normally not needed.
It is wise and prudent for a man to extend precautions to his other female relatives who are forbidden to him for marriage only by the civil law, even though they are not forbidden to him within the basic Noahide prohibition of forbidden relations.
Gentiles should also extend precautions to the female relatives who are forbidden within the Noahide Code, but not as capital sins, and to those with whom sexual relations are identified as a disgusting action: a man's daughter and a maternal sister of his mother (some minority opinions include a maternal sister of his father); a few additional categories apply in societies that accept polygamy. See "The Divine Code", Part VI, ch. 1, p.476-477.
According to Torah Law, precautions should be extended to male/female relationships between Jews and non-Jews, since they are forbidden to each other for physical relations and marriage, by Torah Law.
The precautions advised do not suggest that friendships need to be avoided. Rather, it applies to actions that could arouse a mental and/or physical attraction between men (primarily) and women in the above listed categories, such as giving polite or affectionate hugs or kisses, or being secluded together (see "The Divine Code", Part VI, ch. 6-7). And likewise a man should not gaze at the body and clothes of women in the above listed categories, so as not to arouse any erotic thoughts about them. Likewise married women should not be flirtatious or dress in an immodest way that will be arousing to other men, and likewise for a woman in regard the above categories of her male relatives.
Beyond this, going in the ways of modesty as a general practice in one's life is the path of piety, and honoring and fearing G-d.
It can also apply for the close relatives who are forbidden as incest, namely one's mother and maternal (i.e. full or half-) sister. But most people naturally distance themselves very far from a desire for incest, so extra precautions with those persons, beyond the social norm, are normally not needed.
It is wise and prudent for a man to extend precautions to his other female relatives who are forbidden to him for marriage only by the civil law, even though they are not forbidden to him within the basic Noahide prohibition of forbidden relations.
Gentiles should also extend precautions to the female relatives who are forbidden within the Noahide Code, but not as capital sins, and to those with whom sexual relations are identified as a disgusting action: a man's daughter and a maternal sister of his mother (some minority opinions include a maternal sister of his father); a few additional categories apply in societies that accept polygamy. See "The Divine Code", Part VI, ch. 1, p.476-477.
According to Torah Law, precautions should be extended to male/female relationships between Jews and non-Jews, since they are forbidden to each other for physical relations and marriage, by Torah Law.
The precautions advised do not suggest that friendships need to be avoided. Rather, it applies to actions that could arouse a mental and/or physical attraction between men (primarily) and women in the above listed categories, such as giving polite or affectionate hugs or kisses, or being secluded together (see "The Divine Code", Part VI, ch. 6-7). And likewise a man should not gaze at the body and clothes of women in the above listed categories, so as not to arouse any erotic thoughts about them. Likewise married women should not be flirtatious or dress in an immodest way that will be arousing to other men, and likewise for a woman in regard the above categories of her male relatives.
Beyond this, going in the ways of modesty as a general practice in one's life is the path of piety, and honoring and fearing G-d.