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Ordinarily, Jewish women would be expected not to dance or sing with men looking on, or even present in the same area. However, at every Jewish wedding I have been to, there has been at least one male photographer/videographer on the women's side during the dancing, and the women go on presumably exactly as they would (singing, dancing) had there been no males there.

Is this allowed? (Does it depend at all on whether the photographer is Jewish?) Why or why not? If not, how could one reconcile the mitzvah of hachnosas kallah on that day with the needs of modesty?

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    @DoubleAA For one thing, which you probably could guess, health is halachically a lot more important than videography
    – SAH
    Dec 15, 2016 at 0:13
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    Ordinarily, Jewish women would be expected not to dance or sing with men looking on, or even present in the same area Source?
    – mevaqesh
    Dec 15, 2016 at 4:56
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    Is this allowed?... If not, how could one reconcile the mitzvah of hachnosas kallah on that day with the needs of modesty? One could easily do so by not having male photographers observing the women. Seems simple enough.
    – mevaqesh
    Dec 15, 2016 at 5:01
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    ...Maybe someone else can help me get @mevaqesh the "canonical" source for these rules about women's modesty, which I'm pretty sure I am not making up
    – SAH
    Dec 15, 2016 at 5:35
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    I want to advise you to separate the question in two sub questions 1) the photographer, is he allowed to watch the women dancing and singing? 2) If the answer is no. Can women continue to dance and sing in front of him. We can add is there a problem of mixity when a specific person doesn't respect the mechitsa. Mixity is equally a problem with Jewish and non Jewish people?
    – kouty
    Dec 16, 2016 at 12:55

1 Answer 1

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Rav Yitzchak Abadi in his Ohr Yitzchak Chelek 2:Inyanim Shonim Siman 10 forbids a man to video the womens side and would hold that two photographers are necessary, one male and one female for their sides of the mechitzah. He says he doesnt understand why people are silent about this prohibition. He also preempts the defense that the photographer is busy with their job so they aren't paying attention. He counters that on the contrary a photographer has pay more attention to get the best shot and this requires more looking then usual.

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  • He counters that on the contrary a photographer has pay more attention to get the best shot and this requires more looking then usual. So a doctor (dealing with non0life threatening conditions), for example, would be even more unable to claim that he is distracted, since he is presumably paying even more attention, right?
    – mevaqesh
    Dec 20, 2016 at 18:36
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    did I write the teshuva or Rav Abadi,why dont you ask him
    – sam
    Dec 20, 2016 at 18:40
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    I disagree with your implication that there is no value in noting weaknesses with a promoted position on Mi Yodeya, regardless of whether those positions themselves those of a particular user on the site.
    – mevaqesh
    Dec 20, 2016 at 18:42
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    It is a very interesting topic. If you can explain a little more I am very interested. The photography is an art and needs an awareness to beauty. Medicine needs awareness to illness. It is perhaps a chiluk between the two.
    – kouty
    Dec 20, 2016 at 21:39
  • @mevaqesh a distinction that can be made between a doctor and a photographer is that a photographer is specifically looking to see if the subjects look good in the shot and that may make him come to bad thoughts ,a doctor on the other hand is busy looking for whats wrong with the person and his buisness is on the line its a more serious situation ,whereas a photographer no one will think he is doing anything wrong looking at women for over 2 hours since thats his job,I dk how you cant see this basic diff
    – sam
    Feb 9, 2017 at 15:13

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