It's called Shomer Negiah, ass.

One of my more masochistic habits is watching Rea| Time with Bi|| Maher on HB0. It's pretty intolerable from my perspective because it's usually an hour-long anti-conservative diatribe with a token conservative guest that usually serves as the pinata.

At any rate, tonight's episode had me throwing more stuff at the T.V. than usual. Bill mentioned Ma+isyahu, the (Hasidic) Orthodox Jewish reggae artist that has recently been gaining popularity. Bill was making fun of how Ma+isyahu won't touch women and how that's as backward and archaic as Muslims that treat women like property.

This is particularly upsetting to me, partially because it irritates me when people ridicule such benign religious practices, but mostly because it was inaccurate.

I can't speak for Ma+isyahu personally, but in Judaism -- particularly Orthodox Judaism -- there is a practice called Shomer Negiah where practitioners will not touch members of the opposite sex aside from spouses and family members.

It is not chauvinist, as both men and women can practice it, and it has nothing to do with viewing the opposite sex as inferior. It is simply a way for religious Jews to avoid carnal sins as well as show more respect and reverence toward their spouses.

Bill went on to say that such a thing is a “disease that only religion can give you.” Perhaps. Religious people may do some bizarre things, but no crazier than some of the things that non-religious people do. So Ma+isyahu doesn’t casually touch women. Bill thinks it’s ok to suck the brains out of fetuses. I say we call it even.