New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) What follows is a remarkable story that happened to Reb Don Germazian in regard to tznius.  But first a bit about the topic.  The navi Michah (6:8) sums up what Hashem asks of a Jew in three phrases: “Asos mishpat, v’ahavas chesed, v’hatznea leches im Elokecha,” to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk modestly with your G-d.

The Gemara (Sukkah 49b) teaches that if the Torah demands modesty even in matters normally done publicly, such as escorting a kallah or accompanying the deceased, how much more so in matters normally done privately.

Tznius, then, is not only a set of measurements. It is a way of walking through the world, at home and in public, in how a person dresses and in where a person chooses to be.

“Mah Tovu Ohalecha”: The Halacha of Not Being Seen

When Bilaam stood on the mountain intending to curse the Jewish people, he instead declared, “Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov” (Bamidbar 24:5). The Gemara (Bava Basra 60a) explains what he saw: the openings of their tents did not face one another. Each family arranged its home so that no one could look into another’s private space. That arrangement, built so that people would not see what they should not see, turned a curse into a bracha.

This became binding halacha. The Gemara at the start of Bava Basra (2b–3a) establishes the concept of hezek re’iyah, damage caused by sight. Viewing another’s private space is treated as real damage, and a neighbor can be compelled to build a dividing wall. The Shulchan Aruch codifies this (Choshen Mishpat 154:3). In the Torah’s view, a physical barrier against improper viewing is not merely praiseworthy; it can be required by law.

The pasuk “Kol kevudah bas melech penimah” (Tehillim 45:14) expresses the same idea: the dignity of a Jewish daughter lies in her inner, private world. The Gemara (Yoma 47a) relates that Kimchis merited seven sons who served as Kohen Gadol. When asked what merit earned this, she replied that the walls of her home had never seen the hair of her head.

“V’lo Sasuru Acharei Eineichem”: The Halacha of Not Seeing

Tznius has a second direction: not only guarding against being seen, but guarding against seeing. In Krias Shema, recited twice daily, the Torah commands, “V’lo sasuru acharei levavchem v’acharei eineichem” (Bamidbar 15:39). Chazal (Berachos 12b) explain that “acharei eineichem” refers to thoughts of immorality that enter through the eyes. The Sefer HaChinuch (Mitzvah 387) counts this among the six constant mitzvos, binding at every moment of a person’s life. The Shulchan Aruch (Even HaEzer 21:1) rules that a person must distance himself greatly from improper gazing.

Chazal were acutely aware that the eyes are the gateway. The Gemara (Sotah 9b) notes that Shimshon “went after his eyes,” and therefore the Plishtim gouged out his eyes. The Mesilas Yesharim (Chapter 11) warns that guarding oneself from arayos includes guarding against looking and against placing oneself where looking becomes unavoidable.

That last point matters most. The Gemara in Avodah Zarah (20b) derives from “V’nishmarta mikol davar ra” that a person must not set himself up during the day for spiritual failure at night. Halacha does not ask a person to be a hero standing in the middle of temptation. It asks him to avoid the setting that creates the temptation in the first place.

What does such a choice look like in real life? A remarkable story, related by Don Ghermezian, illustrates it vividly.

The Pool Behind the Trees

Several years ago, the Ghermezian family traveled to Florida for the winter Yeshiva break and checked into the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, one of the most famous hotels in the country. It did not take long for the family to realize that the atmosphere was simply not one in which a Torah family should be spending its vacation.

Most people in that situation would have made peace with it. They would have kept their eyes down, kept their children close, and waited out the two weeks. Mr. Ghermezian did something else.

The Fontainebleau has many pools. He called the hotel’s manager and ownership and asked to rent one of them for his family’s exclusive use. The executives were incredulous. Did he know how much revenue that pool would generate over two weeks of peak season? They named an exorbitant figure.

He agreed, with one condition. That very night, he would bring in a landscaping company and plant trees all the way around the pool so that no one could see in and no one inside could see out. He would also landscape a private pathway from the door of the hotel’s Sorrento tower to the pool, so that his family could walk from their rooms to the water and back without seeing anything improper and without being seen.

The rental was enormously expensive, and the landscaping added a great deal more. Photographers began circling, trying to learn who was hiding behind the new wall of greenery. But the story does not end there.

