Hollywood loves telling the story of its unfaithful stars. The stories haven't hurt the careers of such people as Tiger Woods, Brad Pitt or whomever else you wish to name. Politicians, though, rarely survive a public affair. Just ask Eliot Spitzer. Why the difference?
What does Judaism think about this whole "sexual revolution" thing?
The Bible describes the ceremony whereby a man clarifies whether his wife was unfaithful or not. If he suspects her, and knows that she was secluded with another man, he takes her to the Temple. She will be tested by the drinking of the special water. What happens is that the high priest uncovers her hair, recites to her the warning that if she was unfaithful, the special water will bring about her demise. He then writes this warning, including God's name, on a parchment, and then proceeds to erase it with the same special water. She then drinks, and the result will soon be known to all.
Wow, what a fascinating ceremony! What does it mean?
Let's say that somebody put a hidden camera in your bathroom, and then posted pictures of you taking a shower on the Internet. You would certainly sue them for lots of money, and certainly win the case.
Now let's say that two elements were missing from the picture. Let's say that your face was not shown, and that your name was not associated with the picture. No one who sees the picture knows who it is. In a case like that, there really is very little harm done. And that is the fascinating thing. Why? After all, your private parts are showing!
Actually, your private parts are not showing. How can I say this? Easily, for a person's true private part is their face. And that, except for a person who is ashamed of him or her self, is always showing! No two people have the same face! The face is how we identify someone. If it is not in the picture, it's just another human animal body.
The face is the window to the spirit. It is the uniqueness of the individual, it shows their identity. Together with that is a person's name. If both of those things are not in the picture, then it's just another animal body of a human.
For this reason, the suspected woman has her head uncovered, to symbolize her failure to live up to the spiritual power of her identity. She performed an animal act, and thus, to borrow from the Chinese, loses face. Her spiritual nakedness must be uncovered. And, God's name, which rests on all of us, is erased in this ceremony. She has not lived up to the power of her name, which draws its spiritual energy from God's name, and thus brings about that erasing.
Jewish modesty teaches us to stress our spiritual power, our Godly identity. We show our face! We don't wear the full burka. And we minimize our animal nature by not flaunting our bodies. When a person dresses provocatively, they are sending out a subtle message. They are saying, in effect, "Look at me as an animal, not as a spiritual being."
Is that the message we really want to send?
Which brings us back to our initial question, the difference between the politician and the celebrity. In the case of a celebrity, very often their celebrity comes about because of their bodies. Let's face it, not every perfect 10 is a perfect actor. Because they are so good looking, we enjoy looking at them. So what if they have an affair or two (and can't act)?
But with a politician, whom we entrust with leadership, we expect something different. We want our leaders to be people of integrity, spirit and identity. A leader must have a personality of trustworthiness and ethics. They must show a lot of uncovered face, and not uncovered body. With an actor, who cares?
Each individual is, in truth, a leader. We may be leaders of our communities, our families, and even of ourselves. The more we adopt Jewish modesty, the more we stress our uniqueness and our spiritual power. That will make us great leaders.
