Editing Negiah (section)

===Shaking hands and relations with non-practitioners===
Rabbi [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]] wrote that remaining firm in one's convictions when it comes to shaking hands with a woman can engender the respect of the other party.<ref>[http://portraitofaleader.blogspot.com/2010/05/shaking-womans-hand.html Shaking a woman's hand?], The Avner Institute.</ref>

In contrast, some people view refusal to shake hands with members of the opposite sex as offensive or discourteous, or even sexist. The case of a woman whose offer of a handshake was politely declined by her real estate agent is discussed by the ''New York Times''{{'}} "Ethicist" [[Randy Cohen]].<ref>{{cite news | last =Cohen  | first =Randy  | title =The Ethicist – Between the Sexes |author-link=Randy Cohen|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/27/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-10-27-02-the-ethicist-between-the-sexes.html |work =The New York Times Magazine | pages =Section 6, page 20, column 3 | date =2002-10-27 | access-date =2007-01-04}}</ref> Orthodox rabbi and law professor [[Michael Broyde]] opined that in the case discussed by Cohen, the values of gender equality and of religious freedom are in conflict.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ottmall.com/mj_ht_arch/v37/mj_v37i70.html|title=Mail-Jewish Volume 37 Number 70|website=www.ottmall.com|accessdate=Sep 16, 2023}}</ref>

However, others argue that the "intent [of the practice is] to elevate and sanctify the relationship between men and women, which is all too often trivialized."<ref>{{cite news |title = Introduction|url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E5DE1131F934A25752C1A9649C8B63|format=Reprint|work =The New York Times Magazine | publisher =The New York Times Company | date =2002-11-17 | access-date =2007-01-04}}</ref> They further state that, rather than showing a lack of respect for the opposite gender, the laws of {{Transliteration|he|negiah}} recognize the inherent sexual attraction between the sexes and the need to avoid viewing members of the opposite gender as objects of sexual desire, except in the marital context.  Moreover, the practice is not discriminatory because "strictly observant Jewish women also do not touch men, so the prohibition clearly does not confer 'untouchable' status on one sex or another. Rather it proscribes physical contact between the sexes equally."<ref>{{cite web | last =Rosenblum  | first =Jonathan | author-link =Jonathan Rosenblum  | title =The ethicist of the NY Times gets it wrong  | publisher =Aish HaTorah | date =2002-11-10  | url = http://www.aish.com/societyWork/society/Shaking_Hands_with_the_Opposite_Gender.asp  | access-date =2007-01-04  }}</ref>
Cohen, on the other hand, likens this argument to the "separate but equal" status rejected in school desegregation cases.