Seven Tickets at the Gate

On the same trip, Mr. Ghermezian had obtained four Super Bowl tickets months earlier through a sponsor connection. He planned to take three of his sons. As he passed through the lobby, his Uncle Rafi stopped him and asked him to take his three boys as well. Mr. Ghermezian protested that tickets cost $5,000 to $6,000 apiece and could not simply be conjured. His uncle waved it off: “You’ll figure it out.”

So seven people were in the car, and only four had tickets. His plan was to sell the four good seats outside the stadium and somehow buy seven lesser seats together.

While he was negotiating with sellers, a man tapped him on the shoulder. He had overheard. Were they looking for seven tickets? Were they one family? Did they want to sit together? Then came an unexpected question: were they a Jewish family?

When Mr. Ghermezian said yes, the man pulled an envelope from his pocket containing seven tickets in a row and handed it over free of charge. Suspecting a scam, Mr. Ghermezian asked who he was. The man introduced himself as Bryan Glazer, one of the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. NFL owners receive an allotment of tickets, and riding over in his limousine, he had been wondering what to do with the seven he had left. When he stepped out and saw this family, he decided that G-d must have meant the tickets for them.

The family sat at the fifty-yard line, in front of the owner’s suite. Afterward, Mr. Ghermezian did the arithmetic. The value of the seven free tickets plus the proceeds from selling his own four came to exactly the amount he had spent renting and landscaping the pool. Not approximately. Exactly.

That was the last year the family went to the Fontainebleau, and the last year they placed themselves in that kind of environment.

A Wall of Hezek Re’iyah in Both Directions

Viewed through the lens of halacha, those trees were not an eccentric luxury. They were a modern “Mah tovu ohalecha,” a wall of hezek re’iyah facing both ways. They protected the family from being seen, fulfilling “kol kevudah bas melech penimah.” They protected the family from seeing, fulfilling “v’lo sasuru acharei eineichem.” And the decision never to return was a textbook application of “v’nishmarta mikol davar ra”: not resisting temptation, but leaving the place where temptation lives.

What Does Halacha Say About the Cost?

Some might call the expense excessive. Halacha sees it differently. For a positive mitzvah, the Rema (Orach Chaim 656:1) rules that a person need not spend more than a fifth of his assets. But to avoid transgressing a negative commandment, he must be prepared to give up everything he owns. Since “v’lo sasuru” is a lav, spending a great sum to avoid violating it is not an extravagant chumra. It falls squarely within the category where the Torah expects a person to pay whatever it takes.

“Lehatzilcha”: Salvation Written in the Pasuk

The most striking source of all appears in Devarim (23:15): “Ki Hashem Elokecha mis’halech b’kerev machanecha lehatzilcha v’lases oyvecha lefanecha, v’hayah machanecha kadosh, v’lo yireh vecha ervas davar v’shav me’acharecha.”

Hashem walks within the camp in order to save and to deliver, and this is conditioned on the camp being holy, with nothing improper visible in it. When ervas davar is seen, the Shechinah withdraws. When the camp is kept holy, the Shechinah dwells there “lehatzilcha,” to save.

Mr. Ghermezian concluded his account by saying that whenever a person sacrifices to keep modesty and to guard his eyes, Hashem sees it and brings yeshuah. The pasuk said it first.

A Word of Perspective

A thoughtful reader should take care with one point. The Gemara (Kiddushin 39b) teaches “schar mitzvah b’hai alma leka,” that the true reward for mitzvos is not paid in this world. Not every sacrifice for tznius will be repaid with an envelope at a stadium gate, and a person should not keep tznius as an investment strategy.

Still, Chazal teach (Beitzah 16a) that a person’s livelihood is fixed from Rosh Hashanah, except for what he spends on Shabbos, Yom Tov, and his children’s Torah learning; in those areas, if he spends more, he is given more. Occasionally Hashem allows a person to see that ledger with his own eyes, down to the last dollar. Such moments are not given so the recipient can collect. They are given so that all of Klal Yisroel is reminded that the ledger exists.

The Kiddush Hashem

One final element is easy to miss. A stranger outside a football stadium looked at a father with his sons and nephews and asked a single question: were they a Jewish family? He saw something in them that moved him to give. That is a kiddush Hashem (see Yoma 86a), and it is ultimately the purpose of tznius. A family that guards its holiness behind the trees often carries that holiness, visibly, out into the world.

The author can be reached at [email protected]